so about a week or so ago … we decided to re-do our downstairs bedroom. it was originally my scraproom. but since i moved upstairs … it’s always just been this extra room where everything leftover got dumped. the extra loveseat, the extra big oak shelves, and anything else that had no where to go. i had been wanting to get an expedit shelf to put in there for the last few months. which i guess was the start of my plan. then about 2 weeks ago … it dawned on me. why not actually make it a room that we actually use for something.
this isn’t the best photo … but it’s all i got before the girls totally took over the room. lol! so we painted the walls … a great “refreshing pool” color from behr that i got at home depot. it’s like an aqua/turquoise color. we were painting over a dark green … so we had to prime the walls first … which was more work. and yes, i still have to finish around the 2 windows in the room (see the green up there?) … just havn’t gotten around to a day where i have time to take off the blinds early enough in the day before the sun beats down on the windows. lol!
then the expedit shelf … from ikea. if i could … i would put one of those shelves in every room in my house. that is how awesome i think they are! i have 2 of the large ones in my studio … and love them! you can put an incredible amount of stuff on there …. without it ever looking crowded or cluttered. and i knew exactly what the shelves would be for.
i moved ALL of my finished and in-the-works scrapbook albums downstairs. really didn’t make much sense to have them upstairs in my studio … where no one ever looked at them. i would do a layout … and stick it in the album. no one ever got to see them. another advantage to moving them downstairs that i didn’t even think about? god forbid there is ever a fire or anything here … but you know how you always hear of people grabbing their photos … because most of those can’t be replaced. i realized … while carrying over 50 albums down the stairs … that i would have NEVER been able to get those out of the house if it came down to it. lol! those suckers are heavy! and yes, i have over 50 albums on there … actually filled with layouts! i would multi-task … everytime i went upstairs for anything … carry another stack of albums down. lol! those 2 larger baskets on top hold mini albums. and i also made tons more room in my studio … those albums were taking up a ton of space that could be used for things that i actually use more often.
the other thing i did was to move a lot of our dvd collections in there … and all our cd’s. most of them are in those red and black boxes … or the baskets. i have the entire collection of “friends”, “gilmore girls”, “sex & the city”, and more on dvd. not something i use all the time … so i stuck them in the boxes. which has made more space in the cabinets under our tv in the family room … so that all our games aren’t crammed in there so tightly. all our cd’s are in there. i have them all on itunes now … so we really don’t use the cd’s themselves all that much. makes sense to store them out of the way a little more. i also have a spot that holds the girls soccer albums and dvd’s from their teams. a spot to hold all the family dvd’s and tapes of the girls from when they were little. i have a spot that holds all the girls gameboy games and accesories … and a spot for their nintendo ds games and accesories. and then there are just some decorative things mixed in.
the great thing too … is that the only thing that i bought on that shelf … is the 2 turquoise fabric bins. everything else on there … the boxes, the baskets, the metal tins, the accesories … they all just came from other parts of the house. i love that … love to re-use things and move them around to make things look new. the other thing that i did buy … was the 2 chairs. these are really comfy folding chairs … they are super comfy to sit in. and if need be … we can fold them up and get them out of the way. on the opposite wall (across from the chairs) … we have a low, wide tv stand. all we have is a boombox and a little 13 inch tv/vcr combo … with a dvd player. we don’t have any tv hookup in that bedroom … but we can use it for watching movies. eventually i would love to get a little bigger tv in there … but no rush on that. the girls also moved some games, some magazines, and other stuff to the tv stand.
and the girls have officially named it the “hangout room”. before this … the only thing this room was really used for was for nikolas to take his naps. lol! but the girls are loving this … they have been in there for the last week non-stop. one thing i wanted … was for them to have a spot to go when the daycare kids are here. as much as they love to hang out and play with them … they also have their moments where they want to do their own thing. and i don’t let them go upstairs and play much … since usually joe or the babies are sleeping up there during the day. but if they took stuff out in the playroom … the little ones would get into things … or they’d have to pick up when the babies woke up from their naps. so now they have their place to go … and spread out to their hearts content. i have 2 days a week when i have to have a playpen in there … since i have an extra little one that needs a room to nap. but the rest of the time … they have free reign. and they love it!
i had to add this: this is NOT a room for the daycare kids. lol! well, amanda does have permission to go in there … she’s just like one of “my girls”. lol! but no little ones in here … so i don’t have to worry about little hands getting to my albums. i have a safety gate that gets put up right outside this room (and the bathroom, now that nikolas can open doors) … so the little ones just look over the gate at the big girls playing in there. lol!
and an extra bonus … the girls have been looking at all the scrapbook albums EVERYDAY! i love walking by and seeing them going through them one by one. although they have gotten many lessons about turning the pages carefully … and putting the albums back in order … and always having clean hands. but other than that … free reign!!!
Laura Vegas 
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