So it has begun… Mae has started asking when they can have their own rooms. She is 6.5 going on 10 ( if you met her this would make so much sense.). Theo has never asked for his own space or room, just constant screen time. For Mae she is thinking of how she would make her room her own, especially how she would decorate it. She also gets frustrated at how many reminders Theo needs to clean their room and worries that she is doing more than her share (we stay on top of this and make sure she doesn’t, but I understand her frustration). I explained my PLAN to separate the room with a divider shelf. Mae would get the window side and Theo would get the closet side. I further explained how they would probably have raised beds with storage underneath. Mae asked how quickly I could get it done. I shared that we need to save up and make a plan first. “So next week??”, she says. Ha!

I took her request to heart and started collecting images in my pin board and measuring for beds and almost started making some calls to see about custom plywood or help with an ikea hack.

But then we had some friends over, similar in ages to the kids and they all get along great. I went downstairs and they had turned off most of the lights in their room, the music was turned up, they were wearing glo-sticks. One kid was swinging on the play gym, 2 others were having a nerf war and another was dancing on the bean bag chair. It was beautiful chaos. And I saw they were using the whole open space.

So when Mae, the next day, mentioned the room split I described what I saw during the playdate. And I said, well if we split the room, it won’t be as easy to play together like that. It will be more separated. She thought about it for a moment and said, ok let’s wait until Theo is 11 and I’m 8. So that’s the new plan. But in case you were curious, here are a few of my new inspiration images for splitting their long dark, low ceiling room…

Raised beds on wood platforms with toy and clothes storage underneath. Some great options below...

Dividing the room with open shelving at the top and possibly enclosed storage at the bottom. Some great shelving dividers below….

Anyway my research and dreaming for their creative room split will have a wait a bit longer which is fine by me. Love having these ongoing conversations with the kids about what they need from their room. I still feel the benefits of sharing far outweighs the splitting at this moment in time. Hope room sharing is going well for you too! And would love to hear when you felt the separation was necessary. I always think that Michelle Obama and her brother shared a room until they moved out and only had a curtain separating them and they turned out more than ok.