My favorite parts of my favorite room

Well…the time has come. Sniff. I decided about a year ago it was time to start transforming the Bub’s room into his “big boy” room. This one has been a hard for me. I told you here how I worked on this room for weeks while I was pregnant, doing most of the work with my Dad.

It is an understatement to say I love this room. Almost every day of our son’s three years, I’ve sat in here at one point or another, looking around, relaxing in the serene that is this space:

I’ve made a few changes over the past month or so in preparation of the changes, but it’s still the same lovely, bright, calming room you see here.

I’ve struggled with what I want to do in his room, so it stayed in it’s nursery state well after I decided to start changing it to a big boy version a year ago. I knew there were certain things I wanted to incorporate, but nothing was really hitting me and making me want to paint over all the calm…

Until now. :) Over the weekend, the pieces kind of came together perfectly in my head, and now I’m READY. Excited. I want to start and finish the room in one day, excited. I made a few purchases yesterday and it has me even more ready to get moving.

I have to say, I’m going in a direction I never thought I would, but in my head, it’s going to scream boy and be totally classic, which is important to my husband me. ;)  Do you know how hard it is to create a boy space? Hard.

So today I decided I would show you a few of my favorite parts of my favorite room, because some of what I show you will be changed…not all, but most. :)

I know a blabber on and on and on about the beauty of painted ceilings, and if this room doesn’t convince you of it, I don’t know what will:

The blue ceiling will most likely stay…so I should probably go ahead and paint that vent. ;)

I put a couple phrases on his walls using my stencil technique I showed you here:

For a little texture, I took some wood star shapes, painted them and then stacked them on the walls in a few spots and just nailed them in:

The whole room was inspired by the Pottery Barn Twinkle Twinkle bedding – it’s a beautiful mix of greens and blues, cutie patootie lambs and bunnies,  stars and moons. Weird mix. But cute. :)

Someone on eBay was selling gorgeous prints with names and birthdates on them, but they were not cheap. So I decided to make my own:

I just painted stripes on a canvas, then stenciled his name in the middle. LURVE. And it was about $7! A little better than the $100 on eBay.

I fell in love with this acrylic lamp at Target, (which I think they still have!) and covered the shade with a super soft star-speckled fabric:

I couldn’t find a dresser I really loved, so I ended up getting an unfinished piece that I painted bright white:

 

The knobs were from Menards and I used them on the built ins as well:

 

For some reason I was obsessed with pulling the cutie animals from the bedding and putting them elsewhere in the room. So I sprinkled a few of them here and there:

    

To get them just right, I scanned the fabric into our computer (have you ever tried it? It works fabulously!), then used the stencil method I mentioned above to put them on the walls. I added the whiskers and eyes with a toothpick. :) These little guys  and their fluffy butts make me smile every day.

I kept looking for cute, functional storage but the only thing I found that I loved were boxes from PB that were, again, NOT cheap. So I bought a few different sizes of the cardboard boxes you can find at any craft store, and painted them in the colors I wanted:

 

Then I put the labels on with the cutest little star brads youeverdidsee! Obviously, the bibs are long gone. But the boxes are still going strong, so I’ll probably change them up to work in the new room.

Later I layered frames (from Michaels) throughout the built ins:

   

The “mats” aren’t mats at all – just poster board. I printed off the photos at home (on regular paper, mind you!) and just used double stick tape to center them on the poster board.

Just the look I wanted for el cheapo. That is what I’m talkin’ about. 

I saved the best for last…my very favorite part of my very favorite room…the stripes:

    

Sigh. Sniff. Then sigh again. I lurve the apple green stripes! Big. fat. puffy. heart. LURVE.

It took some time…but I really am ready to transform this room. I think. I’m pretty sure. OK, I am. But someone may have to hold my hand for that first brush stroke. Or hold the tissue box while I paint.

It’s going to be a true transformation. :) I’ll keep you updated along the way.

 

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