Janie Lee

Here’s a daybed configuration we haven’t seen before – two headboards used to make this queen size bed in a teen room a comfortable daybed for lounging and hanging out with friends.Carla Aston of Aston Design Studio designed this teen bedroom as part of a Showhouse feature. Rather than position the bed out from the wall, she tucked it into the corner to save floor space.

We just got rid of our last baby gate. Ours were the standard white metal gates that did their job well, but weren’t visually appealing in the least. Unlike other items for baby, designers have left the baby gate market virtually untouched. In this case, taking matters into your own DIY hands may be the best option.Kelly Rae Roberts came up with this simple solution for DIY baby gates – doors. Well, half doors.

Some of the most creative design ideas we’ve seen probably have come from kids – an indoor slide next to (or lieu of) the stairs or a treehouse built indoors. Here’s another you’ll want to implement in your own house.Install a pulley in the void of your staircase. The kids will have such fun sending things up and down between floors to one another.

It’s a rare home that doesn’t have a little IKEA in it. Hacking IKEA furniture has become a sport for design-loving nuts such as ourselves. There’s no shortage of creativity and ingenuity but we also like to see the simple hacks that give a lot of bang for the buck. If you haven’t yet heard of O’verlays, jump below and take a look at what they can do.

Whether a glider in the nursery is essential or not is a personal choice. What is well settled is that good looking gliders can often blow your nursery budget. Take matters into your own hands and convert a chair you already own.That’s right, you can make your own glider by converting an upholstered chair. Dina of Honey and Fitz converted her vintage upholstered chair into a functional glider wtih great success. The key is to buy a swivel/rock unit like this one Dina used.

If you’re in need of more storage and space in your child’s room, check this out. It’s a loft bed and closet all in one.Mom Saara designed and built this stylish small space solution. A series of built-in cabinets supports a loft bed up on top. We love the storage arrangement for each cabinet – hanging clothes, pull-out drawers for folded items, and an open storage cabinet for toys and large items. Oh, and don’t forget the ladder to get up and down from bed.

So many things about this nursery are to die for. Standouts for us are the charcoal grey walls, the rug, and the window treatments. But the most interesting choice in the nursery is the use of a couch in place of a rocker or glider.I’m personally a fan of the glider for nursing but I can admit it’s not a necessity. Depending on the parent, you may prefer a larger piece of furniture like a plump couch that lets you sit or lay down during those late night feedings.

You have them. We all do. Old, dried out markers. Someone either forgot to put the caps back on or they’ve been used in a particularly fervent coloring session. Whatever the cause, the next time you go to clean out the art supplies, keep the dried out markers and save some money.The brilliant Missa Katie of Artopotamus came up with the idea of making her own watercolors using old markers.

Are your kids drawn to the train table at the bookstore like moths to a flame? It’s easy to see why. The low table is a perfect height and the large surface can hold a ton of toys. Before buying a new train table, look around your house to see if you’ve got the makings of one laying around.We found this great idea over at Ikea Hacker. It’s the ubiquitous IKEA Lack shelf with an interior door affixed to the top. This easily gives a piece of storage furniture an additional use.

Last night we had a special dinner with all four grandparents. Everyone was using chopsticks and of course the kids wanted to use them as well but we had forgotten our training chopsticks at home. After tracking down two rubberbands from the waitstaff, my husband and I quickly made two pairs of training chopsticks. We’ve all either done this ourselves or seen someone do it at an Asian restaurant.

One of the more difficult things to organize, especially in a small space, is dress up clothes. Unlike day to day clothes, dress up clothes involve poufy crinoline-lined princess dresses and stuffed dragon tails that take up more room than we’d like. We’ve got a few organizing tips for you. Hang them on wall hooks. My current method of storing dress up clothes is to separate them into 2 batches: one batch is hung up on a caterpillar wall rack.

Through the numerous photos we see everyday of people’s homes, we’ve noticed something. Some people put their kids’ toys in the nursery/bedroom while others store them in the living area or a separate playroom.Or maybe you do a combination of both. Our friends are the same way – some have toys in the nursery while others don’t.

Admittedly, we’re kids at heart so often when shopping for toys we like to buy what is fun to us. This contributes to toy overflow in the house, something we’re working hard on controlling. But amongst our friends, it doesn’t seem like we’re the only ones.We’re not the worst offenders. But we do know parents who keep just a few toys around. One parent described her child’s toy collection to me as similar to a doctor’s waiting room.

It always pays to shop non-baby stores for baby items, especially when you aren’t happy with the existing baby offerings. We’ve blogged about converting that changing table into a bar. We’ve even blogged before about using a kitchen cart or tool cart as a changing table. And here is a great looking example of tool cart turned changing table.We love the bright yellow finish, the industrial quality and the casters.

It’s a safe bet that some time soon, your little one will be asking about make-up. The most irresistible item in our mom’s bag was the juicy lip gloss. We found a great recipe to make inexpensive and safe flavored edible lip gloss over at Parent Hacks.Just gather the following ingredients: vegetable shortening, honey, unsweetened drink mix (Kool-Aid), hot water, and cake decorating glitter (optional). Mix 1 tbsp of solid vegetable shortening with 1 tsp of honey to make the base.

The baby bouncer is an item we consider essential for young babies. We received our Oeuf lounger as a gift two years ago and it’s happily bouncing baby number two at this very moment. So we have to admit – the baby bouncer is something we’ve always wanted to try out for ourselves.Baby always looks so comfortable gently bouncing up and down with each movement he makes. Glad we aren’t the only ones who had this thought.

Kristin needs solutions. She writes: Two questions: 1) My 2 year old is ready to move out of the highchair and sit in a booster seat at the table (or some kind of highchair that is lower than his (admittedly awesome) Antilop Ikea highchair, so that he is at table height when he eats.) Any thoughts on a cleanly designed/not terribly expensive solution?

Patrick needs new dishes for the family. He tells us: We’re looking for new dishes that the whole family can use. We have two children – 20 months and 3 and a half years. We have real dishes that are ceramic and breakable, so we’re not ready for the kids to use them. But it’s starting to feel strange for the adults to use one set of dishes and the kids another. We’ve considered buying melamine dishes from Target, but the can’t go in the microwave.