Police Station Loft Bed

Good Morning!

Today I'm sharing the Police Station portion of Lil A's Big Boy Bedroom.  This past summer we purchased a loft bed from Ikea - it wasn't the original plan, I wanted a trundle bed but Lil A fell in lurve with the loft bed so we changed directions and I'm so glad we did because he's loved it since we assembled it!  And now we all love it since changing it from a play area to an official government building!

Part of Adam's Wish List for his Big Boy Room was an actual Police Station.  I remember when the Home Makeover show came out and they would take a child's passion - say for Dinosaurs - and they'd do an over-the-top Jurassic Park Room that I figured the kid would outgrow within a few years.  I didn't want to run that route, so I was very concise of what we were putting in Lil A's room, if it would be easy to change and grow with him and I think his loft bed Police Station is a great example of this!

It started with me making a curtain to turn the Loft Bed into a fort style Police Station.  I used Kona Cotton fabric in gray and... I cut it wrong.  Oops.  So I added two panels of Navy Blue Chevron on either side of the gray and I actually like it more!  We used a tension rod to hang the curtain from so that Lil A could open and close it to hide his mess use his imagination with creative play.

I made the very official Police Sign with white duck cloth, my Silhouette Software, Silhouette Flocked Heat Transfer in Navy and Yellow and my sewing machines.

Since I knew the curtain would be handled A LOT, I serged the edges of my white duck cloth rectangle before I  ironed on my wording, then I glued on the sign with FabricTac and then used my sewing machine to edge stitch around the whole sign.  This sucker isn't going anywhere!!!

I then called my Dad (who happens to be a Retired PO) and asked him to give me a list of all the different departments/units in a Police Station.  Let me just put it this way, he was very thorough... and if I'd included all the different areas, I would've needed to add on to our house!  So, I went through his list, looked around our house and figured out what I could include in the Police Station and here's what I ended up with!

I wanted a place for Lil A to hang up his Uniform (we have a ton of Police dress up costumes) so I placed a few small, plastic Command Hooks on one of the bed walls, cut out "Locker Room" using Silhouette Vinyl and my Cameo, to designate the area.  Lil A also has a ton of small police gear, i.e. badges, whistles, etc., so I grabbed a small Tupperware container and attached it to the wall with 2 of the same hooks above a small ledge (this helps it stay in place).  No more Badges all over the house with the constant question being asked, "Mom!  I can't find my (fill in the agency) badge!)

No respectable Police Station would be complete without a Communications Unit (its kind of a big deal) so, again, I used my Silhouette Cameo and some Silhouette Vinyl to cut out a computer screen and the "Communication" sign.  We then added a keyboard (kids love the clicking of a keyboard) that was pulled from the trash along with an old office phone and some hand radios.  Lil A is ready to co.mmun.i.cate!!  Oh, the "desk" is actually a stool that Big A and his Dad built when he was little...

Now, there's a lot of areas I really wanted to include but just ran out of space, like an Evidence Locker, Break Room (was thinking felt donuts and fake coffee), Holding Cells, etc., but 2 areas I thought would be fun for Lil A (and his officers) would be a Forensics Unit where they could do fingerprints and comb through clues along with a Prisoner Intake Area where they'd photograph the bad guys and fill out intake forms to document all the illegal activities of the bad guys (I have a feeling it's not going to be an innocent until proven guilty station).  And I didn't forget the Arms Storage area (so happy to have a designated area for all the little Nerf bullets!)...

I used my Silhouette Cameo and Vinyl to label my units along with making a Fingerprint sign from cardstock. I cut the fingerprint image and "Fingerprint Station" wording from the white cardstock and then backed it with black cardstock to show the negative.  I also printed out some fingerprint cards courtesy of the US Government and will be adding a WASHABLE black ink pad as soon as possible.  As for the Prisoner Intake area, there's a camera just waiting to take numerous mugshots (its an old, old one but Lil A thinks its awesome) and I'm going to add some mugshot/prisoner forms so no bad guys slip through the system.

His first mugshot photo... of me!  I was framed, I tell ya!

 Don't bother him, he's very busy and important!

And serious.  This is what a very serious cop face looks like - well, a Trying-Not-To-Laugh-Serious-Cop-Face at least.

So that's it!  Lil A's Loft Bed Police Station!  There's also a small shelf with bins of Police Cars, Emergency Vehicles and Playmobile Figures/Vehicles at the other end of the Police Station so Lil A can be either a Big Shot Police Man or a fun, sweet, almost 6 year old playing with his toys!

Thanks for visiting today!  We love creative play around here and enjoyed sharing it with you!

Have a good one!

Andrea