Making kids rooms is not always easy!

When we moved last year we got an apartment with two floors. I thought it would be ideal with a living room, kitchen and grown ups sleeping room on top and the whole bottom floor for the kids. To make it a bit more cozy and to give the kids two separate parts of the room- my daughter got one corner and the I build this hut/playhouse to my son. I loved the hut. I thought it was cool, really cozy and practical – a room in the room! What not to like? My son slept in there for about 3 nights then never again. None of the kids played in there. They even made blanket & chair forts just outside of this wooden structure… but never played inside. I don’t get it- I still don’t get why they didn’t like it. An idea is that I decided it would be a good thing – but kids didn’t really think the same way . Do they ever? I remember my dad building me this giant fort at our old country place – I mean huge – two stories and all. We never played there. It was like it was too perfect. An other idea about this hut is that the kids thought it was unfair. That Beppe saw it as this hut is all I get and Della gets all the rest?
Anyway a couple of months ago we placed Beppes bed in the other side of the room and Della slept where you see the desk on the images below. And the desk was just in between it all. Suddenly Beppe started to sleep downstairs again and they used the room more.

So this weekend I made the decision to get rid of the hut. I posted a photo on Instagram and a couple of hours later I had dismantled the whole thing and another mom had come to pick it up for her kids! Della directly started to organize the corner and the room is super cozy at the moment. The kids are there all the time!

So what I learned from this:
1. Don’t rush making things for your home. I made this fort even before we moved in – as you can see in the clip below. I think it would have been better to first got a feel for the room.

2. Even though you ask kids if the would like a hut – they don’t really know. They say yes or now to a lot of stuff without even knowing why. That’s why children s rooms can be a pain to make. Most of the time it goes well but like in this case it was fun idea that didn’t work out but now some other kids can enjoy what I build instead. At least I had fun making it!

3. I think a feel of a room is more important to kids than we care to admit. Meaning it’s so easy to give the kids some left over rooms and furniture to just say – that will do because they’re kids! I don’t think you have to build them stuff like this playhouse either – I do it because I love it and it’s my job. But I still think it’s important to give the room the right energy. Yeah that sound a bit mumbojumbo. But just give it some love and think it through, like you would with other rooms.