The Funkbeds

The girls have been growing.  Which is a good thing, generally, but it also means that they OUTgrow things.  Things like clothes, shoes, and eventually, furniture.  Pandi was, until this week, still sleeping in a crib.  Since she is newly two, it has been convenient for her to be there. For instance, it is incredibly nice to put your toddler somewhere and know that they will still be there in the morning.  But, she had finally reached critical mass for the crib and it was time for something new.  Enter the FUNKBEDS.

I'm not entirely sure why Sephie latched onto "funkbed."  Maybe because the word "bunk" doesn't mean anything to her at three.  But, thus christened, Preston took on the project.

Doesn't he look like a man on a mission?

Working from a design of his own, Preston put together a pretty adorable pair of toddler-sized bunkbeds.  Better still, he only used lumber we already had around the house that was scrap, so the project was totally free!  It took a little trial and error (for instance, we didn't measure the door to their bedroom ahead of time and had to undo a little of our progress to get them in the room!), but they came out nicely.  The girls love them and the only problem so far is the fighting over who gets to sleep "arriba" (up) or "abajo" (down).

It's hard to tell from the pictures because you can't really get an idea of scale, but the bottom of Sephie's bed is only about waist high.

Diggin' the crazy carpet?  That's a project for another day.

A nifty, homemade set of beds, just their size!

Cedar Chest as Chalkboard Coffee Table

When we moved, we had a LOT of things.  Our home was pretty big, with a garage, attic storage rooms all along the second story, and a basement.  We also had tons of closets.  When we moved here, we knew we were going to have to pare down and simplify.  I wasn't horrified by the idea, since we've been trying to embrace voluntary simplicity for quite a while.  It WAS a challenge to figure out how to fit our entire lives into a 6x12 moving trailer, though.  It really gave us a chance to evaluate what was important to us, what was necessary, and what we were ready to let go.

In the end, we ended up giving away and donating truckloads of our things.  We also had to rethink our furniture because what we had just wasn't going to work in our new small space.  One of the things I had hiding in a spare room was an old cedar chest.  It had a big ding in the top and the finish was flaking off, but it had a lovely shape and I really just love cedar chests in general.  They make me think of family.

We decided it would be a perfect coffee table, taking the place of our large octagonal one which was simply too big for the space and too heavy to move.  The chest would be both narrow in the room and would do double duty as a storage space for blankets.  I didn't have a chance to do any refinishing on the chest at all before we moved, other than a good wipedown as we had less than a month to pack and move after Preston accepted the job here.  So, once we got here, I decided to simply give the top a coat of chalkboard paint (thank you, Pinterest!).

Everything is sort of temporarily arranged until we get a chance to get our new couch.

I think it looks pretty nice, and it's a great spot for impromptu art!