Last Fall we began to remake our daughters room from a baby room to a toddler room. I actually posted the before pictures back in November with the promise of the after pictures. We turned her convertible crib into an art desk and painted the surface with chalkboard paint. We turned the futon sofa into her big girl bed. She loved the remake but I never did take a good picture of the room because it was so cluttered and I was never completely happy with the changes.
One our our family friends moved this weekend and her 8 yr old daughter was getting a new bedroom set. I was excited when my friend offered the old set to us. It’s a gorgeous (and nice quality) bedroom set with a twin bed, dresser/mirror combo, toy chest, and an armoire. So this past week we decided it was time to let the crib/toddler bed/art desk and dresser (that was my sons 9 yrs ago) go to a new family. Everything worked out perfectly. A friend at church had a friend who is expecting a baby in a few months that could really use the furniture – they picked up the entire set (even the mattress) earlier in the week and were so grateful. It really makes me feel good knowing that it will be well loved. We’ve held on to the set for NINE years so you could say that I was a bit attached to it.
But I was ready to part ways with the baby stuff since I have a big girl now.
Saturday morning the moving truck showed up and my friend delivered the ‘new’ furniture set. I was afraid it wasn’t all going to fit into her small room but I was really looking forward to the extra storage space. It was a tight fit but everything worked out just fine and my daughter was happy to see the room transforming before her. I absolutely love this picture of her reflection in the mirror as I was putting the bed together.
After about 20 minutes all the pieces were in place and the only left for us to do was get some big girl sheets. She requested something with purple and pink in it…her favorite colors. Here is a picture of the dresser and armoire decorated with a few of her special accessories.
What I absolutely love more than anything is that through this exchange of furniture 3 little kids ended up with ‘brand new’ (to them) bedrooms and no one had to spend a dime on them. Sure we could have sold our baby furniture and my friend could have sold her daughters furniture but we didn’t. Sure we could have all gone out and purchased brand new furniture for our kids but we didn’t. It’s not just about the money that we saved but the resources that were reused. All of the furniture was still in really good condition with only minor bumps and bruises.
It also allowed me the time to clean out her drawers and closet too. After a few hours I ended up with over 3 trash bags worth of clothes that she no longer fits into. Most of those clothes were hand-me-downs also, just like the furniture. They came from our friends (most of which have impeccable taste) children.
Her new dresser has a few empty drawers because 1) we got rid of a ton of smaller items, and 2) because there is more space. To my surprise the circle of hand-me-downs never ends either because this afternoon we were treated with an IKEA sized bag of 4T clothes, swim suits, and pajamas. I can’t even begin to tell you how much I love going through hand-me-down bags of clothes. The best part of the bag…my daughters new (to her) Hello Kitty pajama’s! Just like the one’s she begged for at Target just yesterday (that we didn’t get). The look on her eyes when she saw it was P-R-I-C-E-L-E-S-S!
After a quick shopping trip we finally finished her big girl room by adding a brand new (not hand-me-down) comforter and sheet set. It’s hard to tell in my iPhone picture but it’s a pink/magenta animal type print but instead of circles/ovals the prints are hearts.
Hand-Me-Downs! What are your thoughts? Do you love hand-me-downs as much as I do?
I LOVE hand-me-downs! We are currently in the middle of a hand-me-down train. Boy clothes that started with my SIL (most of which were gifts since she had the first grandbaby), whose son is 21 months, are passed to friends’ sons who are 16 and 13 months, then down to my son who is 6 months. Now I am passing them on to another friend who has a 2 month old son, and they are already passing on the newborn clothes to a friend who is due in July! It makes me happy to share. 🙂
Wow that room looks good 😀 I bet she is so happy !
I like the how you’ve design your room. Thanks for sharing, I think my daughters room need a li’l renovation, LOL.
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Hi Calley! I have a large family, so hand-me-downs are part of our life! I still have my 20 year old son’s crib and changing table for our little one, and even the cloth diapers, although we have added some new covers etc. I am so glad your site features cloth diapers!