When I was a little girl I used to sit at my mothers vanity table and pretend to be getting ready for some major events. Balls, award shows, and my own wedding you never knew what each day had in store. My mothers vanity was a beautiful piece of furniture that my dad had worked on (he is a carpenter by hobby) he had given her the vanity as an anniversary gift. When I moved out of my mothers house, she gave me the vanity. Now I sit at this beautiful vanity with all those fond memories getting ready for work, school functions, and trips to Wal Mart! Ok! I know that the picture above is soooo not my mother's and then later my vanity, but to be honest the master bedroom is a disaster and I wasn't taking a picture of that!!!
My oldest daughter Babydoll loves to play dress up, she likes to pretend she is a Princess, Barbie, or the female version of many different Super Hero's.
Playing dress up! On the left with her favorite cousin, on the right with my younger brother the last time he babysat!
Each one of the kiddos rooms has a walk in closet and Babydoll's closet was falling apart. The metal clothes racks were falling off the walls, and I was just waiting for the day that they would hang from them like little monkeys and everything would come tumbling down.
The kiddos rooms aren't small but they really aren't big enough to hold all the stuff they have! For the past two days I have been getting rid of a lot of crap old toys. Thinking a call to Hoarders may be needed about my kids, wow they had tons of crap stuff! After two trash bags of trash and three bags of donated toys, I had two (of the four) kids rooms spotless and that included their useless closets! Bubby's closet was having the same problem with the shelves! What was I going to do with this clean and unused space? I have seen lots of pictures on (guess where) you guessed it, Pinterest! Parents have turned their kids closets to reading nooks, playrooms, bed spaces, you name it! If they can do it so can I!
Babydoll's New Dressing Room!
First thing first, I took the closet door off the hinges, the idea that she could be shut in there kinda unnerved me, and the door opened into her room which took up useable space! Plus, I had a really cute idea and the door was in my way.
Curtained Door: ($ Free) I simply took a bed sheet someone had given me, cut it the width and height of the door then cut the length in half. I used the ready made top part of the sheet as a curtain rod slot by simply ripping the hem on each side. My curtain rod is really just a wrapping paper tube that I had on hand. I ran a long piece of ribbon through the tube and tied a bow on top, this allowed me to hang it from a nail in the wall. I didn't have any spare curtain rods this small. When the cardboard rod falls apart I will probably break down and buy an actual curtain rod.
Accessory Rack: ($ Free ) As soon as you walk in the
closet dressing room you see this rack on your right. I found this kids coat rack at a thrift store months ago and only paid $2.00 for it. Until now it was on Babydoll's wall and we were using it to hold all her dress up clothes. Now we have a place for all her little purses, headbands, aprons and fairy wings. :)
Accessory Shelf: ($ Free ) This shelf used to be used as a DVD shelf in Babydoll's room, then I put all our DVDs in CD books arranged by category (I got tired of having DVDs everywhere, and empty boxes) When the shelf cleared of movies, it was then used to just hold some of Babydoll's toys. I now have it in the corner of her
closet dressing room and it has her wallets, tiaras, some play jewelry, her diary and a picture of Babydoll and her cousin.
Shoe Rack: ($Free) These cute little cardboard boxes used to keep Babydoll's dress up shoes and any overflow accessory out of the middle of the floor. They have lids with the Disney Princess's on them. I bought these boxes at TJ MAX a while ago, I don't even remember how much I paid. I simply put the boxes on their side and lined up the dress shoes. Jerm is going to make Babydoll a little shoe rack but for now this works. I used the lids as decoration in Babydoll's room, I simply hung them on the wall and now they kind of look like canvas art! :)
Wall Art ($Free) I got the idea for paper pin wheels
HERE so I used some cardstock paper that I had on hand. I love the look of this decorative wall art and think that I am going to make more of these maybe for around the house, in Babydoll's room or as party decor!
Clothes Rack: ($Free) Two very stubborn metal shelf wall mounts would not come out of the wall! It was making me so frustrated! They are kind of sharp, I could see the kids hanging from them, and they were in my way! Then I came up with the idea to twist them towards each other, and with some zip ties and ribbon these annoying wall mounts became a clothes rack. The rack is actually really sturdy and has enough room for more dress up clothes!
FYI: Dress up clothes are expensive, every year after Halloween I buy the costumes (they go on sale) and we give them to Bubby and Babydoll as Christmas presents!!! I simply take them out of the packages and put them in clothes wrapping boxes, I even insert the picture from the package. I have, in the past, bought Super Hero costumes, Princess dresses and what not for as little as $1.00.
Princess Wall Art: ($Free) These pictures I found on some boxes that used to hold puzzle pieces. The boxes were pretty much destroyed and the puzzle pieces already had a new home. I simply stapled some ribbon on to the back of the pictures and then hung them on the wall. I think it looks kind of like pictures you would hang on the wall of your friends. The pink one even looks like it is in a frame! I think that sometime this week I may go to Dollar Tree and get some inexpensive frames (remove the glass) and frame these pictures.
Jewelry Organizer: ($Free) I bought Babydoll and Baby Boogie these Jewelry organizers from Kirklands about two months ago. They were originally $25.00 but I got them on sale for $5.00 each. Baby Boogie's has a Peacock Feather print which works for her room because it is Teal and Chocolate Brown. Babydoll's room is decorated in Black, White and Hot Pink.
FYI: I decorate the kiddos rooms in a color scheme then buy or make wall art that has their favorite characters, toys, or games on them. I refuse to buy bedding and set a whole theme around a character that they may not be interested in within a year. For example, Babydoll has a Black, White and Hot Pink flower comforter that was marketed for dorm rooms. This will grow with her, and I can buy inexpensive Disney Princess, Tinkerbell, or Barbie posters and wall art that she is currently into. My mom changed my bedrooms theme with what I was interested in for years till she finally realized how expensive it was getting!
Vanity: ($Free) I bought this vanity for $20.00 at a local bi-yearly kids consignment sale almost two years ago. When I came home and realized this crazy thing retails at about $100.00 I was super excited!!! This is the Disney Sleeping Beauty vanity. It lights up, talks to you and has hair accessories and doo da's. I think Disney is currently selling the Cinderella Vanity, Babydoll likes Cinderella but I am not buying a whole new vanity, plus blue doesn't match her room. LOL
* I may be a bit biased Aurora (Sleeping Beauty) was always my favorite, so much so that Baby Boogie almost ended up with the name Aurora! Luckily or unfortunately I struggled in speech therapy for the first 6 years of my life trying to produce the R sound. I sounded like I belonged in Jersey and I have always lived in the South! I still have to concentrate on some words and if my emotions are running high you can catch me slip, apparently Bubby inherited this R problem so Aurora wouldn't have been a wise choice!
There you have it, Babydoll's new closet Dressing Room! This transformation cost me nothing but time, I simply used things that we already had in Babydoll's room. Even if I would have had to buy some of these things I don't think that it would have cost too much! Babydoll has been at her mom's house for the past three days, but she comes home today and I can't wait to see what she thinks of her new play area!!! I may decide to paint the walls in there, and I need to buy a cute rug but for now it works. When the kids get a little older I am going to put some functional and sturdy closet shelving and racks in their closets, but for now they are perfect play areas.
Jerm and I talked about making Bubby's closet a Video Game Room, both my boys are gamer, computer geeks (just like their daddy)! We have to wait till after Christmas and see if Santa is bringing that X-Box 360 for Bubby though ;) We have the X-Box 360 Kinect in the living room, but I mostly hog use that one for my Netflix, and Vudu and the Kinect games. Monkey has his own 360 so I think it is time for Santa to bring Bubby one!
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