Emma Grace's Toddler Room

Happy Tiny Tuesday!

Ah! Today’s post brings such a big smile to my face because Emma Grace’s “big girl” room is by far my favorite room in our house.

When we found out we were having another girl, we decided to keep our nursery the same and let Emma Grace have a space that was just for her that she could retreat to during the adjustment of a new baby.

We wanted to make sure that the space was unique to her style and her interests. Picking a color scheme was easy as Emma’s favorite color is pink. We chose black, white and grey to be accent colors to give us a little freedom with different shades of pink we could use.

Once we picked the colors, we put a lot of thought into what we would include in the room and really tried to hone in on Emma Grace’s interests, which lead us to 3 main areas in the room:

3 areas of the room:

1 – reading nook: EG loves to read, so we created a reading nook that was cozy enough for her to escape from the madness of a new baby and read; we also made books readily available to her with book shelves and baskets full of books

2 – pretend play: although we did not have toys in her nursery, we wanted to foster imaginative play in her room, so we created a space where she could play kitchen and/or play with her baby

3 – gallery wall: EG is really big on “decorations” as she calls it and pictures, so a gallery wall seemed fitting as we could create a mix of decorative accents, inspirational quotes, and pictures

independence:

Being big advocates of the montessori way of thought (both of our girls attend American Montessori Campus when I work), we wanted to create an environment where EG was able to do everything herself from making her bed to dressing herself to organizing and accessing her toys.

cost:

Now, some of you are probably thinking “man, creating an entire room from scratch can be expensive and is it even worth it for a toddler room that she’ll outgrow in a couple of years.” That very thought crossed my mind when we decide to design a room for EG. So, how did we do it?

splurge: I have to admit that we did have a splurge – our bed. I fell in love with this bed from Land of Nod a couple of years ago and couldn’t imagine a toddler room without it, so this was our splurge. We also knew we needed to choose a daybed or a queen size bed for EG’s room, too, because we don’t have another guest room so this is where we will house the occasional visitor.

save: one of the coolest things my mom taught me was how to have a “good eye” when you shop; for example, I wanted this matching side table from land of nod to go with out daybed, but saw this almost identical one from target and thought…”no one will know the difference, so I’ll be able to save a couple bucks here;” also, things like baskets and throw pillows can be found at a discounted price at places like target, marshalls, and tj maxx

repurpose: before you buy everything new, take inventory of things you may already have; for example, we had EG’s black and white rug from World Market in our guest room and repurposed it in Emma’s room; we also used her light pink baskets in her nursery to hold stuffed animals and lovies and transitioned them into her big girl room to hold books

give it some time: I found that because I planned out the entire room and knew what I wanted to put where, I was able to find things at a reasonable cost just by giving myself some time to shop (think months), rather than buying everything in one week; this allowed me to wait until some things went on sale and compare prices along the way