I felt that Sophie’s playroom needed some pizazz. Something new. And I wanted to use my creative side that’s been in hiding.
So while recently driving home from a morning of inspiration during antique shopping with Sophie, I came up with the idea of a Reading Corner. (Not sure why, but I seem to get many ideas while driving.)
Here’s what I did:
- I moved a display shelf with non-kid items into our family room and – voila – had an empty corner in Sophie’s playroom. (For those of you wondering, Sophie’s playroom is what would have been the dining room space.)
- I laid out a blanket and some handmade pillows that were sitting in her bedroom doing nothing.
- I moved to the Corner a cute basket that was already filled with books.
- Then I went to work on the walls. I wanted to hang some cute literary images on the wall. But I don’t have the money to go out and buy artwork. So I dug up many of the hardcover book jackets that I usually stick in a drawer somewhere (for fear they’ll be destroyed). I then trimmed them down, mounted them on black scrapbook paper, and hung them on the walls. Eventually I do want to frame them. But this works quite well for now.
- I also displayed the illustrator-signed Ladybug Girl print Sophie won at Warwicks Bookstore. This one I do need to frame sooner rather than later.
And that was it — Sophie’s new Reading Corner!
I do plan to make one more addition to the Corner. And that is adding painted R-E-A-D letters to the wall. I bought the wooden letters on sale at Michael’s last week. I’m now waiting for Bryan to find in the garage the craft box containing paint. So once the letters are painted and hung, the Reading Corner will be finished.
I can’t tell you what a difference it makes in the room. It’s so inviting! In fact, when Sophie woke from her nap to see the new nook, she was thrilled and wasted no time curling up with a few books.
And also exciting, just making this little change really inspired me to be more creative. I can’t believe I actually bought wooden letters to paint! Hmmm … what will I do next?
