Hello all,
My daughters are growing up and changing as are their toys. We have a play room, but it needs a desperate makeover. My girls are 5 and 8, and I want to incorporate a special book nook for reading. I need ideas on ways to store books other than a book case that is inviting. They are getting bean bags for Christmas, so I was wanting to create the book area around them. I have a large canopy from a bed that is not being used, ideas for that? Also, does anyone know where to get the large spools (like what they have telephone wire on). I was thinking of making a table for their playroom from that. What are your ideas on creative painting for a computer desk for kids? I am hoping some of you have been in cool classrooms that have neat book areas, or book stores that offer a quiet and peaceful place for reading. Thanks for any and all of your ideas!
We had a child's swimming pool, the smaller one without the slide, hard sides, and added a bunch of pillows. They would go over and snuggle and read for hours.
I think that bookshelves are a tidy way to keep their books in order. If they really don't want to have a corner that has a shelf on each wall with a reading area in between then maybe some baskets or tubs for the books. To me that would look uninviting and messy though.
Paint a tree in the book corner. If you're creative, maybe put Alice from wonderland sitting and reading under the tree :-)
Paint a L. book shelf pastel colors, and maybe let the girls help you paint it! Let them give you suggestions on their favorite colors, so they will feel included in the project!
One at a time:
book storage: how about baskets? Bookshelves are certainly helpful, but you could keep the bulk of the books on a shelf in the closet or elsewhere and have a couple big, squarish (not round) baskets for books.
Canopy: can you hang that over the book area? Or make it the 'roof' for a 'house play' area?
Large spools: I'm not sure where to get those in your area. Perhaps calling your cable/power company? Or Freecycle? If you aren't getting anywhere with that, consider an old table on Freecycle or craigslist and then remove the legs and cut them short enough. (I did this to make the table for my preschool.)
No painting ideas, sorry. I hope some other moms can fill in the blanks...oh, a girlfriend of mine found some super cute-yet-sophisticated decals you can put on the wall. They were silhouettes of flowers. If you have them working at that area, you probably might not want something super bright and eye-popping.
Here's just one suggestion that I saw in a classroom I was subbing in- the teacher had an old claw foot tub in the room stuffed with pillows!! The kids loved sitting in there and reading!
Please do some googling. There are hundreds of blogs with awesome ideas. Do the shallow shelf with rails in front on the walks to display books cover facing out. Looks awesome and inviting as long as you don't have too many books. Use the canopy as a tent hung from the ceiling.
Check out chic and cheap nursery website (use ideas for this room too) and design mom for starters, but there are lots of blogs with great photos of paint and other wall treatments that will make your room special.
Good luck.
Oh yeah the cable spools. I used to work for a wire and cable company - a company that sells wire - and we had them, but usually reused them. Look for a company called graybar and see if the have a local dustribution center here - they will have spools. You are probably better off showing up at the will call counter than calling and asking though. There are other wire companies - they may all have them, but they have to do enough business to have the heavier cable requiring the wooden spools, not the cardboard type for small cable.
I've used baskets to store books.
