During these unique times that we are currently in the midst of, we have had ample opportunity to finished Emerson and Elliott’s Shared Older Sibling Room! I knew that with baby Landon coming, and us not wanting to move to a new house at this point in time, we’d let the two older siblings bunk up. I feel like in a year or two, once baby Landon is at the right age, we will move the boys in together and let Elliott have her own girly room. The room design was meant to be pretty neutral and could be easily switched up later on.
In the meantime, we have worked to put the two eldest Mast siblings together in a nice little space that includes parts of their own personality.
The bunk beds are vintage! Stephen’s mom has held on to his younger sister’s wooden bunk bed set and it is in great condition. I honestly feel that furniture was made better back in the day. So much of today’s pieces are pressed wood and this set is hardwood and solid. The dresser is as well, which we previously had purchased when we moved Emerson up to his big boy room from the nursery. It matches well!
For those wondering, so far Emerson has done well on the top bunk and feels super special up there! Elliott wants to climb the ladder all the time so during the day, we move the ladder to the back side so she can go up the steps but can’t go to the top.
I picked both sets of bedding because they are classic, not gaudy but they both have a boyish or girlish touch.
We did a major organization/sorting/purging of toys recently. All the baby toys for 1.5 years and under went into the nursery room. We sorted what toys did make the cut and brought at least half, if not more, downstairs to our basement which has served as a great rec space during this quarantine time. It is unfinished and the same square footage of our upper level, so they can really let loose down there.
I tried to make a dedicated girl / boy side to the closet with the clothes and toys. Of course, there are plenty of things that they both play with, but it felt more visually appealing as well. On the top shelves, I have both child’s cherished memories totes (post on those here), a tote that contains future sizes of shoes and several totes containing the types of things that would be a total mess if left down on shelves such as: Legos, magnatiles, puzzles, and some larger items that are broken down when not in use such as racetracks. On the bottom of the closet are the items that they play with A LOT. We have found that the less they have as options to play with, the better. At certain points, we have had triple the amount of toys stacked all over their rooms and they just tear it all out and toys don’t get played with properly. Rotating toys works well too.
I still haven’t settled on a perfect way to do the book storage. I’ll likely do some sort of wall shelving, but wanted to wait a little bit to figure out where I’d like to put it and what size I need. In the meantime, I’ve been just putting a selection of books in a basket. My kids do better with a book rotation, and smaller selection.
Emerson’s top bunk has a little wooden shelf that sits in a way that he can line up his current favorites of toys. He loves this space because he can keep things away from his sister. 🙂
So far, these two have gone two nights together in their new bedroom set-up! We do have to reset them a few times once we put them down, but once they fall asleep, they’ve done perfectly fine!
xoxo,
Mallory
