The Rose Cottage

We have a small room in our basement, right at the bottom of the stairs, that I’ve never blogged about.  When we moved in, this little room had all wood paneling with no windows. Dark and dreary.
It looked like this.



As soon as I could, I painted that little room white.  Then we used it as a homeschool room for a while, but we pretty quickly realized that it was much more convenient and enjoyable for us to do homeschooling upstairs in the kitchen where there are windows with sunshine streaming through. So then the little room turned into a toy room. This worked out somewhat okay for us, but all the favorite toys still usually ended up upstairs or somewhere else. And then the little room wasn’t getting used very much.
So a few weeks ago, I had a genius idea to turn the little room into a cottage for Peyton and her baby dolls. I think I was going through creativity withdrawals from not having any house projects going on for a while. Plus, Peyton’s birthday was fast approaching and I thought it would be the perfect birthday present for a six year old girl who loves playing with her babies and having tea parties. 
Once I got Tim on board with the plan (it took a little bit of convincing), we told Peyton about our idea just to make sure she would be excited about it, which she was.  I also wanted her to be part of the decorating process because I knew she would really enjoy picking things out and doing little projects with me.  She decided to name her cottage “Rose Cottage”. 
Although Peyton has done a lot of the shopping with me, Tim and I have kept the door to the room closed and kept the kids out while we’ve worked to transform the room into her cottage.  So seeing everything put together and the room decorated like a cottage will still be a fun surprise for her on her birthday.  Plus, there are a few little things that we’ve gotten that she doesn’t know about.
Much of what is in here are things that we already had on hand, but we also shopped at Ikea, thrift stores, the Habitat ReStore, and on Craigslist.  I wanted it to be Shabby Chic and Tim wanted it to be not expensive.
So, Welcome to Peyton’s Rose Cottage…
First up, her kitchen and coffee bar.
She already had the pink kitchen set, but one of the doors had broken off, so we hung a piece of fabric (a kitchen towel from Ikea) there to give it a cottage/shabby chic vibe.


The curtains are also kitchen towels from Ikea that Peyton helped me sew. 


The coffee bar cabinet was a cabinet that was leftover from our kitchen renovation when we ordered the wrong size.  Tim put feet on the bottom and a “countertop” on top.  All the dishes were either thrifted or from Ikea.


The baby doll bedroom


The hanging light is from Goodwill (previous picture). Peyton helped me make the burlap pendant.  I found the shutters at the Habitat Restore and painted them. The fur rug is from Ikea.  And the bassinet is from Craigslist.



This crib bed spring was from the Habitat Restore. 


This little side table was one that we already had, but Tim cut a section out to make it kid size.  And then I painted it with chalk paint and distressed it.  We already owned the little rocking chair.


Next up, the dining room…
We used the same Pottery Barn Kids table we’ve had for years.  Peyton asked me to paint it white (because she’s my girl and we all know by now how much I like white) and I switched out the wooden knobs to glass knobs. I also re-painted the chairs that we already had.  I used Annie Sloan chalk paint for both the chairs and the table.


The chandelier is from Goodwill.  It was brassy gold.  Pink spray paint does wonders.


More Ikea finds. 


I sewed two Ikea kitchen towels together to make the table runner.


And lastly, here’s a few room shots.  One from each side.



Major props go to Tim for helping me make my vision turn into a reality for our little girl.  He spent hours cutting boards, hanging the lights from the ceiling, and screwing windows and shutters and curtains and bed springs and shelves into the wall. 
Peyton’s birthday is in just a few days and I can’t wait to show her her Rose Cottage.