For about $1000 we built a new room for our tween daughter, including a master closet. See all the photos and watch the video tour.
Twelve. It's such a funny age. It's so caught in between childhood and sassy teen.
Our daughter Grace is twelve this year, and one minute she's playing in the mud, and the next she's asking to go try on clothes at the mall. What is happening.
Our house layout has two bedrooms upstairs, with a playhouse in between, and a loft area playroom on one side. The other side of the upstairs is a good sized bonus room - but it was unfinished and had awkward utility bump outs and low sloped ceilings. I can't blame her for one day packing all her things up and moving into the bonus room - it can't be fun having a pile of preschoolers jumping on your bed or digging out your stuff.
It hasn't been easy this last year since baby Everly arrived. Grace has really stepped up to help us taking on dishes, laundry, cleaning house, making dinner, and putting the baby down for naps. She runs the back seat of the car, can sing all the nursery rhymes and pack the diaper bag better than anyone else.
So when she asked for some help decorating her awkward unfinished attic room, we had to make it happen.
Here's the video tour -
And now for the photo tour!
We started by building knee walls with hidden storage
The knee walls added a TON of hidden but accessible storage for the entire family, and boxed out the too low ceilings.
And then the room needed a closet ..
Between the two awkward utility bump outs, we built a room divider closet
This created a walk through closet space and made the room function like a bedroom. It also gave us a full height ceiling wall for a mirror!
From there, we tackled all the furniture building projects (I'll link at the bottom of the post to all the plans) to create this room!
This is the view of the room when you walk in. We built the console table, the fur bed, the knee walls with hidden storage, and the nightstand and desk.
She fell in love with the "bed of roses" comforter from PBTeen, so we used it as the color and pattern inspiration for the room.
We live in Alaska. Every room has an antler set. A real one. But only this room has a gold painted set.
The desk area also serves as a nightstand. We built the desk too - it is such a simple design made glamourous with the black paint and gold hardware.
We found this cut sign at Micheals for under $10.
The nightstand is designed similar to the desk, but in a smaller size. It's perfect for a bedside table. We built it too.
The console was originally a bookshelf - but it just didn't fit right in the room. So I added this detail on the doors and painted the entire piece black. Now it makes quite the statement!
We spent about $1000 all together on this room (we did have the mirror, a nightstand, the mattress and the white chair that is you can kindof see in the corner, and some accessories) but the closet, the knee walls, the bed, the console table, the desk are all new.
It's amazing how far you can stretch a budget with DIY. $1000 might have bought us a bed.
Just in case you are interested in some of the elements of this room, I put together a source list with links.
- Project Plans for Knee Walls with Hidden Doors
- Project Plans for Room Divider Closet
- Easiest No-Sew Upholstered Bed Tutorial
- Project Plans for Black Console Table
- Project Plans for Simple Writing Desk
- Project Plans for Simple Modern Bedside Table
- Comforter - PBTeen "Bed or Roses" (bought on sale)
- Curtains - PBTeen "Circus Stripe" (bought on sale)
- Rug - Home Depot (on clearance with a small blemish)
- Gold Peel and Stick Dots - Lowes
- You Got This! Sign from Micheals
- Done and Done Dry Erase Board from Micheals
- Antlers - DIY - they are the real deal spray painted gold
I think that's everything! It feels so good to finish a space and see that smile on our daughter's face.
Thanks so much for being part of our build!
Ana