Making the most of a small room

Some of those pictures of James are just precious! I love the one where he's pretending to make binoculars out of his hands :)

I realised yesterday when I was cleaning up the little's room* that I've never written about the decorating that I've been working on in there for months. Actually I haven't done anything since the beginning of the summer, but it's an ongoing project none-the-less.

I probably should have closed the curtains, that glare is terrible. The two youngest share this somewhat small room and so I had to make it friendly for my preschooler and toddler. I don't want to be redoing this room next year either, so I wanted something that would last a little bit. One of my favorite details are the "O" and "J" above their beds. I took the glass out of dollar store picture frames and painted the letters. So simple.

The room is painted a sky blue with clouds around the top. I haven't decided if I'll paint an animal mural on the lower half yet or a racetrack. Owen loves cars but I think the animals may last them both longer (not to mention their curtains are an animal print).

This shelf was here when we moved in and because we're renting, I don't want to paint it or take it down. Actually it would probably ruin the drywall behind it if I tried to take it out anyway. So it works as a bookshelf and a place to keep Owen's diapers. Plus their night light is clipped to it and I hang their robes for bath time on the bottom.

This was their closet. One of the best things to do in a bedroom to make more room is to take off the closet doors. I can hang all of their sweaters and nicer clothes up and fit everything else into a single dresser (mine from when I was a kid) There's also room for bins of all their small toys and their extra blankets.

And this is a hidden treasure. We live in a four level side split which means that the top half of this room is adjacent to our roof. From what I can tell, this door leads to some sort of attic, although I've never actually looked. I used to have their dresser in front of this and hated the wasted space that it caused. Until I took a closer look, that is. Now it holds all the kids' big toys:

The entrance to the attic, or whatever it is, is behind the poster.

So what would you do, cars or animals?

*Ever notice that when you're trying to clean up their toys, kids always get a new interest in playing with them? Mine could be bored and whining but the minute I start cleaning up their toys, it's like they've found a bunch of new treasures.