Before Elizabeth became ill the girls shared the smallest bedroom in the house and had the other room as a playroom however when we returned from the hospital we had to put Elizabeth in her own bedroom to prevent infection and to give her room for her medical equipment.I have always felt guilty about the fact that Elizabeth has the largest room whilst Alison was left with the box room so when she made a wish to have a bigger bedroom I was determined to make it come true. Obviously, there was a snag, you can’t just make a room magically get bigger and so I had to start planning how we could increase the space available in her room to make it seem bigger. We also decided that it was a good time to decorate. We moved into this house nearly four years ago and decorated that first year but apart from changing the wall stickers, it has stayed the same.
Step One – Redecorate
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from grass and sky
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to stylish design
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Alison has her own sense of style and so we sat down together on the Graham Brown website to select some paint. She selected the Police box blue and I was concerned it might be a bit dark but she was not to be persuaded otherwise. I am glad I listened to her because it is a beautiful colour.
For the feature wall, we started to look at the wall murals. Unfortunately, her wall was not quite big enough so we looked at the wallpaper instead. Now I had never wallpapered before in my life so this was quite a scary prospect but after watching a few youtube tutorials I felt confident that I could manage it with a bit of help from my tall neighbour. Alison selected the frames wallpaper. She will continue to add to the wall with bits of her artwork and stickers over the coming months. She loves arts and crafts and I always end up binning her creations much to her dismay so this way she can display them how she wishes.
Step two – Furnishings
Getting the furniture right was the key to making a bigger bedroom and so we got rid of her mid sleeper bed, toy box and small plastic drawers and measured up.I created the below plan to show how much floor space we would have. The solid colours items are furniture taking up floor space and the outline is the bed and ladder. I got the furniture from Argos and I was really lucky to find a wardrobe that was the perfect height to sit underneath the bed. The bookcase shown in red is so tall that when Alison is on her bed it acts like a shelf for her to place things on which is brilliant as she is quite the little bookworm and loves reading at night.
The flatpack did nearly overwhelm me but we got there in the end and it was well worth it in the end as the room came together nicely.
Having the bed up high really did make the room seem so much bigger and with the wardrobe snuggly fitting underneath it started to look fantastic.
Step Three – Finishing touches
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Putting the furniture in place is obviously a good thing but adding all the little extras is what makes a room really special. I took Alison shopping where she chose curtains, a minion rug and a box seat for near her bookcase so she could read. Displaying her toys was her favourite part of the whole thing and she took so much time putting this together.
To help with the finishing touches we were sent this fabulous Superman Lego LED Light. Superman can be completely removed and used as a torch or he can be placed on the base so the base lights up as a night light. The light switches off after 30 minutes which is perfect for when she uses it at night time light and forgets to switch it off.
Tobar sent us one of these clockwork space robots which looks fantastic and is really good fun too. The robot came in a fabulous old looking box and the girls were mesmerised by the “old” technology involved. It made me feel ancient the way they kept going on about clockwork like it was an idea from the caveman era, these kids are seriously spoilt with their modern day technology.
Alison absolutely loves her new room and she has kept it tidy which is a miracle but shows how much she respects it as she makes sure that everything is kept in its place.When asked if I had granted her wish for a bigger bedroom she threw her arms around my neck, gave me the biggest hug and told me she loves me so I am taking that as a yes. So if you need to make a small room bigger here are my top tips.
1) Increase usable floor space
2) lots of storage solutions from shelves, drawers and wardrobes
3) Make a plan so you know what will work where
4) declutter and get rid of things that are not in use or that have not been used in 6 months
5) make it practical
Let me know what you think of her bedroom makeover.