It all began when my eight year old and her bestie decided the pile of blankets in her closet was the perfect cozy hideaway, they inadvertently inspired the idea to create a reading nook. But living in a relatively small downtown loft and sacrificing an entire closet would mean coming up with some creative storage solutions and a gigantic purge.  Again. 

This is how it all began…yikes!!! Yes, ALL THAT came out of a 2 x 4 closet! We always kept her clothes downstairs in their own cupboard so this was essentially a storage for all kinds of useless. 

I always like to begin a design project with mood board; A collection of images to inspire and keep the vision on track. I allow myself to deviate depending on what I find in stores but I use it as a template. The cornerstone for the design was the backdrop, a colourful, tropical print we had used on a commercial shoot that the art director kindly allowed me to keep.

I made this mood board based on that backdrop, bottom middle:

I funded the project by selling a ton of things online, a bit of a painstaking process but it netted a whopping $400. Well worth the effort. There’s likely an online community buy and sell in your neighbourhood, it’s a really great way to save money and recyle your used stuff.

Tip: Online selling will net much higher profits than a yard sale, but be prepared to take good pictures of the things you’re selling and to handle the logistics of individual pick-ups.

We decided to give the closet a coat of clean white paint before we began putting in the fun stuff.

The first step was to put the backdrop in. You could use wallpaper, or get a giant picture of your family printed, or use some cute wall stickers.

I found the ‘Love’ light at Homsense and hung it up with some Dollarstore ribbon.

We had an ikea easel that took up a lot of space in her room, but with help of some Dollarstore hooks we decided to wall-mount it. The metal containers were also from the Dollarstore.

On the opposite wall we mounted a large roll of drawing paper using command hooks (the best thing since sliced bread if you ask me). I painted a wooden dowel and a piece of wooden trim we found for a couple of dollars at Home Depot.

I also repurposed an ikea magnetic board to hold her jewellery and future artwork. The crafting items all came from the Dollarstore.

I hot-glued magnets onto the bottom of the containers.

The interior doors had to have handles so she could close them from the inside, but drilling into a door isn’t the best solution. Thankfully, command hooks came to the rescue once again, just stick them on and ta-dah!

What would a tropical space be without a plastic flamingo? A lucky find from Homesense.

The final touch was to add some carpet to the space to really cozy it up. I found a remnant for $30 that we cut to size. The beanbag chair was from Target, the little stool and dog bed came from Homesense. 

The ikea curtains and the banner also found at Homesense gave it a stage-like entrance:

The end result was a pretty ecstatic kiddo 🙂

Got any room makeovers you’d like to share? We’d love to see!

Written by: Rachel Matthews Burton, Host of Tabella and Stylist with Judy Inc.