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THREE BOYS IN ONE ROOM REVEAL: maximizing floor-to-ceiling square footage.

So there we were, expecting our third and the question was asked-

If the baby is a boy, can he please share a room with us??

Sweet little things didn't know that that was always the plan. We intentionally moved into our smallest house to date in a search of living a life of more by having less. This meant that the one room currently occupied by our two boys would also be the room for our third.

Well, little man was well on his way so we began planning this room for three.

Two was easy. There are so many bunkbed ideas out there that allow for tons of play space but 3 meant we'd have to get creative. We had a list of priorities to make this happen and only 10x12 ft of space to work with.

We needed them to-

1. Each sleep comfortably.

2. Have plenty of floor room to play (even with three beds).

3. Have enough leftover room to store all clothes/shoes + toys.

4. Have fun with the space!!

As we looked at our current space, we decided that the best way to maximize floor play area, as well as allow for ample toy storage, was to take this bed all the way up to the ceiling and utilize floor-to-ceiling square footage.

Utilizing floor-to-ceiling space is a very effective way to maximize a small space

Our ceilings were 9' and this height allowed a good sized triple bunkbed. The height of each bed would allow each child to sit up comfortably & not have to scrunch which was perfect. This layout did require the bottom bed to barely off the floor but being that the baby would sleep on the bottom bunk, closest to the floor was perfect for us.

So there we were- we had decided on the overall layout of the beds, now all we needed to do was narrow down the design of the outer bunkbed shell.

We searched and searched but didn't feel like any of the ideas we found worked for us. Then one day, we stumbled upon a documentary of these caves-turned-homes that exist off the coast of Spain & oh my goodness, we might as well have opened up a fairytale book. These caves were in fact real caves but decorated and built into real-life-homes. They had rock floors, hand carved nooks and seats and they were all underground! How different and fun!

The more we looked into this magical way of creating a home, the more inspired we were to take the cave concept and build something fun for the boys.

(And the fact they were caves provided an immense amount of imaginative play which is always a huge goal within the designing of any kid space!)

Oh, the games they could play! and the animals they could pretend to be! We could title it "Project Three Little Bears" and the caves could be the spot for our three little bears to hibernate! We kind of went crazy over the idea and began to imagine the stories they could build in their little minds and the little costumes they could wear!

(can you tell kid spaces are the spaces we love the most to create??)

So we decided on it, bought all the materials to get started to make the beds, opted for a white finish (to make the room feel bigger) and got to work. Inner shell was made out of wood, and then we layered outer shell with plaster to give it that "cave" look.

This how they turned out! :