Nothing says cozy like a cubby!

That would have been perfect for me too; plenty of sunshine and a lot of books.

I love this! Changing the sheets must be a chore, though.

This is very sweet. A good one to cross post on OhDeeDoh, if it hasn't been done already.

Absolutely awesome!

I would've loved this back in the day....hey even TODAY!

that is so incredibly cute and cozy!

This story brought back memories of when I graduated from HS and my mom announced she was selling the house I had lived in my entire life (even born in, by accident). I was heartbroken to leave behind my beloved light blue bedroom with cloud wallpaper. Now, 10 years later, I just hope my husband and I eventully find a place that feels so much like home.

Interesting. I've never felt that attached to a place, personally. I like enjoying and "perfecting" (as much as possible, within my own definitions) each place I live and when it's time to move on, looking forward to the challenges of the next place. My family lived in five different houses (that I remember) and I lost count of apartments, dorm rooms, and various places I have lived since then... The current house may be my last (I'm gettin on!) but then again, who knows?

What a delightful room -
- and a great idea for childrens rooms today.

What a wonderful room! I would have loved that as a kid (even now I would love it actually...)

beautiful room thanks for posting on ohdeedoh. my parents our childhood home and moved hours away. it was so sad but the new owners really fixed up the place. when i drive by (about twice a year) the old place you can tell the new owners love the house too.

i love love love the room. the colors are exactly what i currently have for my (anyday now) daughters room. the cabinet bed is perfect. i would too be heart broken if i had to leave it. at first i thought you could take the cabinet bed with you but looks like the new girls will need that super bed.

I loved my room when I was little as well. I grew up in a farmhouse that was built in the late 1800s. When my grandmother sold the home I didn't think I would ever get over it. The family that moved in was very nice though, and called us up one day to let us see the remodel they had done. (my grand had been wanting to change some things before she moved and all...) When we went in I was shocked. They turned my room into a bathroom!!!!! Understandable I supose, but I think I might be more room lonesome now than ever. :(

For a while, my sister and I slept in our closets. Think we just put pillows on the floor for a mattress, but it was such a great and cozy spot. If I had a cubby like this, I never would have gone back to a real bed!

This type of bed/space has always been a dream of mine. In my fully-designed-fantasy house, there's a circular window with a deep sill and interior shutters so you can shut yourself into the space and read and look outside. There's something primal about nesting into a snug space while still being able to see the outdoors. I love your bed.

what a sweet story. that your parents built a place where you would feel comfortable, is just so loving and wonderful. :)

I guess I've never felt a strong attachment to place either. But I grew up in three different houses in different states. When I went to college and my folks sold their house, I really couldn't have cared less.

I never got over my mom selling our home when I was 19. It was a special place there, and my father's ghost resided there (he died there).
I'm 41 now and some of my dreams still take place in that house.
The buyers ruined it, cut down the old trees and filled in the pool with dirt!

Mary, I feel your pain!

The spring of my senior year of high school, we found out we had to move. All my life we'd rented a beautiful old beach cottage with sleeping porches on the Chesapeake. It was next to a large corporate property, and our house was owned by the company. The president passed away, and when his nephew took over he decided to sell off the adjacent properties. The old president had always promised us that if they decided to sell, he'd let us know so we could bid on it. Instead, the nephew sold it without notice, and gave us 30 days to get out - a tough thing to do after 17 years in one house!

It was heartbreaking to pack up my childhood room while taking my finals and going to prom. The new owner promptly tore down the charming cottage (built in the late 19th century using 18th century reclaimed brick!). They slapped up a 4-story monstrosity with vinyl siding. I can't bear to look at it when I go back to visit old neighbors.

But...after graduation, I stole my mom's station wagon and snuck over there in the middle of the night. I fished out about a hundred of the old bricks from the dumpster at the demolition site. I still have them and plan to use them somehow when I buy my first house.

This experience had quite an impact on me. I went off to college thinking I'd be a lawyer. But ten years later, I've now got a career in building materials reuse - I work at a thrift store for home improvement, and we stay busy saving materials from old houses. Funny how that happened!

i love this idea. as an anxious child i think this would have helped me sleep by feeling like i was hidden away. this is also an awesome solution for someone who doesn't like to make their bed, you can just hide it away.

