Long Beach Island, March 3, 2012

This room started out purple, which wasn’t really a problem, except that some of the paint on the exterior walls was beginning to chip. When we had the whole house repainted in January, we decided to switch it to a fun aqua color, which I think goes better with all of the baby and kids’ stuff we have. It’s bright and cheerful for little ones, but I could also see this color growing with them to some sort of surfer theme or what-have-you. This is a lighter version of the color I painted the closet last summer.

The toy storage cubbies are from Target (now discontinued, sadly – a more pricey but great-looking alternative are Via Boxes.) We lugged the ottoman from Fez, Morocco way back in 2004 (you buy it unstuffed and stuff it with newspapers when you get home). Jax’s “pirate treasure box” holds little cars and toys he doesn’t want Ben to get into.

A lot of these things – like the balloon and Eiffel Tower watercolors I painted – we’ve had since our apartment days in the city.

The print above is from a schedule for the Nouveau Casino, a hip music club in the Oberkampf section of Paris. Our friend Corry (who we lived with in Paris for a year) used it to wrap a gift for Jax, and I knew it would look great as wall décor. I cut it to size and put it in an album frame purchased at Michael’s.

That latch-hook rug dates from my childhood: my wonderful Granddad and Granny made it for me when I was 3 or 4.

For more details on creating the fort bed, check out this post. Since this will be the boys’ shared room, eventually Jax will be up top and Ben on the bottom. Since the bottom “bunk” is simply a mattress on the floor, we can transition him to this bed relatively early. Even the top bunk is pretty low to the ground, so Jax could technically sleep up there – although he prefers the bottom. Realistically, he would most prefer being in our bed (a bit crowded with Ben in there most of the night). We love that we can lay down next to him and read stories as he goes to sleep. He comes into our room every morning around 5 or 6 to sleep another hour or two. He is sweet.

Those front-facing “bookshelves” are the ubiquitous Ikea Bekvam spice racks (four bucks each), attached with screws to the armoire. Along with the clip-on reading light, they are the perfect solution to reading in bed on the top bunk.

This awesome piece of art was a shower gift for Ben created by my college roommate, Michelle. I love it.

A new dress-up area with a collection of French children’s books on the shelf. The hooks are also useful for hanging outfits the night before preschool and daycare, to make our mornings a tad less hectic.

And there you have it! This room definitely gets crazy messy, but because everything has a home, it’s pretty easy to put toys and books back where they belong. Now we just need to get a certain 3-year-old into the habit of doing so…

The flimsy, unsightly pot had to go, however, and it was clear that it was actually holding three individual plants that could be easily separated. I just grabbed three soup bowls I had picked up for a dollar each (in pre-kid days, breakable ones we weren’t using) and filled the bottoms with pebbles we had in the garage. This is essential for drainage.

I added some dirt, put one plant in each bowl, and then packed them in well before watering.

Looking better!

It took two years to take the plunge and finally renovate. It was a long process, but overall, we’re happy with the results. But first, let’s take a look at the before (just after we bought our new range, which you can see in this picture):

Above was the view right from the front of the house: two doorways led to the glass door to our den/office/possible third bedroom. Originally that doorway next to the range was the way out of the house, but the den and a bathroom were added on a couple years after the house was built – still a while ago!

The hood above the range was too low for code, and all that corner space between the range and the dishwasher was unused. No corner cabinet, just a spot perfectly-sized for our pull-out garbage and recycling bins.

The windows were charming but not very functional, and those bottom cabinets weren’t looking so good.

We actually broke the hinge off of that corner cabinet door, and couldn’t easily fix it, since the cabinet and door were made of particle board and I couldn’t get a new hinge to screw in tightly.

Look at all of those cabinets! This wall was cute and functional, but we later learned that the paint on the back wall of the cabinets had been peeling off. We also were hoping to fit a slightly larger fridge into this space, which this configuration wouldn’t allow.

This is the view from the hallway next to the den. The doorway on the left led out of the kitchen and through an archway to the dining and living areas.

Floor plan (approximate) for the old arrangement:

Here were the problems to address:

~ The upper cabinets had settled and were sagging in some places (notably above the oven).
~ Uniformity of style between the bottom and top: the top looked like it was probably the original construction; the bottom, a renovation twenty or so years ago (I’m guessing).
~ Not one drawer! We were using our handy kitchen cart (from Ikea) for silverware, as there were no built-in drawers, probably because standard-sized cabinets couldn’t be configured in the allotted space when the bottom was renovated (I’m guessing it was a DIY job?).
~ The old double-hung windows were drafty and needed to be replaced. We have herb pots hanging just outside the window, but couldn’t really access them from inside.
~ Room for a taller fridge: The upper cabinets used to begin even lower, and previous owners had them shortened to make room for a 65″ fridge. A larger fridge – closer to 70″ – could not fit in the space, and we were eyeing counter-depth French door options.
~ Despite the kitchen’s small dimensions (9×10 feet!!), not all of the available space was being used: the corner to the left of the sink had nothing but a plywood support under the counter, and a space between the plywood and the oven that we were using for our garbage and recycling cans. There was also a gap between the right corner cabinet and the fridge, which we were junking up with paper recycling and plastic bag storage.

The solution to the layout issues lay in entirely moving the doorway: filling in the existing one, and cutting out a new one to lead to the dining area.

The new floor plan:

By moving the opening, we were able to get one 12″ and one 18″ cabinet – each with three drawers – to surround the range. From zero drawers to six! We were also able to have two usable corner cabinets, and the addition of the bottom cabinets also meant an increase in counter space. After a few months of use, we haven’t needed anything more. It’s luxury!

And now, the After:

The view from the front side of the house.

Sill life with sock.

Look! A larger but not overwhelming fridge: this one is 36″ wide and about 70″ tall, but counter-depth. The window is a slider, so we can easily slide it to one side or the other and reach out to get fresh herbs. This winter we only have rosemary, but come spring, this feature will be even more exciting.

The cookbooks were hanging out here while our living room bookshelves were being painting, but I’ve kind of gotten used to them, so they’re still around.

Our new doorway to the living/dining room. Come on in!

2 Weeks

3 Weeks

1 Month

2 Months

3 Months

4 Months

5 Months

6 Months

7 Months

“Playing Bedtime”: Jax loves to take care of his little brother.