At the end of 2017 we moved Ella's room into the old playroom. We decided to keep the indoor playhouse that Michael built in 2015 since it would be a pain in the tush to take it out and Michael wasn't going to help me. We did use it for her girly things so it was where her Barbie dolls were kept. Fast forward to the fall of 2018 and it just didn't seem like Ella used her playhouse very much. Honestly she's just like me....she doesn't like Barbies! I hated Barbies when I was growing up so it's not surprising to me that she's not interested in them.
I sat down and talked with her about what SHE would like to use her clubhouse for. After some brainstorming and a little leading from Mommy we decided to use her clubhouse as a super girly reading/drawing area. What I had pictured in my mind was a sanctuary for her. A place where she could escape to. I pictured lots of girly colors and lots of fluffy pillows! I wanted it to be super cozy. With this in mind we came up with the items she needed and put them on her Christmas list.
From Ga-Ga she got her fuzzy pink rug and her 2 fluffy pink pillows. We got her the pink fluffy bed buddy and her beautiful and bright mini chandilier! I also found a couple things at Value Village that I thought would be fun and practical, but I saved those for her birthday.
Back in December I borrowed a whiteboard from church to use for our Christmas Pictionary. I kept meaning to bring it in and I mentioned that to Pastor Brent and he just told me to keep it. Oh my goodness...I wish I had a camera with me when I told Ella! She LOVES whiteboards and she was so happy we didn't have to give it back. It's the simplest things that make her happy!
The whiteboard was too big to be in her clubhouse so I asked Michael to cut it into two pieces. So that's exactly what he did and it fits perfectly in there. Plus now she has the other half that she can use anywhere in the house. I also remembered that I had these IKEA spice racks in the closet so he mounted those and we used mason jars to hold her dry eraser markers and a washcloth so she can wipe her board clean.
Since there isn't a lot of space up here I really wanted to keep the horizontal space as clear as possible. I was so happy to find this wall mount magazine rack to hold her papers and coloring books. It had a scratch on the front so I used some chalkboard contact paper I had to cover it up. I also just happened to find this fun E that she could use to put her pictures on. Again we mounted the other IKEA spice rack and put all her colored pencils and pens in mason jars.
For Christmas Aunt Stephie and Uncle Ry got Ella this collapsible lap deck. When she's not using it she just folds it up and leans it against the wall.
She did want to add a few more things to her space. She brought up this pink plastic container because she uses that as a baby bed for her dolls. She also wanted to have her electronic play things like her laptop, computer mouse and phones so she has a basket in the corner for those things.
I can absolutely see this space being something that Ella with enjoy all the way through high school. I would have LOVED having something like this growing up. Plus it is big enough that when I sit up there I have plenty of room for my legs to be stretched out. It was fun transforming this space into something that she will use more often than she didn't before. As for the Barbies they have been taken to Ga-Ga & Pa's. She didn't want to get rid of them so that was the best alternative. She's not at their house very often so when she is there they are actually fun for her to play with. Plus there weren't that many girl toys at their house so now there certainly is!
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