I love it. I actually prefer to sleep in smaller rooms/spaces. It's much more cozy and relaxing.

Mary, lots of people were touched by your story -- but none some much as me: your mom. :) I know you are going to miss your room, but I promise we will make a home for you and your brother and sister (and someday your families) that will create a whole new set of wonderful memories.

You and I are alot alike: our environment is really important to us -- and I must have known that all those years ago when we set out to create a perfect space for you. May you always have perfect spaces in your life. xxx mom

aw, this is all so sweet!

(i have to say that ruthie's story about her childhood home getting torn down makes me sad! but with a happy ending, getting the old bricks and making a career out of re-using old building materials.)

what a cute story and an awesome room.

Very, very, very sweet, and I can totally relate.

I put great sentiment in places and things. My BF chides me for it, it makes closet cleanings an emotional rollercoaster, and it makes me DREAD the day my mother moves from my childhood home. But I yam what I yam.

How I comfort myself in moments like these/yours... the place may be the setting for the memories, but the memories come with you. The memories live in YOU... your heart, your mind, your soul. They will always be with you, whenever you need them.

Sweeter, still, your mother's response (to the original issue, and on the post here). So sweet, so genuine, so generous.

I think you are BOTH very lucky, very rare women.

Finally, I could see how that space would inspire such an attachment. Very enchanting, very secure. But how lovely the new owners see the magic, too!

Thanks for sharing such a personal story in this public way.

Wow. This is awesome. And Mary's mom's response is so sweet. Love it. THIS is what AT is about.

What a beautiful space! Oh my goodness, so very very sweet.

I love this post!

Stories like this just remind me how much I miss "Louavull" and all the creative people there.....I would love to have that room even now and probably the house!

*sigh* I love you forever Bardstown Road.............

We moved in my senior year of high school - I still miss my old bedroom! Whenever I dream that I'm at home, it's always in that old house. I rarely dream that I'm at any of the homes I've lived in since. My parents rented out the house for several years and then recently decided to sell it. My husband and I were tempted to buy it from them, but it was in a neighborhood that had become really run down since my childhood. I wish we could have had the whole house picked up and moved to a different location!

Mary -
I read your entry and it brought tears to my eyes and then I read the one from your mom - well you can just imagine!

I remember when the project of creating your special space began. And I loved hearing stories about bedtime when night after night all of the family had a way of gathering in your room and at times even crowding in that space to read books together!

Your parents house has been my "safe place" in the past 9 years, so I share that sense of loss. But knowing your family, wherever your mom and dad land, I have no doubt it will be "home" for you and for all who are welcomed in as well.

Thanks for writing this blog and for the great picture too. Patrice

I remember the first time I was at your house. I was with you, Dana, Katie, and Margaret after the Ben Sollee concert. It was only the second time I had ever been with you. We were in the living room and your parents were asleep. I think a bedroom says a lot about a person and I remember wondering what yours was like that night. I eventually did see it, and without being told, you can sense that it is yours. It's so much more personal than any other room in your house and it screams Mary. I have been over countless times. Most times the couches were moved, pictures were up or down, or rooms have completely flipped flopped, But your room was always yours and you would always know it. You are bound to have not only a new bedroom of your own, but a home for so many new memories.
xxxooo
jsfm3

the house i grew up in in connecticut was dismantled in my freshman year of college due to a country club expansion, and the fact that my family, which had been in the house since the 1840's and was a distant relatives prior to that was very difficult for me. the house was historic, so it couldn't be torn down. the original owner was the first graduate of yale back when it was yale college in old saybrook, connecticut. it took a crew about 4 weeks to take almost three hundred years of memories apart. when i dream at night, it is usually set in that house. i long to see the faded 100 year old wallpaper in my old bedroom and see how the light moves through the old draperies. i had national geographics stacked in the corners of the room that were my great uncle paul's as it used to be his room. the furniture and bed were all his back in the 1930's and it was always referred to by my family as uncle paul's bedroom even though i spent most of my childhood in that room. there was a large hemlock tree with a crows nest right outside my window and a secret floorboard that popped up revealing an ancient hiding space. it was actually left over from when the family put electricity in it, but my great uncle paul and i both used it to hide things three generations apart. i know i'll never get it back, and it is so sad to see it gone when i drive through town, but my childhood there will always be filled with memories of ghosts, mustiness and magic.

