McKinley’s New Room

 It has been ages since I’ve blogged and I’ve missed it. I’ve missed sharing all the things we’re doing, which hasn’t been tons, but we’ve been active all the same. Mini golf now that the weather is warmer. Walking the neighborhood. Weekly tennis and drums lessons for McKinley, one in person the other virtual. We’ve been to Top Golf, Union Station for the dinosaur exhibit and model train layout. And ice skating several times during the winter months. We aren’t going out often, just trying to add some things to the mix from time to time, getting out of the house and going on a few adventures when we can. We love adventures!

When we aren’t getting out of the house, I’m making slight changes to the interior of it! When you’ve been home for over year now, okay one year and a few weeks, you see all the things that need improving or updating. With the help of my dad, we made some repairs to major cracks in our hallway and we will be doing some major improvements to our living/dining room. But the biggest transformation this past month was updating McKinley’s bedroom. He will be 10 next month! Double digits, as he likes to call it, and it was time to take his bedroom from the little boy room he was occupying to a room that will grow with him into his teenage years. His room isn’t big. None of our rooms are. So playing with the space he has, and giving him more, was key. I hit up Pinterest for some inspiration and found the perfect set up! Flanking his bed with bookcases and adding a shelf across the top to frame out the entire look was the winning inspo!

Getting his room to this point was no small task! It required cleaning out all of the stuff. All! The! Stuff! My son likes to “collect” things, and when I say collect, I mean hoard! So it was up to me to edit the choices he has made. Like throwing them in the trash! Now, I do my fair share of “keeping” things, so I edited myself as well. Art work that wasn’t that great, school work that seemed important from Kindergarten, and other less necessary artifacts where trashed. Not sure if he will ever know they are missing. We weeded out books that didn’t seem needed or liked anymore. Those will go to donation. And clothes! Oh my word, the clothes! He has outgrown everything! So we have a selling pile, a donation pile, and a pile that will go to friends far and wide! It felt really good to purge! 

McKinley made the difficult decision to sell his vintage wooden kitchen. He loved that kitchen, but he got it from Santa when he was two, and now at almost 10, he towered over it! We kept some of the food and pots and pans to take to Meme’s. He loves to cook in her kitchen when she’s cooking major meals. I told him that maybe it was time to start using the real kitchen with me and cooking up something together. We also sold his changing table that was in his closet. We used it for storage of clothes, but it needed to go. So did the armoire that was sitting on top of his dresser. The dresser is now in the closet, full of new clothes that will fit for maybe a year, and it freed up a lot of space that we needed within the room. I found a chest of drawers at a local antique store that I gave a facelift with white chalk paint and lined it with new drawer paper. It’s a great piece for the new room. 

The bookcases I found on Amazon. The shelf is a pre-painted board from Home Depot that we cut to size and bolted to the top of the bookcases. The cases themselves are also bolted to the wall. Don’t need anything falling in the middle of the night! And why is it always in the middle of the night? We filled the bookcases with all the important things in McKinley’s life. His favorite reading books, bird and insect books that he loves to search when he finds a new creature, a globe that he asked Santa for for Christmas this past year and we added some items from places we’ve visited. Signed bowling pins from two different birthday parties are finally getting showcased, the new amethyst crystal he got in Lawrence, and some very special gifts from Granddaddy. These antique toys were in his office and McKinley has played with them for years. Dad said that the wanted to give them to now and the special meaning wasn’t lost on McKinley. Lastly, we added his two pairs of Mickey ears, dad’s old tennis racket, since McKinley now plays, and several other trinkets. It’s McKinley in every since of the word! 

And when you create a space for a kid who’s turning 10, you get rid of the construction bedding and get something super cool! We scoured the Pottery Barn Teen website and he picked out this Mid Century Modern design. Kid after my own heart. We brought back the MCM chair from his nursery, it was hanging out at my parents, and changed out his old bookcase to display all of his beloved Nutcrackers. Remember, he’s a collector of things. I moved some of the smaller things around and this space couldn’t be any more McKinley. 

Upon its completion, McKinley has spent all of his free time in here. He’s watching YouTube videos on his bed, reading in his chair, and showing off his room during video chats with friends. If he had a TV and Alexa in there, I’m not sure we would ever see him again. We are considering the TV, but we haven’t taken that final leap. Maybe summer.

Is this not the perfect room for a boy turning 10? A room that he can grow into as he turns into a teenager? Sure, some of the things will change. Collectibles will probably be replaced. It won’t stay as clean, even a week from now. But in this moment, McKinley is settling in nicely, and he’s found a space in the house he can call his own. Happy Early Birthday, sweet boy! Enjoy the new digs!

XO,

Mama 

aka Andrea