Design Disaster!

Jolanda asked for a new bedroom for her birthday - literally a new bedroom, as she wanted to move from the front of the house to the back! The front room has a sloping roof, in the manner of cute cottages throughout Europe, and is an awkward shape in that a piece of it was taken to enlarge the bathroom years ago. The back rooms, on the other hand have four stright walls and flat ceilings (normal rooms, Jolanda calls them).

John was not happy, but with a little persuasion Jolanda and I bulldozed him into the idea. He never likes change, especially change which involves him decorating, as he hates it.

The crux of the change for Jolanda was a trip to Ikea to chose new furniture, Always a difficult session for me, as I steer her to the affordable items, and dissuade her from extras. After Ikea there was another trip to the carpet store to order a new carpet. That done she left it up to me to bring the room together!

A week of sleeping all together in the floor of one bedroom later, I had sucessfully sold the cumbersome old wardrobe from the back room on Marktplaats; Stored a mountain of toys and sundry items from the wardrobe in the attic; painted the room, with the help of John who does not object to doing the edges and ceilings as I am too messy for those tasks; arranged the carpetlayer to put the carpet down; and the room was ready to "dress".

By Saturday evening we had moved all the existing furniture in, put up the mirror, built the new slim and elegant wardrobe and assembled the white fur chair. Jolanda was thrilled, and I must say it all came together beautifully. The minimalistic look which Jolanda desired was achived, and I just had to find places for all the items rejected by her at the last minute so that her bookcases did not look too cluttered!

One thing was missing - the bed needed a new mattrass. It had been on my mind, but its one of those purchases that does not thrill me so I put it off. Weeks later I was coldcalled by a well know catalogue company letting me know of a special deal they had - free delivery on items ordered this week. Too tempting to resist, I ordered not only a new mattrass, but also a new "lattenbodem" for the bed, confident that it would be much more comfortable for my growing child than the existing slats and foam mattrass.

I wanted it to be a suprise, the icing on the cake, so to speak, so I did not say anything, but the delivery came at lunchtime, so Jolanda was home from school. She was really surprised, but even more so when we made up the bed. I had not reckoned on the extra thickness of the matrass, combined with the full lattenbodem, which was much higher than the slats! The bed is now "hospital height" and I as a vertically challenged individual need to jump up to sit on it!

Judge for yourselves if its a design disaster!