Living in Manhattan, most of us live in smaller spaces. You learn to adapt and make it work for the love of New York.
When you have children, you find yourself getting extra creative with your living conditions. This is also the time where you find yourself questioning New York City living. We made the decision not to move out of the city years ago, so it was time to build a wall; a wall of peace.
I have seen closets become nurseries, living rooms transitioned into bedrooms and even hallways turned into playrooms. This is Manhattan living. But for someone like me who grew up in the suburbs and not in an apartment, I have my moments where I feel completely “space frustrated.”
I have 3 children in NYC, and when you don’t have a basement or a backyard, you crave any corner you can get your hands on. You long for your own space, even if it is just enough room for your own bed and that is exactly what we created, a new space for each of our daughters who shared a room. I have a friend who is really into DIY projects so I asked for her opinion on the idea. She told me that it was a great idea and that I could find the building supplies needed, on a website like https://tradefixdirect.com/. To be honest, I thought it was going to be one of those ideas that sounded great but never actually materialized. I was so wrong!
This did not happen overnight. I contemplated for a long time over this. To build a wall or not to, that was the question. My husband thought I was building two prison cells. Our two daughters have shared a room for years. It’s a nice sized room, but they both really needed their own space: a space to study, a space to be creative and a space for peace and quiet.
I was connected with Annette Jaffe Interiors who does really big design projects. I feared she would not want to bother with something so small. We met at my apartment and in one second, she knew just how to create the space. She has vision and perspective and showed me how to take one room and turn it into two. We were able to create two bedrooms using a pressurized wall. It is basically a temporary wall that can be put up and taken down, which also made me feel more comfortable knowing that it wasn’t permanent.
The next step was to purge. I don’t have one organizational gene in my body. Lauire Palau from Simply B Organized was my next call. She holds your hand and preaches the “ESP”method, which is empty, sort and purge. This was extremely helpful for the preparation of the new bedrooms.
In one day, we had a wall built, two new bedrooms, a fresh coat of paint, new floors and smart and affordable furniture from IKEA. My girls got to be involved too by selecting their new furniture and accent pieces. I really wanted them to get something like these framed movie posters Australia, but then I realized it was their room, so their choice. Either way, being able to pick their furniture gave them a sense of pride by allowing them to be creative while moving out of their “babyish” bedroom. We were also thinking about putting some chairs in the room, maybe on the side. We wanted to find out if the tolix chairs comfortable as they were the right size for the room. I know that I need to make the rooms as cosy as they can be, and decorate them in a way that they will enjoy spending time in there! I recently had my own bedroom renovated, and purchase some new accessories like lights and a new luxury rug (from Bazaar Velvet) so I might go down a similar route and get them a children’s rug, a lamp, some pictures on the wall! What do you think? …
Sometimes, you need someone to hold your hand. Sometimes you need someone to help push you to make a decision. Not everyone has a Feng shui mind set, or an organizational make up, I certainly don’t.
Hopefully many more creative ideas, peaceful studying and memories will happen for my daughters in their new rooms. They now have room to think and a room for some peace, even if we built a wall between them. At least this is the type of wall that won’t create any extra tension in their world.
