Our Bedroom

This is our retreat…our sanctuary. It’s the one place in the house my hubby and I can call our own.

I protect our bedroom like it’s hallowed ground.

Every day my  2 1/2 year-old son’s toys make their way into this room, and every night–or at least, come next morning–I make it a point to bring back the little cars, dinosaurs, blocks (and whatever else a toddler/pre-schooler so decides to bring into our space) right back to where they belong. In his room.

Our bedroom is the one place in the home where I can unwind and be free of all things Mommy.

It’s the one place I can be me.

Here are some pics of the place I call Our Retreat (originally posted in Facebook in September 2010, just two months fresh from our NJ-to-AZ move).

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Not much has changed since I originally designed and took photos of this room. It probably looks a little dated now with all the new design trends out there (think gray walls and modern/minimalist lines). Still, it reminds me of a Spanish Casa, with the dark-colored walls and many textured pieces in the room (which I just LOVE!!)

How do you protect your bedroom and keep your baby’s stuff from taking over? Do you do the same with other parts of your house?

Must-have Elements in a Toddler Room

Now that I’m officially DONE with Miguel’s room (it is finished, fun, AND functional!) I want to share the things I considered “must haves” when I was setting up his room:

A theme. A theme gives a room its overall vibe. It can stem from anything…from your child’s favorite characters to his favorite things. It can even come from something he or she had in his room while he was still a baby.

The safari theme in Miguel’s room was inspired by these gentle giraffes on his diaper stacker.

As you can see in one of the photos in this previous blog post, the mommy and baby giraffes were also decals on “Miguel’s wall” in our old apartment in Jersey. We took the decals off the wall and gave them a new home on the doors of what used to be our bedroom TV stand. The TV stand now serves a second purpose providing ample storage for Miguel’s toys.

Additional safari elements can be seen in his pillowcase prints, the safari jeep plush toy atop his bed, and a couple of lion rugs (which incidentally ties in well with Miguel’s Leo zodiac sign).

A color scheme. A color scheme anchors a room and gives it unity. You can have different functional and decorative things in various areas in the room and have them all tie in together with the colors you select. The color scheme in Miguel’s room was also inspired by the giraffe decals. You’ll see pops of orange, lime green, sky blue and brown throughout this room.

A sitting area. We didn’t use to have a sitting area in this room. Where this lounge couch used to be was Miguel’s mini-crib. I am glad to have taken it out. By doing so we’ve gotten rid of a nonfunctional item and instead provided a place for reading, snuggling, watching TV, and relaxing. I love sitting in this chair and read magazines/study while Miguel plays with his toys. His Dad loves it too for when he’s taking a break from Daddy duties immersed in the PlayStation.

Storage. There needs to be a place for everything, and for every thing a place (otherwise you’ll just have chaos). These shelves and storage bins and basket from Ikea do the trick!

Floor space. By far the most important area in a toddler’s room. A toddler needs space to lay out blocks and bricks, race toy cars, assemble train tracks, etc. In a girl’s room I can see floor space being taken up by a low-lying table and some chairs for tea parties and such.

Wall art. These can be decals, peel-and-stick or actual painted-on borders, paintings, etc. It’s easy to get carried away with the walls. So as not to be too theme-y, I decided on this wall art from Pottery Barn Kids, which pictures one of our favorite activities: camping.

There is also this painting I got from my favorite store in St. Armand’s. Miguel loves Rockets, and I love its message…

A place to call his own. It’s nice when, even as a toddler, a child can call a space just his own. It doesn’t have to be a designer room, just one where he (or she) can have endless amounts of play, explore his imagination and practice his new-found skills in a place where the amount of fun is boundless and limitless.

Have fun creating your toddler’s room!

The Play Room that is Now (Finally) a Sleep-and-Play Room

Miguel’s room has been set up for almost a year now. It’s been decorated since we moved–one of my favorite projects shortly after taking on mommy-hood full-time.

Up until recently, the room has been JUST a play room–despite the presence of both crib and bed. Last month I finally took it upon myself to buy a toddler bed rail so we can train him to sleep on his own bed instead of in our cozy and comfy, but fit-for-only-two-people bed.

Also because his crib is cute but useless.

And because his bed is THREE twin mattress tiers tall.

All I can say is…what wonder has that bed rail done!

It might have saved our marriage actually.

I have a lot of respect–and give a lot of props–to parents who co-sleep with their kids. That thing is just not for me, at least not for the long haul. I’ve succumbed to co-sleeping for close to two years, because, as a former co-worker put it, it was the path to least resistance…the easiest way to make a baby–OUR baby–fall into sweet slumber in his pre-one-year-old days. From 0-6 months it was in his bassinet. After that, it was on our bed. Have I mentioned his crib was useless??

You can see my joy then, when–once I’ve set up the toddler bed rail–Miguel just fell asleep, and STAYED asleep, in his bed. HIS bed!

I never thought I’d see the day.

So now his play room is finally a sleep-and-play room.

And that’s exactly just the way I want it.

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Here are some photos of his room…

A shot of his bedside area.

View of the top of his bed.

See how tall his bed is!

The bed rail installed.

This bed rail was not my first choice (due to the stark white color…too reminiscent of a hospital bed), but I picked it because it has a “hideaway” feature, it was reasonably priced ($27 on Amazon.com), and it came as a pair, which means BOTH sides of the bed can be safe if we choose to move it away from the wall. I was able to install it myself, and it’s pretty sturdy.

I will post more pictures of Miguel’s room in a separate blog entry entitled “Must-have Elements in a Toddler Room.”

Stay tuned!