A Vivid Garden Tea Party Toddler Bedroom, Before, During & After.

When we discovered we were expecting our second child, we had to finally deal with our second upstairs bedroom, which over time had gone through several transformations due to everything from other construction projects in the house to the use of the room by our cats as a litter box alternative. The biggest step was removing the carpet we'd previously installed and putting down hardwood floors, which we did ourselves.
From her bed, and of course, the princess herself.
The day we had out inspection, this is what the smaller of the two upstairs rooms looked like from the doorway.
From inside the room looking out to the hall. Actually, pretty much from the closet, as the room is 10x11.
And the scariest part, the giant bleach stain on the worn, dark brown shag carpet.
The first incarnation of the spare room, as a small guest room. We replaced the carpet, but not the padding as we thought it would be okay. It wasn't.
Some of the very basic decor we first implemented with Ikea stuff we already had.
The doomed carpet. It was nice on the feet, but the cats quickly ruined that, causing us to always have the door shut.
While we worked on our master bedroom downstairs and our first child lived in the larger bedroom upstars, the spare room became a dressing room, of sorts.
Our giant dresser, pre-painting for the master suite downstairs.
We also crammed our "office" stuff and my vainity into this room. As you can see, it was chaos.
This room has one of the only sizable, functional closets in the house, for which I'm sure my daughter will thank us in the future.
Our first peep at the subfloor under the subfloor after removing the carpet to make way for the hardwoods.
We were surprised by the green paint and super aggravated about the missing planks because they were odd-sized like crazy,
The new subfloor my husband and his friend put down after we decided the old green subfloor was probably not enough on it's own.
The beginnings of a massive task -- laying the new hardwood, in the middle of July, without functioning air conditioning.
And the after, with the walls my husban painted himself so my pregnant self wasn't huffing the fumes in the heat.
The completed room, which we called L'Nursery Deux as our son, whose room is across the hall, was only 18 months old himself. The carpet and rocker were moved from his room into here, and the crib was a brand-new Craigslist find.
The view from where the crib stood. The dresser is from Ikea and the changing table is one we had for my son, coincidentally matching the Craigslist crib.
The newly-organized closet (still the first color of brown we painted it in the first renovation) and a curtain instead of a door so fingers wouldn't get smashed.
As time went on, more decor was added, like these 3D wall decals to give something fun to the angled walls.
My first (but certainly not last) attempt at a gallery wall, waiting for the right pieces to go into the frames.
Lastly, the most recent incarnation, as a toddler room for our active, growing little girl.
A table and two chairs from West Elm bring some function fun and color unto the room.
A thift store find painted by me, a painting of mine from high school, and a printable found on Pinterest on a small french memo board help fill some awkward wall space.
I brought out my childhood doll furniture for her to play with, including the bedding, which was some of the first things I had ever sewn.
Her closet is about the same, with the addition of poufs I made for her first birthday to the corner between the closet and the windows.
A common occurrence as we try to get her to bed.
I replaced the valances (which has matched her crib bedding) with these sheers from Urban Outfitters because the colors were just dead on. There are white light-blocking roller shades behind them for naps & bedtime.
Tabatha Muntzinger (Tabulous)
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  • Hi there! West Elm just had this pocket collection last holiday season (like 2011-2012) that went on major clearance by summer, so while I got a great deal unfortunately I'm not sure it's around anymore. :( We also have an Ikea kids' table in our living room that's not bad, but the chairs didn't stand up as well. I really like stuff from Kid Kraft -- durable stuff, just a bit pricey, but sometimes they have sales on Zulily or Fab. Also, have you thought about going to a local unfinished wood store? I'm sure you could find reasonable storage solutions there, and most places you can pay them to finish it for you, or you can take it home and do it yourself. Lastly, never underestimate an Ikea Expedit unit -- the itso boxes at Target fit them perfectly and come in many more fun patterns and colorways than the Ikea ones. I'll think on it some more as well and get back to you!
  • YES! I had to google the expedit unit, but turns out I have one in my son's room! I didn't know the Target boxes would fit them, but now I can't wait to google that and see. His room needs a little touching up too! I might need to make a trip down to ikea and consider their table, though the tipping tip is a good one. My princess is always using things in unintended ways ;)
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