before and after: Cassidy's room

I mentioned in my Photo 365 recap that I spent last weekend purging Cassidy's room of a lot of....well, stuff. Empty notebooks, piles of school papers, clothes that don't fit, half-finished craft projects: all the general detritus that collects in the corners closet of a teenager's room. We did it because Grandad (Chris's dad) has been busy building a loft bed for Cassidy's room.

Cassidy has the smallest bedroom in the house, by far. It's 11x9, and while it easily fits a twin bed, computer desk and a couple of bookshelves, the small size means it gets cluttered really quickly. There's also no room for a comfy little reading chair or any kind of a hang-out space (except for the bed).

(*Note: Forgive the yellow tones in my photos. They were all taken at night.)

Here's what it looked like before:
 

David built a loft bed, based on some designs we'd found online, that combines her bed space with her desk space and frees up a lot more floor space. Here's what it looks like from the doorway to her room:

Here's a look at the entire structure:

Forgive my poor Photoshop work; I had to quickly stitch a couple of pictures together. The bed is designed so that no matter where it is in her room, she can use either end as a ladder to climb up onto the bed.The angle makes it hard to tell, but she can sit completely upright in her bed and still have a few inches between her head and the ceiling.

We'd originally considered putting the bed along the wall in front of the windows, but when we found out that it needed that large board along the back, we realized that it would block most of the light from the windows, so we opted for the space where her bed was. I was a little worried that it would take up too much space right in the doorway, but as you can see from the pictures, there's plenty of door clearance.

Here's a look at the rest of the room, starting in the doorway and moving counter-clockwise around the room.

To the left of the door are two bookshelves. One is a standard 3-shelf unit, and the other has 8 cubbies. The first bookshelf is completely filled with books, while the cubby unit alternates book storage with fabric bins. The bins are a great place to store socks, undergarments, and other items that we'd normally put in a small chest of drawers.

The tops of the units provide additional storage. One holds her stereo system, plus some shells and cool rocks and a picture of Cass and Poppa. The other unit holds a number of little clay sculptures Cass has made, her dragon collection, soccer and academic trophies, and a few other little small pieces.

Above the units hang some of Cassidy's favorite things. One is a large poster of a panda bear that she bought at the Washington DC Zoo. The other two prints are panda prints by Elsie Flannigan, which she got for Christmas.

The closet space in the room isn't expansive, but it more than meets our needs. There's another 3-shelf bookshelf tucked inside there, which provides storage for a number of items, such as books that she doesn't use often, craft storage, and sports gear storage. Fabric bins help keep it all corralled, though we keep a lot of her craft and engineering projects in small tackle boxes or rubbermaid bins.

To the right of the closet (if you are facing it) is where her desk used to be. We moved in an old rocker that belonged to my great-grandmother, plus the small table that Cass used to use as a nightstand. I'd like to eventually get her some kind of small loveseat or futon to go in that space, to provide extra seating (and sleeping room) for her friends.

The two corkboards will eventually get a makeover, with white frames and fabric over the backing. We use them primarily as storage for her medals from sports and academics, as well as a space to add photos, drawings, and other paper bits and pieces. She's got a number of plaques hung on that wall too.

 

There are two large windows on the back wall (from the doorway) of the room. We have two curtains hanging there, but really need a third. She's also got some strands of Christmas lights hanging there.

The desk space is significantly larger than the original desk we had in the room, which really helps to cut down on the visual clutter in the space. She's got room to spread her homework out on her desk and work now, which is good for when she has to do some computer work in addition to her homework. The plastic bins are leftovers from my scrapbooking days; we did have them in her closet but like the storage options they provide for her desk.

We have a small storage cubby tucked under the end of the desk. We had two of these, stacked on top of each other, in her closet, but just moved one out for the desk. Cass bought an electric typewriter at an antique store last year, so it sits on top of the cubby, while a cool fabric bin from Target holds notebooks, journals, and other similar items.

Of course, we've got the standard shoe storage on the back of the door. To be honest, I've found that this works better than anything else in terms of shoe storage -- plus, Cass uses it to keep her scarves organized as well. And it really helps us to maximize space in a small room.

Here's a collage of little details around the room. I pretty much give the girls free reign in terms of decorating, though I try to help them pull things together so it's not so much a huge mish-mash of whatever. Cass went for a turquoise/purple/lime green color scheme, with splashes of black and white (pandas and soccer) thrown in. She also loves to collect skeleton keys, so we have a number of those in the room. There's not a lot of decorative details like that, because she'd rather have "her stuff" in the room, if that makes sense.

Details (from top left to right): two large skeleton keys hanging to the left of her door, her favorite perfume and lotion, the decorative lights hanging on her window curtains
(from middle left to right): the large shell she found in Gulf Shores last week and a picture of Cass and Poppa (my dad); pen storage, computer speaker, and a jar of shells from Gulf Shores; her most recent reading (EXCELLENT book!!!)
(bottom, from left to right): a jar of sand from Oregan, given to her from her friend Julie; two large skeleton keys that hang from her doorknob; a soccer money bank and other details on her cubbies

I'm really happy with how everything looks, and Cassidy just loves it. We'll be working on a loft for Cami soon, with a lower bunk bed and play space underneath.

Comments

[Lauren]

Came out GREAT! and i HEART Cass's Elsie art! *swoon* xoox