Splitting the Kids Room with a Shelving System
When we found this gem of an apartment with the long dark, low ceiling’d “second bedroom” (in quotes because it is technically a den, not a second bedroom, or maybe our bedroom is considered the den, either way…); I immediately saw that this room could be split in two.
I’m sure I already shared this story but when the listing realtor was showing me the apartment, she said the couple were moving out because they wanted to have a baby and needed more space. She suggested we use the den as a TV room so my husband and I could watch separate shows. I didn’t let on that I was planning to move my family of 4 into this '“too small” apartment that I knew was plenty of room for us.
Here we are over 3 years later and the kids are 11 and 8. They have been asking to split their room for a while now. I will say that they don’t need separate rooms, they want separate rooms (and more bathrooms, can’t have it all kids!). Please don’t use these ages as a measure for your family. I know they happily could have shared without any kind of separation much longer. I felt in the mood to attempt this separation this Christmas holiday.
view through the shelf to Mae’s side of the room.
I’ve long analyzed how to provide separation in their room. It is a long and very dark room with one small window at one end and our shared family closet at the other end. Some previous posts about ways I have considered splitting the room HERE and HERE (and my guide for others to ease kid room sharing available here). My dream would be to do custom built-ins all over the room with a custom shelving unit for separation with lower enclosed storage at the bottom. Spending money on custom millwork doesn’t make sense for us at the moment so I started looking at ceiling mounted shelving units. My dream was a Vitsoe system. And I would still highly recommend them. The main deterrent for me was the cost and possible duties/shipping to Canada. Also the kids are really hard on things, often drawing on furniture and putting stickers on everything. I think if I was to invest in Vitsoe I would do so in an area of our home that I am able to maintain myself.
After ruling out custom millwork and designer modular shelving, I landed back where I usually land for kids rooms with IKEA. A friend had recently shown me her divided kids’ room using the elvarli closet system and I loved what she did (still begging to do a mini room tour with her!). When I looked closer at the Elvarli options I realized I could create something similar to the Vitsoe divider of my dreams.
We used 3 posts and 7 shelves total (here is the system). The shelves are quite deep which was our choice because the room is very long and felt like it would provide storage on both sides so each kid would have room for their things. I styled it up a bit with some crates and boxes, books and some of their favourite things. I think it’s going to get messy fast so I may add more crates/boxes later. The Elvarli also comes in narrower and shorter shelves which would be a great option in a smaller room trying to achieve a similar result (here).
The system could hold twice as many shelves so we may add more later. We also made one of the shelves a desk for Mae. It’s not meant to be a desk and definitely shouldn’t have a kid put all their body weight on it, but Mae is careful. She has been begging for a desk (and a guinea pig) so this desk seemed like the easier option. We didn’t do the same for Theo’s side because I think it is too low and I think he would be too hard on it. We may add another desk for him in the corner of the room. But i still standby my theory that kids do not need desks and just pile them with stuff. Theo does the majority of his homework at the dining table with parental prompting. Just mentioning this because I hear a lot of guilt or concern from other parents that they don’t have room for a desk for their kid and I truly think any flat surface will do.
Anyway I am really happy with how this shelf system turned out! They now have clearly divided sides of the room. As they get older and possibly need more privacy we can add a ceiling mounted curtain. But for now they are thrilled with this development.
It is time to let go of the wall bunks they served us so so well in our 600 square foot apartment and they really need to go to a home that needs them more. A trundle twin bed is all the kids need now.
As I look at the photos I took of their impossible to photograph dark room I realize I could add more context of how their room relates to our room. Will work on that! Let me know if you have any other questions!