Connor's Room

Connor turned 5 a couple of months ago. When I heard what he wanted, I decided to redo his whole room. For his birthday he asked for the usual - playmobil. He absolutely loves playmobil. He is a child with a big imagination and playmobil is great for him. I myself have a love hate relationship with playmobil. I can see why it is so appealing to him and that it would be really fun to play with, but I hate all the small pieces and the mess. We constantly have fights - he spends all day "setting it up" and I come in and pack it up at the end of the day, which really frustrates him, because he has to set it up all over and over again.

I wanted to give the kid what he wanted for his birthday, but also had to find a better solution for the playmobil than just playing with it all over his bedroom floor. So I decided to give him room a bit of a redo for his birthday. Here's the result.

I got one of those double loft beds from Ikea. A handy friend cut about 30cm off the legs for me with a drop saw, and after some tricky geometry calculations (ok, not that tricky, but its been years) I managed to mark the ladder in the right spot and he cut that off too. Instead of putting a mattress on top, I got some heavy weight mdf cut to size at bunnings and nailed that down on top of the rungs of the bed. Then I got some more mdf - thinner bits cut for the sides and had fun with my first attempt at jigsawing to create some interesting castle like shapes along the top. This is now where the playmobil lives and it is the perfect solution. Connor can set it all up to suit how he wants to play, and I don't really have to look at it. It does get really messy up there is playmobil central, and every couple of weeks I get up there and sort it all out for him. Here's a picture of the mess upstairs in playmobil land.

Lots and lots of little bits and pieces. I was originally going to paint the mdf base, but with Connor's imagination, I don't want to make it too structured, as one day it will be an ocean, the next a desert, and another day something else. Some peekabo toy bags from the lovely Make it Perfect blog (great tutorial) hang above the playmobil area, and I generally sort men and stuff out into the bags when I organise it all for him.

This could easily transition into a bed when he gets older, and for now it has solved our playmobil problems. It would be easy to use something like this for lego, or toy cars or even trains, it keeps it all up and out of the way, but still very accessible.

Connor's room also has a handy window seat, made from two trofast units screwed together and then I got a piece of foam cut and covered it. Excuse the pirate ship (yes, more playmobil) and the pillow pet. They do have other places, but this is where he likes them and it is his room after all.

He has a small bookshelf to keep his books, a couple of containers for lego and a shelf for all his lego creations, whatever they may be.

I love these little spice racks from Ikea. They are perfect for books and for ninja turtles.

I couldn't resist ordering this little reclining red faux leather chair off ebay. Connor loves to read, and I quite often catch him reclining away in his chair reading a book like a little old man.

We got his really cool Captain America night light in Hawaii when we were there, and he also has an ironman moneybox on his little bedside table.

All in all I'm happy with his room now. I need to recover the cushion on the storage trunk at the end of his bed, it houses the costumes, one of which is pretty much always being worn. He has another container near the door, you won't be able to see it in the pictures, that is for all of his soft toys.

His room is now nicely organised, there is a place for everything, but it is not too structured that he isn't able to play in it the way he wants to. It's a pretty good sized room and on the floor in front of his wardrobe, there is plenty of room to play of the floor, or pitch a playtent (happens regularly).

I got his name cut and painted a couple of months ago, and I love having it. It adds that nice finishing touch to his room. Of course look at the photo below to see Connor's improvements to his name.

Notice the addition of a couple of trash pack figurines? Also look at the Rugby trophy stashed in the top left hand corner. Typical Connor.

Anyway, now Austin wants his room redone for his birthday next month. That means confronting the lego beast.....Stay tuned to see how it all turns out. I am madly buying and selling furniture at the moment (spending way too much time on ebay) trying to figure out how to make it work best for him. In the meantime, I love Connor's room!

Marnie