Lupine's room. The magic realm of a four-year old. Ethereal magical fairyland.
I spent some time in her space last weekend cleaning, simplifying, and rearranging. And it is wholly transformed. I moved out many "treasures" that have yet to be missed and rearranged a bit.
In Lupine's room you will find…
~ Costumes in the closet, organized on pegs beneath a shelf for shoes.
~ Dolls: arranged on a single playstand beside her dresser. Too many, but we're whittling the crowd down, one by one.
~ Play Kitchen: the play food is gone but I left a single jar of acorns and Lulu added a jar of wooden beads. Two pans. Four tea cups. She cleans it up herself when she is done playing. I'd say we hit the magic combination there, seeing as when we had a wooden refrigerator full of wooden food she told me "I'm just too young to put it all away. It is always a mess."
~ Girl Treasures: On her dresser top are her adored music boxes and ceramic figurines.
But that is all. I moved out the matryoshka dolls that I loved but were always toppling onto the floor. I quietly removed her jewelery box that was constantly vomiting its contents onto the table and floor. I removed the superfluous decorations and opted for a fair trade greeting card from the coop in a second hand frame. That $5 card was the most expensive part of her room reworking. Even the curtains were free, an old bed sheet and some vintage fabric from my stash.
Her bed is an antique Jenny Lind bed that has been in my parents' basement for as long as I can remember. My mom offered it to me and I warned her that I was going to paint it pink. She gave it to me anyway, despite her antique-savvy better sense. (Thanks, Mom.) And the bed itself is just an old futon on a wooden frame pushed against the wall to hold the headboard in place. Who says we need fancy new things?
I have spared you the before photographs, but it wasn't pretty. And now? We have not cleaned in a week. Really. When your things are precious and few you take care of them. Even at four.
P.S. The walls are Benjamin Moore Hibiscus, the bed and ceiling are Benjamin Moore Pink Piggy (or Little Piggy… I don't recall).
Lovely! Very peaceful and girl. 🙂
We have a small house, but we still manage to keep all toys/playthings out of the bedroom and have just beds, side table/lamps, and bedtime books. There is one basket with some stuffed animals for sleeping with. The boys want to still share a room, so we keep it simple for that reason. And I love that all we have to do is make a bed and put the night time books back on a shelf and it is clean.
I love her quilt – did you make that?
Denise,
The quilt was made by my dads grandmother. It is one of the few Jepson heirlooms in my life. It was I my bed all through childhood and when I rediscovered my hope chest this winter I found that I had tucked it away in there years ago. I love it. And it is beat up enough already that there is no fussing over it.
I struggled with any toys in the bedroom. We had a no-toys policy for some time, but now our playroom is really our homeschooling room so I thought wed give it a whirl. It has been great! Now buckets of plastic army figurines or big trucks? Maybe not so serene and sleep-friendly. 🙂
Hugs,
Rachel
So Cute!!
What a beautiful room! I love her head board and love love love that quilt. It looks so calm and wonderfully girly.
Absolutely beautiful. And how very timely as well! My older three girls (who share a room) are away with grandma on a vacation and I’ve been cleaning out their room. I’m aiming for simplicity because with three girls in a not-so-large room, anything extra is simply too much. … And I must say I love your wall color — I just painted their room that color two days ago!!
Love love love it! Tomorrow I plan to attack A’s massive book collection and comb through the toys one more time. It is slightly tricky; she is not down with the process so I have had to be a little sneaky. My goal is to have our entire house and the purgatory that is our basement completely purged by June. Yay!
I think for As personality and age that doing it alone is appropriate. I would recommend stashing labeled boxes for a couple of months though to see if anything comes up. Weve done this with great success. Like today. For Sages room. I promised him that I would gut his room and then let him look through the bye-bye box in a few weeks to see if anything was missed. If you set up some magical space… reading pillow pile, play kitchen redo, pretty new blanket to cuddle under, etc. she might not even notice what is gone.
Hugs,
Rachel
Perfect timing! Have fun creating a new magical space for your girls. And yes, we LOVE this color. In my entire house of wonderful color it is my favorite.
~ Rachel
Thanks Emmy. The quilt was on my bed when I was a girl. My great grandmother made it…
~ Rachel
I love the sweet simplicity of Lupine’s room. It looks peaceful and encouraging for some great play times 🙂
So serene indeed – nice work! Where did you get the wooden kitchen set? I’ve looked online and they are a few hundred dollars. I would be interested in a gently used one if you know of any leads or any other readers out there?
Thanks, as always, for sharing your sweet, inpsiring life. It is may favorite Blog!
Hi Tammy,
Are you the Virqoua (artist) Tammy? If so I can share some local thoughts with you. As for ours I manifested this one for free at a gathering of women. I mentioned that I was looking for one and someone said I have one that my kids never use! and she dropped it off. Score.
For general ideas, scour Craigslist daily using Craigslist Tempest (searches multiple Craigslists at once), leave a note at local/regional Waldorf schools, etc. There are also incredibly simple plans for making your own out there.
If you are the local Tammy drop me an email and we can chat. rachel at lusaorganics dot com.
Peace,
Rachel
Hi Rachel~
No – I’m “Holmen non-artist Tammy” 🙂 Thanks for the great leads though!!
Have a Happy Gaia Day!
Thanks, Tammy. Just thought I would check!
~ Rachel
Lupine’s room is so tidy and calm-very inspiring!
I love her comment about being too young to clean up lots of stuff. You are right; it’s easier to take care of less.
She is so wise. I sometimes expect her to be older than she is in her clean-up behavior. But she is four. Only four. When her room gets really messy now we can clean it completely, working together, in under five minutes. Love that!
Blessings,
Rachel
Beautiful room! My son is 4, and I’m going to re-do his room too. I’d love to see before pics – those would certainly be inspirational. 🙂