The paint on Clara’s big-girl room is dry, and the few pieces of furniture we own for the space — mainly a daybed, an old side table, and two small wooden thrift-store chairs — are finally back in place. It’s still a work in progress, but the room already feels so much better.
The new wall color is warm, subtle, and cozy without leaning too yellow or peach. In person it reads softer than these photos, which don’t do it full justice. Because it’s not overly bold, it’ll be easy to layer in brighter colors and accessories later on. We really like it and think it will adapt well as Clara grows.
About those thrift-store chairs: we found them for $8 each during a trip to West Virginia months ago, when we were helping redo Granny’s bathroom. They sat forgotten in the playroom for a while until we cleared out that room and rediscovered them. It felt like finding an extra room in the house. We plan to paint the chairs a bright, cheerful color — red is currently on the shortlist — and keep the little table crisp white.
The table has a bit of history. It started life as a small side table from Target that we modified a few years back by adding a larger top and painting it white. It moved around houses and rooms for a while and, for over two years in our current home, it hadn’t found a permanent spot. It sat in corners of the sunroom or the basement, basically listless — until now.
With the thrift-store chairs, the table suddenly made sense as a little kid-sized workspace. The problem: it was too tall for children. We considered removing the stem from the top by unscrewing it, but when we couldn’t find screws to free it up, John cut the stem down with a reciprocating saw and refined the cut with a Dremel so the pieces would reattach levelly.
Trimming about four inches off the stem wasn’t as simple as it sounded because of the base’s angle. John’s first pass produced a slightly uneven cut, so he marked a level line all the way around and carefully shaved it down with the Dremel until it was even. He used a Kreg jig to add pocket holes and reattach the stem to the base. The pocket holes are tucked far under the table, so you’d only notice them if you were lying on the floor under it — which, admittedly, Clara sometimes does while playing.
Once shortened and reattached, the table sits almost the same height as Clara’s drawing desk in the living room. It will be a perfect surface for coloring, Play-Doh, dolls, and even a little card game. Paired with the two small thrift chairs — which I’m planning to paint bright red, though that could change — it feels like the room finally has purpose beyond storage.
Clara is already thrilled with her “big girl” bed setup. The pink initial pillow and the cozy blanket came from a recent sale, and two tie-dye-style pillows are from West Elm. I want to add more pillows, and navy would probably be a nice contrast with the current palette.
For now the bed functions mainly as a play spot since the pediatrician recommended keeping her in the crib until she’s clearly ready to transition. She still naps happily in her crib, but having the daybed in the room makes it a much more inviting play area than the junk-room it had been for the past two years.
There are still plenty of projects on the list to make this room feel complete. Current priorities include:
- painting those thrift-store chairs a bright, happy color
- finding a dresser, ideally secondhand
- making and hanging curtains
- adding a rug to anchor the space
- hanging art and a few three-dimensional elements to give the walls interest
- installing a new light fixture
- mounting a mirror at Clara’s height so she can make faces and giggle at herself
- transforming the cluttered closet into a functioning clothes closet or a cozy reading nook
- adding crown molding to this room and finishing the rest of the bedrooms on the same side of the house
- bringing in accessories like extra pillows and storage bins for toys
We’ll keep updating as we make small changes and tackle these projects. It’s gratifying to see the space coming together: a refreshed wall color, a repurposed table, and thrifted chairs that add personality. What are you painting, tweaking, or repurposing these days? Any thrift-store finds or DIY table conversions to share?
