Leo turns 5 at the end of May. He’s getting big which means all his clothes are getting bigger, his toys seem to be getting bigger (remote control everything) and the amount of space he needs seems to be getting bigger so I’m trying to figure out how I can make the most out of the space he has in his relatively small bedroom.

We had a big pre christmas toy clear out and so we now only really have toys he really loves and plays with often. I resorted to filling two foldable crates with the overflow and they now live under his bed… sitting there, nicely gathering dust. The rest reside downstairs along with his little table and chair which now I realise I need two of because Tayo is all over it all of the time.

I’m not sure what my thoughts are on having toys upstairs. For us, bedrooms have always been a place of calm and restfulness but I’m running out of space downstairs between the two of them so upstairs it is. The only issue is that Leo has a pretty small room. It’s pretty much square and the radiator seems to be in a  really irritating place in terms of not being able to put any furniture in front of it. I have tried to find small storage for between the door and the wardrobe but you just can’t open the wardrobe door and it all looks piled in on top of each other. Annoying. I should also mention here as well that we rent the house and so I’m just terrified of putting up any heavy-duty shelving.

So I’m currently considering how I can fix the issue. My husband and I have a queen bed in our room, in the guest room there are high quality inflatable mattresses and at present Leo has a lovely navy metal frame bed, a bedside table and a small double wardrobe. Which is bursting at the seams with clothes, fancy dress outfits, and bedding. Ultimately I would love the boys to share a room but with Tayo still not sleeping through (yep, Still no sleep here.) I don’t think it’s a good idea just yet. So due to the lack of floor/wall space to have any extra furniture the logical solution seems to be that either I buy him a Murphy bed which he can fold as he wants or I raise his bed?

I have been scouring the internet for some inspiration and you guessed it, IKEA are coming up trumps in terms of cost and design. Where other than IKEA should I be looking? I did see this cabin bed at The Children’s Furniture Company that I thought was lovely and really well thought out. And has anyone ever had anything from cuckooland.com? They have some gorgeous looking things and a fair amount of the pieces are reviewed as well which I always find so useful.

I’m loving both the Stuva loft bed and the Kura bed from Ikea. And I’ve seen so many hacks using general storage and bed bases for IKEA but I just don’t think I’m brave enough to try any of them out myself? 

I’d love to know about your experiences with cabin or loft beds. I’m pretty sure Leo will love the novelty of being high up. I was thinking maybe loft bed might be preferable over cabin bed as I can then choose the storage that sits underneath it rather than be restricted to the pre-designed layout of some cabin beds? I’m also loving all the decor inspiration in the gallery images. So keen to create a space for Leo that feels like his. I’m thinking white…  with Marvel character accents of course.

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