Once I decided to work on the kids’ room this summer, I of course checked out all of the regular stores (Target, Bed Bath & Beyond, HomeGoods, Macys, Land of Nod, Pottery Barn Kids…), both online and in person, to see what they had in the way of bedding and accessories. Target is always one of my first stops since it is super close by, has good stuff and it is where I pick up our grocery staples every week. Fortunately it is Back to College season and the pickings are plentiful, fun and inexpensive. Of course the caveat is that you have to go now, because in a couple of weeks it will all be gone. They also don’t have any of these items on their website.

On my first pass I looked through all of the sheets, comforters and bedding, trying to find the perfect set for Maisie. No luck! But our Target has an aisle dedicated to ReStyle (one of their in-house brands) accessories. This season there is a lot of thin wire metal items in bright colors. I was smitten and at these prices you can afford to pick them up and tweak them and not feel bad.

So what did I pick up you might ask? I bought the lamp above for the bedside table. It comes in several bright colors, but I went with the gray base and shade with the neon green/yellow cord. I think it was about $17 but I bought it on sale for about $14. As you can see it makes an excellent home for lizards and dinosaurs.

Next up are these super awesome stools! I paid $19 for them but they were on sale last week for $17 a piece. As soon as I brought these into the house and still by the back door, the kids started sitting on them. They are the perfect height for my 4 & 6 year olds. They are super sturdy (the kids have already put them to the test). Target is offering them in several colors but I went with the bright green and blue. I may eventually paint them, but for now they are in full use as a stool and table for lots of lego and princess adventures. I bought 2 and am still considering picking up an extra pair (even though I’m not sure what I would do with them).

Finally I picked up this table on sale for $17 (regularly $19). Eventually I think this will make its way to the third floor but for now it is in the kids room. It is a bit small and low for a kids table, but until I get the space a little bit more finished it is getting good use. I think the neon pink will be painted another color and I might switch out the top for a wood one. Dana over at House*Tweaking has already painted the same table a fun red color and is using it in her living room.

In the meantime, while I am distracting you with cute accessories, I have been busy working on the kids’ closet (which is why there are giant piles in the background of the pictures). It was still covered in wallpaper, with the added bonus of a duct running through it! The lovely 1970s flower wallpaper was on top with an interesting 1940s(?) grid and waterlily pattern below. I also found tiny bits of an older brown gothic looking paper behind that.

Fortunately it is all gone now. I’ve finished my first round of spackle. It definitely needs another coat before primer. I also picked up supplies to frame out the duct in the corner (which should also hopefully shore up the plaster ceiling). I do at least have a plan for the space. I have picked up most of the things I need to make it a functional closet for 2 kids and their ever growing wardrobes!

Has anyone else scored anything good in the Back to College area?

*I was not compensated by Target for this post. I just thought you might like to see what is available in the store right now.

Life is still pretty crazy here. The air conditioning guys are going into their 4th week (and are ALMOST done) and the roofer finally showed up today. Nothing like being in your pjs at 6:40 am and realizing that they are ready to get up on their ladder right by your bedroom window!

We also decided on doors for our bedroom closet. We were all set to order custom doors from Barker Doors, but found that Ikea is now selling an all wood door (Hemnes door in gray-brown, $80). Of course it is in pine in the wrong color, but that hasn’t stopped us before. The style wasn’t bad and the price was a LOT less than we were going to pay for custom doors. Granted the custom doors would have been nicer quality, but in this case we decided these doors were a good savings measure. We may even try and use more of these doors on the third floor.  In between birthday parties, swimming and generally trying to avoid being in our unbearably hot house, we managed to buy 7 doors and get them primed and mostly painted. Mr. S. took the opportunity to buy a paint spray gun from Harbor Freight. The fronts now have 3 nice coats and the back have 2 coats of white paint. They will need a little bit of touchup (we had to move them before the rain).

Okay so back to one of my new favorite purchases for the bedroom. We have been in need of new laundry baskets for a long time. Did I mention that I think some of our old plastic ones are from college? Anyway, most of the plastic baskets in addition to being ugly, are too big for our not so big house. Plus I have to carry them down 2 flights of stairs. It has always been an issue. I was determined to come up with a better solution with the new closets. Previously we had a 3 bag hamper system that didn’t work very well. So I went on the search for something that would fit in the PAX system, with minimal wasted space, but could be picked up and brought down to the laundry without having to change containers.

Since we went with the deeper PAX for the laundry section we had about 23″ of depth to work with and 37″ of width. Unfortunately Ikea didn’t have anything that seemed workable, which is strange since they have a lot of other boxes and bins that fit perfectly. I ideally wanted 3 baskets: one for whites, one for bright colors and one for darks.

Needless to say when I found these awesome laundry baskets I was excited. These are by Umbra and are called the Horizon Rectangular Crunch Can ($19.99) and are available in 4 striped colors and plain. They appear to only be available at the Container Store. I bought the red, green and blue. They are perfect for going up and down our narrow stairs and they look pretty cute in the closet too. I’m not sure why I waited so long to buy these. Did I mention that you can collapse them when not in use? They will probably never happen in our house, but it is a cool feature. The sides stay up quite nicely and I have been able to fit a whole load of laundry in one. Anything to help make laundry more appealing!  You can see we haven’t started the bottom shoe drawers or trim yet, but we are getting closer.