We had this little area that doubled as storage, play area, sort of a 'no man's land'. With 'real' homeschooling coming in the fall, I envisioned a reading nook, a place other than their room, living room, or kitchen table to relax and look at/read books. This has been in my head for awhile.
David was game with whatever as long as I didn't blow the budget. My problem is that I love what other people do but am not brave enough to try things myself. I stick with neutral colors and try to add some kind of kick. With this I decided to be brave. It was a small enough space that I could handle. I found a little sofa seat that used to be in a car at the second hand furniture market, it was 20 USD. I was planning on just having big pillows but this was a good find. Here are the before and after shots. Details will follow.
Before:
After:
The details:
I was not actually going to paint, but I was trying to be brave. I first found the fabric to cover the sofa and some pillow stitching on taobao. This was all via Ikea. I will provide links below. Once I found those I chose red walls. VERY red walls. The lady thought I was a little wacky, but in the end when I said I liked it, she said 'well, if you like, that is good.'
We have high ceilings so it was a lot of red in a small space. But still. I loved it when it was done.
I could not find anyone willing to take on the simple project of sewing a small sofa cover with this fabric. I actually had to cut it and get it sewn together and then wrap it and clothes pin it on. Yep. Can't you just tell I really know what I am doing? Shoddy perhaps, but working. Stay with me.
Here is the perspective from farther away. The right dim area is the other side of the wall, our living room. Because I unhooked the curtains from the far end they can pull either way now. This whole wall is floor to ceiling windows so our living room still gets lots of light. The space L x W was 180 cm x 130 cm.
My favorite are these Ikea shelves. They are picture ledges, but are sturdy enough for some books (just not your mama's encyclopedias, know what I'm sayin'?). I bought 4, and used three here, two long ones and one short one.
The map was an old Target buy and not very good quality. But we plan on standing on the little sofa and actually touching, perhaps pinning things to this. I went to an 'advertising store' that mounts things and they taped and cut this for me for 50 kuai (8 USD), a little expensive I thought. And it looked a lot better (flatter and without dings) when I first brought it home, but Sophia accidentally sat on it (oops). The map itself was a dollar. If I ever do this again I may go for a new map. But this works great for our purposes. I had a lot of decorative ideas in my mind, but I really wanted more function for this. I like it.
Here is the rigged up couch cover. I had these knitted flowers (Ikea) sewn on and these pillows/pillow cases made for the project. We can toss these on the carpet and use them to prop up on. I may rework some pillows I already have or get two large ones made for the floor to prop against the window. Not sure about that yet.
The girls LOVE the 'new room' (of course they love anything new). Tobin does too. Here it is in use. Bottom shelf are Tobin's books to chew on:
Not kidding, ten or more minutes later: same spot, different book. I like that! Ten minutes not moving for this guy when he is not strapped down (ahem, in the high chair, I mean) is GREAT.
This dry erase board was also a Target buy almost two years ago, it came with one more and a canvas style cork board, I haven't decided whether I will add the other two on this wall or not. Here is what it says: By WISDOM a house is built, and through UNDERSTANDING it is established; through KNOWLEDGE its rooms are filled with RARE and BEAUTIFUL TREASURES. Proverbs 24:3
I forgot to mention the carpet. I struggled whether to go with light blue or bright yellow. But I wanted it a little more mellow than bold (I mean look at the walls, lets tone it down a little, okay?). Underneath the carpet are thick foam mats found at any local supermarket. The mats actually were bright colors and looked good, I could have gone without the rug, but I had already ordered it and then bought the mats. In the end, the carpet makes all the different in coziness. Love it.
And my favorite feature of the 'room'? Big people can use it too! Here David is trying to convince Bella that Giraffes are the animals with the long necks.
What you really want to know:
Ikea shelves: 49 RMB/long one x2 = 98 ($15)
Ikea shelf: 39 RMB/short one x1= 39 ($6.30)
Ikea fabric: 50 RMB ($8)
knit flowers: 50 RMB ($8)
pillows made: 100 RMB ($16)
Map mounted: 50 RMB ($8)
Paint plus labor: 380 RMB ($61)
Rug: 160 RMB ($25.80)
Mats: 40 RMB ($6.45)
Labor for mounting: 20 RMB ($3.23)(the guy fixed/mounted 7 things in our house, and would not take more money no matter how hard we tried to give it to him)
(I am not including map purchase ($1) or the dry erase boards because they were purchased long ago!)
Total= 987 RMB or $159 USD.
This was over my budget. I guessed it would be about a 75 dollar project (I mean, how reasonable is Ikea? pretty good!) But then the paint wooed me, and it was a 'special kind' sent from another city, yada yada. So....without the beautiful red walls it would have been 100 dollars. With just pillows that I sew myself it would have gotten to about 85 dollars. Without the rug, it would have been $57!!!!!!!
I am glad I went for it though. We are loving it!
For those in China wanting some taobao linky love:
The rug (all colors/sizes available): Go here: RUG Link
The ikea shelves (and she bought the fabric for me too): (of course you do know that you can hire personal shoppers for a fee if the taobao shops don't have what you want?! Our go-to guy said he would not ship it, a few other shops said they would not ship 'way out here', finally one obliged): Shelves and fabric, I am a little confused so I will include this link as well, as David says it is the shop's main site, I think they are they same. I found everything easily on taobao, it was just trying to get someone to work with us to get it all together from one place, which doesn't always happen.
