Saturday, May 12, 2012

The Library


I love to read... and my son loves to read...it's only fitting that his daughter should love to read as well. And I love buying books... it's my thing... I give books for gifts... I can't count how many books I've gifted over the years. When my son was very little I started him in a couple book clubs... and I still have every one of them. Now they are Marlee's! So I wanted to make her a place to read them.
So here it goes...










I had some old Ikea ottomans that I had picked up at work... for a while they sat in Marlee's room with no purpose... then they acted as a safety net in case she rolled too far from her bed... but really no purpose, because she never did.. so I decided I would repurpose them.. 






And her wasted closet space


So I took down the shelf, and the closet rod hardware and patched the wall




Then I painted the wall ultra bright white and lightened up her wall color and added the band of pink .



Now here's the scoop on the bench... or as Marlee calls it .. her "couch".



I had a bunch of scrap boards from Marlee's kitchen set and various other projects so I decided instead of buying a solid piece of wood I would Kreg them together and that's exactly what I did



Six boards later and I have the perfect sized bench.




I bought some foam pillow forms from Walmart and they were the perfect size!
Trial run in the closet to see how it fits... looks good to me!



So now I upholstered the bench seat...with $20 worth of pillow forms and  with fabric I already had... just made it in some spots.. nice snug covering..





Then I attached the dismantled ottomans to the bench top.



Strategically stapled and pleated the fabric across the base


 

And gained all this storage!!

Next came the book ledges.... I had planned to make two for each side wall in the closet... that's where I started ...
So I started making the cuts... lots of cuts...

 

And drilling the holes

and painting...and sanding and painting....

and screwing....




and I have shelves...






I won't bore you with the details of hanging the shelves... but now my little Marlee has a library....



and more books than I can display... so right after the reveal it was time for more shelves!



I cut all my wood again...



Had a little accident with the stop collar slipping on my bit... oops!!!




All the other steps later... we have more book shelves...


With left over wood, I made shelves for displaying her girls....
and she has told me more than once....
I don't like them there Grammy....
oh well !!! 
 lol... she'll grow into it...

I have a feeling I'll be making more shelves soon.... or cancelling her book club membership!!!
 
Here's where you can find how to make these shelves too... Thanks Ana!!
 
 

5 comments:

  1. Laura, this is so cute! you did such a great job explaining it, and she'll get used to the dolls, don't worry if she does a little "redecorating" herself!
    Very good post! keep it up!

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  2. blog about how you did the roll pillows! mine never come out right, pretty please?

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  3. What an amazing job! Good use of old space..what does a toddler need a closet for anyways..?LOL!!!

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  4. Laura, this is amazing....nice job....

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  5. Great job to make a beautiful space!

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