Boring Rainbow

It’s not stylish and it’s not a “dreamscape,” but it is a tiny room that’s all his own… and that’s magical.

When I was a child my stepdad built a mini bedroom for my brother in my mom’s closet. He then constructed an additional room out of plywood off of the living room for me. We were four, sometimes five, people in a two bedroom apartment. This tiny project reminds me of that small part of our history, as I created, for my sweet honey child, a tiny reading nook under the stairs.

Trust me, I wanted to make it Pinterest worthy. I wanted a cascading rainbow, and hanging, twinkling lights. And I also wanted to buy almost nothing for it, to create this environmentally friendly (low consumption) dream for him. But he had other plans.

He had and wanted to be a part of the cleaning up. He wanted to make a daisy chain where I hand him pillows. He moved in while I was still putting it together, and he put his art on the walls. Finally, he and his dad installed a wall so I can’t even see my beautiful work. A cardboard wall. And thus is the life of a mom. (It has a tiny door… kind of like a submarine, no?)

This is what I did:

My Sweet Honey Child just discovered the joy of reading on his own. This is a two-week old occurrence now, where he spent hours with his books in the Summer Hammock (only up for two months out of ten when you live in Oregon). And I thought… wouldn’t it be sweet if he had his own tiny reading space? That wasn’t his room?

But the only space we had available was, like in Harry Potter, the closet under the stairs, which is also our pantry. But in the very, very back, there was room! It was only filled with

-Pillows

-Hundreds of cookie cutters

-Artwork that we wanted and had no place for

-Armageddon food supplies. You know, in case “the one” ever comes. I am a tiny bit prepper… aren’t we all, really?

So I started with that. I would beg you to not judge but I know you will. It’s OK, I would. Here is the abandoned mess that we had. See? See the, ah, bag for dog food? The disarray? The chaos? And that’s how every well-intentioned project begins, isn’t it? With more work before you can even get to the project. Because, you know, you have to clean your way into it.

And then find new homes for all that stuff.

And this is also where you have that moment where you think, “Do I really need a thousand cookie cutters?” And then you put that thought far, far from your mind because yes, you do. Your soul needs a thousand cookie cutters. They are Very Important. So you tuck those back into the newly organized pantry delicately, like slipping a robin’s eggs back into the nest.

I also needed to keep a “fire” embellished dog training hoop because I need to hold onto the dream that Fluffy will one day do circus tricks.

Never give up on your dreams.

And if you’re clumsy, like me, you might break your finger by accidentally smacking it between two tubs of dried beans. That hurt so much.

And then you look throughout your house for things of use, like: a pretty rug. Artwork. And a light that you can push on and off that I got at the thrift store.

And voila!

One happy child who celebrates his reading and has his own tiny little alcove when the rains hit and his mind wanders over to adventure.

What are you reading with your kiddo?

We’re reading Black Beauty, Dori Fantasmagory, and we’re just about to start the I Survived! series. xo

If you could create a tiny little nook for your child, what kind would it be and where would you tuck it?

Big hugs to you,

-P