HOMEMADE KIDS' FURNITURE

A few months ago, when I was still pregnant and was going mad due to my nesting, Mr. Hubby was taking me to places with the hope that I would find something that I'd like for Mr. Junior's new room. I had an idea in my mind which I thought was perfect for my gorgeous son's room and was unable to find anything good enough for him on the market (I am a typical mum, often nothing is good enough for my children). Every time I checked out a store, I would become more disappointed as it felt like there wasn't much hope in finding something similar to what I had in mind anytime soon and I'd always feel that it was getting too late for us to set up a new room for him so that before Miss Junior's arrival, we could prepare her room and get Mr. Junior used to his new palace.

After spending so much time on the lookout and feeling of frustration, Mr. Hubby decided that he had to put his foot down and make a decision that he could convince me to go by as well. He took me to IKEA a few times and showed me some storage ideas there that he liked. I wasn't quite happy with bits and pieces of it but eventually, I noticed that I had to be more flexible as well. My design was out of our reach and I had to accept it. So, we made a plan. Oh no, actually, two plans.

Plan A: Mr. Hubby, and Mr. Junior of course, would try to make something similar to my design in mind using wood bought from a local hardware store. Of course this involved a lot of time trying to do some self learning/teaching and  asking for professional opinions on especially Mr. Hubby's befalf. I think quite a few people working at that particular hardware store know us pretty well by now. We visited them quite a few times then.  They even asked if we could be kind enough and show them some pictures of the room after the completion of the project at the time. They too liked the design and wanted to see it in place at least in picture. Unfortunately, we never made it to that stage.

Actually, the bookshelf turned out to be very nice except for that it was a bit crooked. It had to be perfectly leveled to work well but it didn't in our case but I must admit, I was still extremely proud of the boys' effort and the overall result. That procedure taught us that it wouldn't be wise to continue with that particular plan. So, we moved on to Plan B immediately.

Plan B: Using the homemade bookshelf as one unit, we had to use the furniture from IKEA and make them a complete set. To be honest, it is not my favourite store. I really disliked especially the colours on offer there at the time and realised that boys made a great team working together and had lots of fun while making the bookshelf. So, I decided to be very nice and generous to them and gave them more work :-) I needed them to repaint the IKEA furniture to match the bookshelf. I was thinking of another colour initially as I thought Mr. Junior needs a variety in colour options as his nursery was mainly green too but after looking at paint options that matched our criteria, green was the best choice of all. So, we bought some drawers and shelves from that store and the boys sanded them down and repainted them. Actually, I had a go at the painting of the homemade shelf too. Not many people who have visited our home believed for a while that it is a homemade shelf. It looks awesome, totally professional look apart from the uneven level which isn't very obvious. It is a beautiful complete set and everytime we look at it, we remember of the good times we had choosing (OK, I admit, that part wasn't the most enjoyable), painting, and reassembling of Mr. Junior's furniture. There is nothing like a good warm personal touch and much put love when you make things. Homemade is the best!

(Note: Please don't mind the bookless bookshelves and the old blinds at the back. This was a photo taken impatiently. If I could wait  bit more before taking the photo, you could have seen a few things improved in the picture.)