Luggage Shelf

I had to pop in today and show you the luggage shelf that we made for my toddler’s room – – it’s awesome!

This was a project that had motivation, so it got done quickly – love that!  Trevor’s parents are going to be working at the Kansas City Temple once a month.  They live several hours away, so they’ll stay with us.  My toddler’s room doubles as our guest room – we just kick him out onto the floor of my oldest son’s room.  It works well for the occasional guest, but with knowing that we’ll for sure have visitors once a month for several days, I wanted the room to be more guest-friendly.  But still accommodate my toddler.

Anyways, in the corner of his room is this:

I made that Reading Nook Hanging Chair when I was in SYTYC the first time – you can see the tutorial at that link.  But that was almost 2 years ago, and times change.  It was being used mainly to hold stuff animals, which would have been alright, but that’s our smallest bedroom, so I needed to utilize the space better.

I came up with the Luggage Shelf Idea – it would hold books and toys but also be sturdy enough to provide Trevor’s parent’s a raised place to put their suitcases – perfect!  I bought a sheet of plywood and had Lowe’s cut it into strips (which Trevor later cursed because they weren’t cut perfectly).  And he assembled this and I painted it orange: 

See, didn’t it do wonders for the luggage shelf??

I’m sure you want a “before and after” (because everyone knows that – except Trevor)  —

 Here’s that upclose view of the stenciled top.  I sprayed it with clear spraypaint to seal in the stencil and protect it from scratches since suitcases will be set on top of it:

And here’s what that corner looks like now…hopefully I’ll do a post soon about the tweaks that I’ve done to the whole room to make it more guest-friendly (that is, when I get those tweaks actually finished….)