How to Help a 13 Year Old and a 6 Year Old Peaceably Share the Same Room...

Emma (of Checking Boxes) posted recently about the cutest little ladybug outfit she picked up for her daughter. In a comment to the post, I got on the subject of how Darcy had painted her wall. Darcy and Rayna (ages 13 and 6) share a bedroom. Since Rayna is the biggest slob that ever walked the face of the earth (her mom running a close second!), Darcy, naturally became rather irritated with having to share her space with her sister. So it was that we did a complete room make-over last summer. I literally transformed the room into two totally SEPARATE cubicles. The only way Rayna can see over into her sister's area is by getting up in her own loft bed and looking across the top of her sister's loft bed...but, even then she cannot see into her sister's "office area" nor her "private area" underneath her loft bed.

The loft beds are bolted side by side in the middle of the room with a piece of plywood completely walling the two interiors beneath each loft bed from the other.

Each girl has one wall that is totally her own and half of each of the other two walls. Darcy's side of the room has lime green accents. Rayna's side of the room has hot pink accents. Darcy painted her wall. I painted Rayna's wall. As I was telling Emma, I had never heard of the connection between ladybugs and Chinese adoptions 13 years ago when we adopted Darcy or 6 years ago when we adopted Rayna...just in the last 5 years since I began blogging and reading the blogs of other adoptive parents have I heard about the whole ladybug thing. Darcy heard about it somewhere along the way, too. I didn't know she had any interest in ladybugs until she painted them all over her wall and then told me that they symbolize Chinese adoption and that is why she painted them on her wall. Okay! Meanwhile, Rayna just got boring stripes on her walls! I'm a little less adventuresome when it comes to artistic expression that Darcy is. I figured, "Stripes I can do!" (Actually, we only personalized the walls from the height of the loft beds down. From the height of the loft beds up to the ceiling, the walls are a uniform yellow. You can't see the personalized area of one girl's wall from the other girl's area. The two "shared walls" are all yellow.)

I will go ahead and post some photos of the girls' room here, even though BOTH sides look like a pig sty tonight! I snapped photos, anyway, since I was doing this post. If my girls ever get their room(s) clean, I will re-do this photo shoot and do a proper post on their room make-over!

Each girl has their own loft bed and their own private "room" beneath their loft bed (each complete with lamp, two bookshelves, a chair, and curtains). The wooden partition between the underside of the two lofts is painted lime green on Darcy's side and bright yellow on Rayna's. In addition to the "room" under their individual loft beds, each girl also has a nice study alcove, complete with desk and eight drawers (built into the ends of the loft beds). Each girl also had a light switch installed at the top of her loft ladder that turns on a lamp for just their half of the room (because I was afraid they might break their necks trying to get down the ladder in the dark!). Darcy spends most of her time reading or using her computer under her loft, in her big moon chair, rather than using her desk alcove. In fact, she just pretty much LIVES in her snug little alcove under her loft. Rayna's area under her loft is so crowded with stuff she hasn't gotten around to putting back on her numerous shelves or in her half of the closet, that I don't think she can fit under her loft at the moment! sigh. )0:

Since dividing the room down the middle, there is no longer any bickering about whose mess is whose. The room isn't any neater, but all Darcy's mess is on her side and all Rayna's mess is on her side. (Rayna's is always the worst, by far.)


A little peek at both sides:
























(The final photo with Rayna in it, is taken from their doorway and is looking down the common "hall" now in their room. They share the closet and the "hall" to the closet, but, other than that their room is completely partitioned.)