Well I can't blame you, that's a pretty awesome room. It's hard to let go of something you love so much, but those two girls are going to have so much fun with that room! I know I would have as a kid. I'm super jealous you got such an awesome unique room; that's every kids dream!

I need to have someone make this for me. No, I never grew up, why?

This is one of the nicest posts ever on AT. Thank you for sharing your story. And I love your mom's response. I am sure I will face this situation one day when my kids are grown and I hope they will understand.

Thanks for such a lovely post. This is such a sweet, charming story, and I think a lot of us can relate. I am very attached to my grandparent's house, and I hope one day I will start my own family in it. I am definitely one of those people who is attached to things, to places. I am quite the sentimentalist. So I am sorry that you are losing your special room, because it is very charming to the observer, but it must be a lot more to you. You are lucky to have such a sweet mother, though, and it sounds like you won't be forgotten in your family's next home. Thanks for all the sweet stories, everybody!

Mary! We have been friends since before you redid your room this way, but I will always remember it and the amazing closet that is your bed! I am so sorry I was not able to say goodbye to it with you. I will miss your room and house (almost) as much as you will--it was my second home basically. You are always welcome to make my house as home too!
loveeeee jeananne :)

This was so beautifully written! How sweet! And what a lovely room too!

My parents have changed things in each of their kids now vacant rooms, but they have always left basically one wall alone. I spent much of highschool putting up fashion sketches, poetry, etc on the stairwell leading to my attic room and I'm happy to go down memory lane when I visit them.

i love the bed! so cozy :)

the whites and the blues are sweet.

wished i had a cozy nook to myself :P

What a nice story. :-)

We left my childhood home when I was eight years old. I can still remember the view fresh morning snow in our courtyard outside my little sister's bedroom window. Sigh. Everything was so perfect back then.

My Dad recently passed away (and Mom 2 years prior). We're preparing to put our childhood home on the market within the next few weeks. It's always hard to let go of our childhood home...even when we're middle-aged as I am. Thank goodness the memories don't get sold. We get to keep those close to our heart.

Thanks for sharing your lovely room and nook. I'd love to make something like this for my grandchildren one day.

Precious room with precious stories! Thanks for sharing!

As a child, I used to wish I could put all of my blankets, pillows and mattress into the tub. I wanted to be enveloped and cozy when I slept. My mom wouldn't let me do that...I wanted the closet, once again, a no from mom.
Two things, I LOVE THE SPACE!, and what a cool Mom you have!

I love the bed closet...what a wonderful space for a child, or even a child at heart.

Oh, I'd love that room today! What a nice mom. When I was 20, my mother announced they were selling the home my parents built when my mother was pregnant with me. Since I had no idea I'd grow up to be, first, a textile designer and later, an art and antique appraiser, I turned down her offer to take some of the furniture. Guess who is sorry now? I still daydream about the round glass coffee table with brass legs.

What a sweet room! Although I know you will miss your childhood home, the bigger gift is that you have a loving family that did all they could to make you feel happy, secure and loved. How cool is that?!!

Wow. I'd be crying at leaving this, too. You're really really lucky to have grown up in this room. What a great mom and aunt to put this together for you.

I predict that in a couple of years you are going to create a place for yourself that is equally as magical; you'll be inspired and galvinized because of this bedroom, and the whole process will be immensely satisfying to you. In the meantime, enjoy college!

Aw, I can definitely understand why it's so difficult for you to part with this. The room is beautiful, and you were a very lucky girl to have had it! I've been dreaming about cabinet beds for years; they're dreamy (quite literally!). But as the person above me said, you'll have lots of fun creating your own space in the future and it will be every bit as wonderful. Perhaps you can use this room as inspiration for your own place some day!

