Boy's room redo

Our 2011 Christmas plans needed to coincide with the house goals of continuing to reduce clutter.  That kind of sounds contradictory.  Christmas presents in most cases equal clutter, but I was against that on multiple fronts.  So I had some discussions with Rocky and we decided that part of the boy's present would be something to help their room be more usable.  Rocky's parents asked what to do for the boys and I told them our plans, they asked if they could participate in them and it could be a combined gift.  We conceded,  it made sense.
So the day before Christmas Rocky and his father undertook a project to turn the boy's bunk beds that have been stacked down into loft beds.  The beds aren't anything fancy, I actually found them years ago at a Habitat For Humanity Restore for $25. We purchased new pillow top mattresses for them (they are super comfy to sleep in). and the boys had what they needed.  The dilemma was that a few months ago our bonus room became a dedicated home school and was no longer available as a playroom.  We also needed to un-stack the bunks for some other issues we had.  The result was that they had their beds and toys all in their room with little room to play or move around.  The loft beds gave them back their floor for playing and the beds for sleeping are up and out of the way.
Rocky and his dad built the loft structure and stabilizing supports under the beds.  Then in the following weeks Rocky has been constructing the additional shelves and finishing touches to make the space usable.


The train table for building, setting up vignettes, etc. fits nicely under Mardie's bed.  Rocky has put in two upper shelves, there will be one more that goes the length of the bed, under the "LEGO" display shelf for Mardie's special things.  There is an open backed shelf in front of the window and under it a very sturdy shelf that is also a window seat.  Under that shelf the LEGO's are in individual bins by color with two larger tubs for builds-in-progress. LEGO manuals are in page protectors in binders.  Now the boys can build to easier because finding the parts is facilitated by them being separated out.  They have been careful to maintain the separation, and they do not dump out the bins (that's a big no no in our household due to my AR tendencies).
In the under Train Table bins the boys keep their action figures/vehicles on one side and "weapons" on the other.  Weapons are in the Nerf variety for the most part, but there are a few pop gun pistols etc. in the mix.  These items used to be in under the bed storage bins.  You can imagine how messy the under the bed spaces would become with time.  It was a cleaning nightmare.  Now it is very easy to see where everything goes and to put it away.  It's also easy to see when things are out of place.  
The boys had an IKEA Kusk cabinet in their room before that had come from Zuri's room, but it is no longer needed in their room due to the shelves that Rocky built in under the lofts.  I will show where we put it when I blog about Zuri's room again. 

Under Charmie's bed Rocky built a bookcase.  In it the boys house most of their books.  There is some overflow into our living room bookcases.  The bookcases mirror the structure of the beds so they aren't super deep, but as the boys grow, their books get smaller and the smaller sized books fit just fine.  We moved these floor chairs in so they have a sitting area as well.  They use them to sit in when they read, they also pull them up to the train table when they are playing and use them when they are playing board games too.  

In the first photo you can see a yaffa block stacker in between the beds.  This was also reused from Zuri's room, and I have had it since college.  Yes, I know it's not the prettiest or nicest, but it's functional for their needs.  Their lamp, alarm clock, and bins of dress up costumes are housed here.  A common bin for hats and accessories and each has their own personal bin for their costumes.

The boys report that they love their new room.  I love their new room!  With time we have to decide how to finish the beds.  The wood is stained on the uppers and unfinished on the lower parts.  It works for now, though with time a uniform finish would be nice.
Also the design can be undone.  The beds can be unstacked and turned into individual twin beds or bunks whenever we choose!

This was the perfect solution for a large part of their Christmas, and also keeping in line with our new house goals of cutting the clutter!