Loft Makeover

About a week ago we decided to remove the gate from our stairs. This is big news at our house as we have almost always kept our kids within sight since toddlers get into a lot of trouble and our three tend to fight often (one minute they are getting along great and everyone is happy, and the next minute they are biting or tearing each other's hair out...literally). Also, we didn't quite trust them on the stairs alone until recently. In the last couple of months, though, I've realized that they are proficient at the stairs and as they approach age 3 they are becoming more independent, so Micah and I decided that we would take the gate down once we had a couple of weeks of potty training under our belts. The kids were excited when we took it down and they mention the lack of gate often, but I have been surprised with how infrequently they go upstairs without us. I think they are just so accustomed to being near a parent, so going upstairs alone seems odd. I'm sure this will change eventually as I'm trying to encourage them to spread out in the house more and play independently of one another. Micah and I are definitely appreciating not having to squeeze through the gate on the stairs as it was a little awkward, especially when carrying something like a big load of laundry.

The kids loved to hang out on the bottom three steps that they had access to from the main floor. They loved to lay on the steps and pretend each step was a bed.

Micah taking the gate down. 

Happy kids without a gate to hold them back!

On the same day that we took down the gate, we did a mini makeover of our loft space. We have an awkward space at the top of our stairs that hasn't had a real purpose in 1.5 years. For the first six months that we lived here we kept the Rock n Plays up there along with the bottle warmers, and we fed our babes in that area. I loved having that space for feeding since it was out of sight because three Rock n Plays take up so much room and three bottle warmers take up a lot of counter space. But since we took away the Rock n Plays and bottle feedings, the area has been a junk collector. We had the kids' dressers in there since we didn't want anything that they could climb on in their bedrooms, plus they liked to pull all of the clothes out of the dressers which is quite frustrating, and we also kept boxes of diapers and wipes up there. But now that the kids are better about not taking the clothes out of the drawers and we don't need so many diapers on hand since we are potty training, it was time to repurpose the space.

My friend Megan reading to the babes in the loft while they drank their bottles in July 2014. 

Happy babies post bottle in the loft.

I had been thinking about what I wanted to do with the space for awhile, so with Micah's help it didn't take very long to set everything up. It isn't perfect as some day I would like to paint the shelves and such, but for now I think it is a nice space. Now to convince the kids that they can play up there without me being within 10 feet of them.

The dollhouse is now in the loft along with the art supplies, the kid table, and an area to display our art. I painted the two flower canvases at Paint and Wine Nights, and now I have a good place to display them!

We still have the gate that separates the loft and the bedroom area as it helps keep everyone contained at bedtime. I converted a bookcase that we already had into a dress-up closet / art supplies storage area. Some day I'll paint it (if I ever find the time!). We had the long mirror downstairs (on the wall the long way) so the kids could look at themselves when they were smaller since they rarely got to see themselves in a mirror, but it was placed too short for them now so I moved it upstairs so that they could see themselves in their dress-up clothes.

Another view of the loft. The stairs are just beyond the railing.

I'm so happy with how it turned out!