Reminds me of the time I lived in the tropics because we were visiting my husband's family with our first son. An aunt invited to to spend time in her home, and we shared a bed under mosquito netting. I could barely breathe, and knew that I cannot be cloistered or closeted.

Those doors to the sleeping nook would put me in sanitarium. Sorry!

:) That's a cute bedroom! I love the idea of the hide away bed- safe in your own coziness. btw, I'm in Louisville, KY as well, so hello :)

sweetest post ever! :) I am 32 years old and married now... am I too old for a nook?

How lovely. The bed, the story and your mother's wishes for you. You are a lucky girl Mary.

Oh my what an awesome idea...never have to make the bed just shut the doors...I may be a grown up but I would love a room like this..very cozy...well done.

I am dreading the day my parents sell the house I grew up in. I haven't lived in it since 2002, but selling it will make me cry. They keep talking about moving somewhere warmer though so I know it's going to happen.

What a sweet story! And sweet responses from your family and friends! You won't always have the room, but you will always have the people who made this special place for you and shared its magic with you.

I came from a large family and my room was reclaimed by another sibling the second I went to college! If I came home to visit, I slept on the couch. But we traded rooms often and I think I had every bedroom in the house (except the master) at some point.

I used to dream about having a bed cubby like this -- I never knew one existed, and I still want it! You were such a lucky girl, Mary, and you'll always have your memories.

I love it! What a loving family too!And I love the cozy feeling of this bed! Also if you don't have a guest bedroom, you can build something like this anywhere in the house, it will just look like a cabinet when you close the doors. What a great idea!

Mary,

I read your post and it was so sweet. Your mother's response is equally touching...it brought tears to my eyes. I love reading about how we create our homes. Your story really expresses what it means to create a loving home and how attached we become to each of ours. Thank you for sharing.

What a cozy litle nest you built for yourself...nice story too!

absolutely adorable--and can completely understand your sentiments on leaving this special place.

it is also a genius idea and better solution than a clumsy murphy bed!

My parents sold our childhood home last summer. I am almost 40 and it still hurts - I had a bed in an alcove, with curtains hanging down to make a great reading space. (Yours is way, way, way better!). It brought back great memories. Thank you for sharing!

Perfectly precious! What a great idea for a little girls' room!

Well, it's obvious that this adorable bedroom was unlocked not only a lot of feeling but many forgotten childhood memories. So here goes another. When I was a child, living in Lima, Peru, my parents had a collection of books that included one volume with houses and rooms from different countries. The one that haunted me the most was of a Scandanavian house with a room in a cubbie like this. My own room was huge and often the shadows that played from the windows and the shutters all over the ceiling were terrifying. When I saw the cozy Scandanavian room, I thought it was the most beautiful room I had ever seen and would have LOVED it for myself.

My parents moved three times after that and I have moved a dozen times myself since so actually building a room like that never seemed relevant again. But there is something to be said about a space like that for a child; a space full of magic that makes going to bed something to look forward to rather than a task to be avoided.

Who cares about the sheets. The rumpled, sleeped-in look is part of the comforting aspect! Personalizing as the years go by sounds logical and appropriate. I bet all your little friends wished they had had a nest like yours.

I am a BIG nester so moving around a lot as a kid was pretty hard. I felt the need to secretly "leave my mark" on every house we had growing up as a way of staying forever connected. Funny thing is, a few years ago I met a man and his children at a friend's party. I started talking to his little girl and we found out that we shared the same birthday. She then started to tell me a crazy story about an odd coincidence she found while hiding in her closet not long ago. Here dad and her brother came over engaging in the conversation as well as she excitedly told me that it was a sign that the "room" was "meant" for her. I asked what it was and she said "I found MY birth date already carved into the wall with a smiley face next to it!". The father and son nodded along to assure me that she wasn't making it up. It really WAS there, just like she said. Of course, I didn't need their assurances because I had no doubt what she said was true. I then asked the little girl if the initials, A.M. were under the smiley face and with a huge smile she screamed out "YES!" followed by everyones mouth dropping open:) Small world eh?

I just love your magical bed. And Ambra, I adore your story! Wow!