Dreaming, Scheming, Thrifting and Pinning for a Sister Room

Welcome to the September 2014 Carnival of Natural Parenting: Home Tour

This post was written for inclusion in the monthly Carnival of Natural Parenting hosted by Hobo Mama and Code Name: Mama. This month our participants have opened up their doors and given us a photo-rich glimpse into how they arrange their living spaces.

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Ahhh renovations. We love it, we bought our second house on the cheap and have been chipping away at our to-do list. Using our talents and staying out of debt is how we are able to do whole-home renovations, but gosh it takes a long time.

Today I'm going to share our most complete room..which is no where near complete! We bed-shared with Penny until she was 18 months old, and on the first night that we moved into this house we set her up in her big girl bed in her own room and waited with baited breath. Was she going to wake in the middle of the night and be scared? As I am reminded many times, I under estimate her too often, and she loved her new room.

When we bought the house, we gave ourselves 2 weeks to get the carpet replaced, the walls painted and start on the kitchen renovation.

This was the state of Penny's room through out my pregnancy with her little sister, and upon Ruby's birth I started dreaming, scheming, thrifting and pinning for a Sister Room.

Thrifted Bed Canopy // Stuffed friends // Train table // our fabulous Blinds

Woah, want to see how this beauty started out?

With my girls 2 years and a week apart, I hope that they'll be the best of friends and enjoy sharing a room together. With that in mind, while I still have the time of Ruby bed-sharing with us (and not having to worry about creating a "nursery" style room), I've begun collecting the pieces that will become Penny's Room Phase 4 - also known as The Sister Room.

And now for my dreams and ideas for what we can do with the space. Chime in on what you think works!

Storage, Beds or Fun?

A couple accent pieces; I love chalk designs. And a coat & hat hanger is a must.

The current window coverings in her room are standard blackout curtains and Bali 2" Fauxwood blinds, but we are looking to swap them out for a cordless option as they are more child safe. I love these floral prints from Blinds.com and am excited for my samples to come in! In October I'll be sharing about window coverings for child safety month so keep an eye out for that post.

Laura Ashley Cellular Blinds

And then I've got this interesting little alcove in the room. Can't quite decide what I want to do here (except stop storing random stuff in it).

Oh and there's one last thing I need to be sure to add... Cheer and love! All this work wouldn't amount to much of anything if we missed out on that! As I continue to embark on this journey of being a mother of two daughters, I continually reassess what values and morals I want to instill in these two hearts that have been entrusted to me. I don't have a sister to call my own (instead a gaggle of wonderful sister in laws!), and I want to be intentional in the relationship that I help cultivate between them. As the days pass I see so many precious and tender moments between them; I can only hope that my girls will remain close for their entire lives.

Don't want to miss out on any of our renovation shenanagins? 

Click here for a full list of my posts on it!

Find my sources of pinsperation and watch me add more to my Pinterest Board for The Sister Room

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Visit Hobo Mama and Code Name: Mama to find out how you can participate in the next Carnival of Natural Parenting!
Please take time to read the submissions by the other carnival participants:
(This list will be updated by afternoon September 9 with all the carnival links.)

• Being Barlow Home Tour — Follow along as Jessica at Being Barlow gives you the tour of her family's home.
• A Tour Of My Hybrid Rasta Kitchen — Jennifer at Hybrid Rasta Mama takes you on a tour of her kitchen complete with a Kombucha Corner, a large turtle, her tea stash, and of course, all her must-have kitchen gadgets. Check out Hybrid Rasta Mama's most favorite space!
• Dreaming of a Sisters Room — Bianca, The Pierogie Mama, dreams, schemes and pins ideas for when her younger daughter is ready to move out of the family bed and share a room with her older sister.
• Building a life — Constructing a dream — Survivor at Surviving Mexico-Adventures and Disasters shows you a glimpse inside the home her family built and talks about adaptions they made in constructing their lives in Mexico.
• Why I'm Sleeping in the Dining Room — Becca at The Earthling's Handbook welcomed a new baby but didn't have a spare bedroom. She explains how her family rearranged the house to create Lydia's nursing nest and changing room in spaces they already had.
• The Gratitude Tour — Inspired by Momastry's recent "home tour," That Mama Gretchen is highlighting imperfect snapshots of things she's thankful for around her home. Don't plan to pin anything!
• Our Home in the Forest — Tara from Up the Dempster gives you a peek into life lived off-grid in Canada's Yukon Territory.
• natural bedding for kids — Emma at Your Fonder Heart shows you how her family of 3 (soon to be 4) manages to keep their two cotton & wool beds clean and dry (plus a little on the end of cosleeping — for now).
• I love our home — ANonyMous at Radical Ramblings explains how lucky she feels to have the home she does, and why she strives so hard to keep it tidy.
• Not-So-Extreme Makeover: Sunshine and Rainbows Edition — Dionna at Code Name: Mama was tired of her dark, outdated house, so she brightened it up and added some color.
• Our little outdoor space — Tat at Mum in search invites you to visit her balcony, where her children make friends with wildlife.
• Our Funky, Bright, Eclectic, Montessori Home — Rachel at Bread and Roses shows you her family's newly renovated home and how it's set up with Montessori principles in mind for her 15-month-old to have independence.
• Beach cottage in progress — Ever tried to turn a 1980s condo into a 1920s beach bungalow? Lauren at Hobo Mama is giving it a try!
• Conjuring home: intention in renovation — Jessica at Crunchy-Chewy Mama explains why she and her husband took on a huge renovation with two little kids and shares the downsides and the ups, too.
• Learning At Home — Kerry at City Kids Homeschooling helps us to re-imagine the ordinary spaces of our homes to ignite natural learning.
• My Dining Room Table — Kellie at Our Mindful Life loves her dining room table — and everything surrounding it!
• Sight words and life lessons — The room that seemed to fit the least in Laura from Pug in the Kitchen's life is now host to her family's homeschool adventures and a room they couldn't imagine life without!
• A Tour of Our Church — Garry at Postilius invites you virtually visit him in the 19th-century, one-room church where he lives with his spouse and two kids.
• Preparing a Montessori Baby-Toddler Space at Home — Deb Chitwood at Living Montessori Now shares the Montessori baby-toddler space she's created in the main living area of her home along with a variety of resources for creating a Montessori-friendly home.
• The Old Bailey House — Come peek through the window of The Old Bailey House where Erica at ChildOrganics resides with her little ones.
• My New House Not-Monday: The Stairs — Claire at The Adventures of Lactating Girl shows you her new laminate stairs in her not-so-new-anymore house.
• To Minimalist and Back Again — Jorje of Momma Jorje shares how she went to the extreme as a minimalist and bounced right back. Read how she finds it difficult to maintain the minimalist lifestyle when upsizing living space.
• Our Life As Modern-Day Nomads — This family of five lives in 194 square feet of space — with the whole of North America as a back yard. Paige of Our Road Less Traveled guest posts at Natural Parents Network.