Toddler Beds

I am way excited about these sweet toddler beds Tyler made last weekend. We got everything needed to make the beds in the morning and they were both built and in the girls' room that afternoon.

This all started when Tyler said that he wanted to do something special for his daughters and came up with the idea of making their beds.

As we tried to come up with ideas to make Aliyah's nursery into a shared bedroom, we looked at a bunch of different Montessori style children rooms for inspiration. Here are a few of my favorites:

The Montessori method is a child-centered approach allowing children to guide their own learning, trying new things in a safe environment, while you encourage their natural abilities.

In a bedroom room, that may include a floor bed instead of a crib - Having a toddler bed with only a pillow and a blanket so the child can easily learn to make their bed without help - Putting shelves, clothes, books, toys, etc low where children can get them out (and put them away too) by themselves - Hanging pictures and mirrors low on the wall - Providing child-sized furniture - And having a baby gate up so that the door can stay open and so that your child stays in a safe environment. These rooms obviously need to be 100% baby-proof for safety!

I am so excited to show you more of the girls' room, but I am going to focus on just the beds for now.

I found this link on Pinterest and asked Tyler what he thought. We both loved it!

You can find the full instructions on Gabrielle's blog Design Mom. The instructions are fabulous and I really love all her detailed pictures. She said that she was able to make both of these beds for $75 but we were well under that checking out at Home Depot around $40!!

NOTE: her measurements are for custom mattresses that are smaller than a standard crib/toddler mattress. We had to adjust our measurements slightly since we used the crib mattress we already had. It was pretty simple, but make sure you get the queen size batting (we got the full size and it was not enough to double).

I love that we were able to extend the life of Aliyah's original crib bedding and found the same bedding for a great deal on craig's list. We let Aliyah pick which bed she wanted and then hung the letters. She has been sleeping on her bed every night and nap time and is absolutely in love with her new room. If you come over, she will proudly show you (and tell you) all about her and Everly's new space.

Here is the final product... love, love love