The big children's bedroom dilemma

[dukie41181]

We are getting ready to start putting together daughter #2's room in the coming week or two but we are having a bit of a dilemma re: which room to use. We are in a 3 bedroom house so one for us and one for each daughter. The front room (which has always been used as the guest room/storage) is bigger than the side room (which is currently used by our almost 17 month old daughter). She is still in a crib and I anticipate that she will be for a while as we are having no problems with crib sleeping at all. The dilemma comes in when we wonder if we should move her into the front room which is bigger and move daughter #2 into the smaller side room. It seems like a lot of work to me, but at the same time in the bigger room she could have a little space for toys and to play. The baby obviously won't care about having extra space for a while. If we use the bigger front room for the baby, we will have lots of extra space and I don't really know what to do with it since there's really no purpose in my mind of having a very big nursery (at least the way we've used the nursery). Please share your thoughts! Help us with our children's room dilemma!

[infomama]

Dd1 and 2 both have the same size rooms and Dd1's room is more 'full' by a long shot. I vote for putting the older dd in the bigger room.

[Momof3Labs]

Yes, I'd put DD1 in the bigger room.

Eventually, it may make sense for them to sleep in the same room and use the other room for play. If you're worried about the difference in room sizes down the road, that is.

[dukie41181]

And so if we move daughter #1 to the bigger room, the next problem is what color to paint it and how to decorate. She isn't ready for a toddler bed yet so I don't know what color the walls will need to be then. And for now her walls are a shade of green. Should I just repaint the same color? If we do that, both girls will have the same color on their walls. Unfortunately we have never painted this room since the build and the crappy flat builder's paint is still up which looks terrible so not painting just isn't an option. If we move her to the bigger room, I'd be quite tempted to add toy storage so she can play in the space too. Any disadvantages to having a toy area in the bedroom? I am thinking of the Trofast system from Ikea. Anyone have experience with that system?

Luckily, if we do this move, the bedding for daughter #2 will match the walls and decor from daughter #1's current room so we won't need to repaint. Her bedding even matches the wall decorations! So we could reuse that and just move out daughter #1's photos and furniture. I would still want to do something to make the space different so its still special for daughter #2 though! Any ideas? Our neighbors are artists so I had thought about seriously talking to them about doing a mural or something. Kind of like this: http://www.findamuralist.com/mural_i...1286_33530.jpg
or this: http://www.lunamurals.com/images/liz..._biggerjpg.jpg
And we could have the birds from the paintings that would be staying tied into the mural too just to make it look more pulled together. We talked to our neighbor's yesterday and she has done a tree in a baby nursery before (while in college) but has since graduated and has a full-time job. I really think she would do it though.

[ha98ed14]

If I were working with the situation you have, I would move DD1 into the bigger front room. and re-do that room as a room for (eventually) BOTH girls. DD will most likely be sleeping with you in your room for a while. Then make the side room into the guest room/ work room. No doubt DD2 will be wearing the clothes DD1 just out grew, so why complicate things? Get one big dresser that all their clothes will fit in. I am imaging a long/ wide one, NOT tall and skinny. IMO, having an extra guest/ work room in invaluable, so I would try to fond a way to keep it.

[dukie41181]

If I were working with the situation you have, I would move DD1 into the bigger front room. and re-do that room as a room for (eventually) BOTH girls. DD will most likely be sleeping with you in your room for a while. Then make the side room into the guest room/ work room. No doubt DD2 will be wearing the clothes DD1 just out grew, so why complicate things? Get one big dresser that all their clothes will fit in. I am imaging a long/ wide one, NOT tall and skinny. IMO, having an extra guest/ work room in invaluable, so I would try to fond a way to keep it.

We actually have an office on our main floor so the work room isn't important to us. We very rarely have house guests so a guest room isn't essential. Our families both live within daily driving distance so we wouldn't have to consider hosting them.