I wonder why I waited this long to do such posts but a few weeks ago a lamp went off in my head and I said to myself, ‘Chalo, let’s do this,’ and here we are. Last Tuesday, I shared about a new toy that we got. This Tuesday, I’ll share something about our Toy Room. To begin with, I want to talk about the most recent addition to our Toy room… The Book RACK!
About the Product
Made by: CuddlyCoo Baby Products – Website | Instagram
Age group: 3+ years
MRP: ₹4,590/- (Discounts available on Amazon. Link below)
Amazon Affiliate Link* –> HERE
PRODUCT DETAILS
▪️ Dimensions: 55 x 75 x 60 cms (LxBxH)
▪️ Weight: 3kgs
FEATURES
▪️ Made of high-quality Birch wood ply and cotton with sturdy interlocking mechanism.
▪️ NO nuts, bolts, or screws.
▪️ Extremely durable.
▪️ Easy to assemble. See installation video below.
▪️ Provides easy access to books for children ages 3 and up by allowing them to reach and grab their favourite book.
▪️ Promotes organisation, and encourages reading.
▪️ It is aesthetically appealing.
▪️ The books stored with their covers on display (front or back) make them easily identifiable.
▪️ It takes up little space, and makes a great book display unit in your toddler’s bedroom, playroom, nursery, or your living room.
▪️ Since the parts can be easily assembled and dismantled, it’s easy to clean. The cotton sling is washable.
Installation Video
Our thoughts on the Book Rack
I’m sure you saw how excited Laddoo got as soon I had the book rack set up. All her books have always been kept on a lower shelf where she can reach and take them on her own – the side table in our bedroom, the lowermost cube in my 4×4 bookshelf, and a lower shelf in her toy room. But all of these stacks showed her only the spine of the books, which isn’t such a bad thing, but I wanted something more appealing, something that could also add a bit of decor value to it. If you have seen my own bookshelf, you know what visual appeal means to me. If you haven’t, well, lookie-look here…
And this is how I stacked my books even when I didn’t have a bookshelf, but I digress.
Anyway, the CuddlyCoo Book Rack is just the kind of thing I was looking for. It’s just the right height for Laddoo to be able to reach ALL the books stored in it, and they can be placed to show the BOOK COVERS which, honestly, have much more appeal than the spine. When a child can see the colourful images on the cover of a book, they are more likely to pick it up and want to read/be read to. And this book rack has achieved just that.
Now let me clarify: This is NOT a STORAGE RACK but a DISPLAY RACK. And if you’re the kind of mom who believes in book rotation, this is perfect for that.
For those who don’t know, Book Rotation is a system where a few books are made available to the child at a time as opposed to the child having full access to ALL the books, ALL the time. Having access to the entire collection can make it confusing to choose just one or a few books, and can sometimes get overwhelming for the child too. Through rotation, the books the child can access can be changed at regular or even irregular intervals (if the situation so demands) depending upon the child’s current interests and other factors that make a certain book or books more or less appealing to your child at the time.
Also, do you remember how exciting it is for us, even today as adults, to see/find something we haven’t seen in a long time? A child gets to feel that excitement when, through rotation, an old favourite is brought back out on display after being hidden away for some time. So a rack that can easily hold 15-20 books at a time, is a good way to accomplish that while the rest of the books are stored/hidden in another shelf or a cabinet.
Once we had the book rack set up, all I needed was for Laddoo to find a place to sit. And that led to the creation of Laddoo’s own Reading Nook.
The Reading Nook
Personally, I’m a big fan of nooks. Reading nooks (1 & 2) , writing nooks (1 & 2), cozy nooks to sit and look out the window while I sip my coffee… you get the drift. And I want Laddoo to be able to experience the same magic of having a dedicated, cozy space where she can sit comfortably next to the bookshelf and read, or in her case, flip through pages and ask me to read the book to her.
Well, I whipped that up in minutes at a cost of… ZERO rupees, because I’m a hoarder and I’m proud of it.
Last year, when I did a campaign for a baby care brand, I received their entire range of products in a HUGE cardboard box. Ordinarily, I would have thrown the box away, but it was really big. AND IT HAD A LID. I figured I would upcycle it at some point. Maybe use some mod podge and some pretty patterned papers that I have. But as you can imagine, I never got around to doing it. And until a few weeks ago, I had stored random stuff in it, like my tripod, some podcasting equipment I have, a camera stand, and other stuff I don’t need on a regular basis and therefore can stay hidden. Then, I dumped the box in Laddoo’s crib (which is a dumping place for many other things in the house since Laddoo doesn’t sleep in it.)
A few weeks ago, when we were clearing the mess in the crib, we took the box out and somehow it landed up right next to the book rack. And it stayed it. Also, because the box wasn’t empty, even though it’s not meant to become a seat, the lid didn’t cave right in when Laddoo (or even I, for that matter) sat on it, and that’s saying something. It was at that moment that I decided that I was right to have saved the box despite constant reminders from my husband to throw it out.
To make it cozy, all I did was fold a blanket and spread it over the box, and add two cute cushions.
THAT’S IT!
I dressed it up using things I already had. No extra cost at all. Now I realise that I might have to take that blanket back when I go to bed, but hey, in the morning, the blanket will be right back on the box and off my bed and that’ll serve a dual purpose:
- The box will look cute again.
- My bed will be clutter-free, LOL!
Anyway, when I had posted about this shelf on my stories a couple of weeks ago, some of you had asked me to share details of the books that were on our shelf, I’m sharing the names of all the books (with links) that are currently in our CuddlyCoo Book Rack* – a total of 13 at the moment, but it sure can easily accommodate a few more
But before that, I’d like to conclude by saying that I love this little addition to our Toy room and now with the addition of the reading nook, I cannot wait to find Laddoo sitting there with a book in her hand. 🙂
The Books Currently on Display
Please note, all the links below are Amazon Affiliate Links*
On level 1
- The Bad Tempered Lady Bird
- The Gruffalo’s Child
- You, Me, and Empathy
- Zizi and JoJo whoop for a Soup – This book came with Magic Crate’s ‘My Fruit and vegetable Friends’ Box for 2+ year olds.
On level 2
Being Mamma Bear 