Abby's Big Girl Room

Well - like I said, we've been busy in the McGrath household.  Not only have we been working on the kitchen and finishing up a list of never ending projects in the basement, we also finally tackled Abby's big girl bedroom.  

When we built out the basement we knew we'd eventually be needing both bedrooms upstairs for kiddos so we included a guest bedroom in the plans for the basement.  This room, off the main hallway on the first floor used to be the guest bedroom, but a few months ago we moved out all of the furniture and started fresh on Abby's big girl room.  Ryan always teases me that I can't get away from grey's but you'll notice the walls are clearly browns (with a grey rug of course).

I love how this room came out.  It's clearly a girls bedroom without being all Pepto Bismol pink threw up in there.  I think it's a room that can grow with her as she transitions from a toddler into a little girl.  I'm not naive enough to think that it will stay this way forever, I'm sure she'll have an opinion about how it's decorated at some point, but for now, I got to make the decisions :)

You can tell that she's not quite living in here yet, but we wanted to get it set up so we could start working towards that.  I've got those ugly toddler rails (they make the bed look like a hospital bed) already bought and I know once we move her in this room will be cluttered with toys and the things that Abby loves most...but I couldn't resist these perfectly staged photos!!

We chose to go with a twin bed after MUCH deliberation.  I really wanted to use a double so that her quilt I made would fit on the bed but the room just wasn't big enough and I wanted there to be room for her to spread out and play in there.  Her quilt will fit on the bed, it just hangs down to the ground so we'll likely swap out this cute Princess and the Pea bedding for her quilt through the seasons.

Note:  I think that Pea pillow is her favorite part of the whole room!

Between that huge dresser and the closet I think she's got plenty of space to grow into.  I considered adding a book case or toy box to the room but I think we can make some of the shelves in her closet work for that at least until she gets bigger and her clothes start to take over.  Right now I think I can fit all of her tiny clothes into two of those drawers.  It's not that she doesn't have a ton, the grandmas's make sure she has plenty...it's just that kids clothes is so tiny!!  HA!!

We've been trying to spend more time in here and I've been reading lots of stories on that bed with her before bedtime.  She's even asked to sleep in there once or twice but without the rails up I've been cautious and we've kept to the nursery so far.  Soon enough though Peanut, soon enough!!

One funny story - this past weekend we went to the Dells with two other families.  We stayed in a condo so we were all together and Abby called the hotel room "everybody's house".  Pretty accurate I'd say.  One of the families has two kids - a toddler Abby's age and a newish baby.  I was trying to explain to Abby that we'd be having a baby at our house soon too.  She told me "Mommy - the baby stay at everybody's house??".  HA!  Wishful thinking kid.  Sorry to say that kiddos coming home with us!!

She's certainly skeptical of the whole process.  She'll show you this room if you ask to see her big girl room but she will quickly tell you "my beds in here" and take you to the nursery.  I think she thinks ALL of the rooms are "Abby's room".