I’m 27 weeks pregnant and since my last kiddo arrived at 38 weeks (1st kid was 39 weeks for those interested), I’d say it’s time to start kinda getting our ducks in a row. Maybe not a neat, perfect row. But at least some semblance of a line….So the plan for our three-bedroom house (and soon to be family of 5) is that two of our kids will need to share a room.
Now, a lot of people would say that since we are having a girl, it would make sense for the new baby to room with her big sister. Yes, that does make complete sense. But I also like to do things nonsensically. (wink) So, the plan is to let the baby have HER own room until she’s a superstar sleeper (surely that will be week one or two, right? JUST kidding!) and have the two big kids room together until then. Our oldest has known for a long time that IF we ever had another baby, she would have to share her room. We sweetened the deal by telling her she could have bunk beds.
I think a lot of my genes are strong with this kid because she started making a list and even a diagram of what the new room could look like. This included rules for she and her brother to follow to be kind roommates (like “no leaving dirty socks on the carpet”) along with decoration ideas.
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Well, Mommy was thinking this all through and decided that we are still going with the “look” of bunk beds, but I think we are actually going to get a loft bed and then slide our current mattress and frame underneath. I had visions of her brother trying to push her buttons by making the bed shake on purpose if the beds were connected, so a degree of separation seemed like a good way to go. (Brothers and sisters wouldn’t do that at all, right? Ahem.)
After coming up with a “plan” for the sleeping arrangements, we needed to decide on a theme. The guitars-meet-Monet-waterlilies that my daughter envisioned would definitely “work”, but being ME and also overhearing my husband say to my daughter, “I think we will paint the room to make it look new!” got my wheels working.
Shared nursery spaces for boy-girl twins are fairly common, but shared bedrooms for siblings that are 5 years apart are not (at least in suburbia where we live). Trying to come up with a budget makeover with a color and a theme that both kids would be excited about was a bit of a challenge, but I think we’ve figured something out that everyone will be happy with-including our budget! 
We decided to go with a shared-sibling beach theme room. After making a mood board and seeing where my brain was going with this room, I totally want to move in too! Ha! (See something you like too? All of the links are provided below for your convenience!)
Here are the pictures of what my nine year old’s room currently looks like. (We’ve definitely got a little ways to go to make it not look so “girly”.)
I can’t wait to see how it all comes together! We’ve started going through toys and moving some things around. (Again, my daughter inherited this gene too; she’s been quite excited to go through her things and declutter!)
