After getting super excited and wanting to dive right into the bathroom facelift that I wrote about last week, I realized I needed to slow my roll and pull in the reins. I had other projects that I had started and hadn’t finished yet, and before I could allow myself to jump into another, I needed to tie up some loose ends on a few that had been left blowing in the wind.

Last spring just about this time of year, I had started the process of turning our boys’ shared bedroom into a more grown up room for them. They had no longer wanted to share bunk beds, and were ready to get rid a lot of their little kid toys in favor of books, electronics and video games. You know how it goes? I was ready too. Before we did anything to the decor, the boys and I spent a few days going through all of their stuff. 95% of it we decided to get rid of. We organized all the pieces and parts to everything, placed games and other toys in their appropriate boxes and filled a few large ziploc bags full of lego blocks. The kids set up shop on our front stoop during peak dog walking / parents strollering-kids time and were able to give away all their toys to neighbors! We found a teacher who was happy to snatch up all the lego bricks for her classroom, another kid was stoked to get a collection of hot wheels. It was way easier than I thought to get rid of all that stuff, and we felt good knowing that it was going to happy homes.

Once the stuff was gone, we reorganized what we had. I placed the bookshelves that had been on a wall in their bedroom inside one of the closets. We stacked the shelves with their growing book collection. We saved a few fun toys for when we might have little kid visitors who needed to be entertained – like the brio wooden train set. We tucked those items into the built-in closet toy boxes and organized them on shelves in the closet. It’s been that way for a year, and it has stayed that way. I can’t even believe that cleaning up their room only consists of picking clothes up the floor, reshelving books and making beds. Grown up kids rule at not making toy messes.

Now it was time for the real to begin, well kinda . I started by making a moodboard so that I had a plan to follow – that was fun. I love planning and having a guide to follow plus it helps to motivate me. That motivation lasted about a week though. I disassembled their bunk bed and passed it on to my brother and his growing family (however half of it still remains leaning against the wall in their room, ahem, Mike). We ordered new gray metal tube bed frames for the boys and linens for their beds. Then everything stopped, because spring and summer came and I didn’t really want to do the hard tedious work that I knew was next on the list.

So let me take you through my design and the list of things I have left to do.

Painting
Mural
Let’s talk about the elephant in the room. That geometric mural’s time was up. I wish I would have considered how big of a pain in the butt it would be to paint a ceiling before I ever had the great idea to paint a ceiling mural. The whole pattern needs to be sanded, and then I need to paint the walls and the ceiling before I can move on with anything else. I hate painting ceilings.
Baseboard, Trim & Moldings
I have never painted the trim in this room in the 10 years we have been living in this house. It was in rough shape when we moved in, and because kids do dumb kid stuff, I never felt like it was worth it to invest the time into something that would probably get beaten up anyways. My day of reckoning has come though. All the baseboard trim and moldings need to be sanded, loose paint needs to be removed and dings need to be filled.
Door Knobs & Hardware
The doors have taken a beating too. The main door has had an especially hard go of it. I think the inside of it will need to be stripped before I can patch and paint it. All of the door hardware – that’s 4 knobs and 6 hinges need to stripped before being replaced. The main door doesn’t even close all the way, so that too will have to be addressed.
Radiator
The radiator in their room is in need of a paint job no matter what – I’m playing around with the idea of painting it a gray to play off the bed – but don’t quote me on that. Still considering options but I do like the idea.

Wallpaper
Painting the ceiling and repairing the trim will be the hardest part of this project. Once that part is behind me I know I’ll be able to see this project through and wrap it up for my kids. If my boys were to move out when they were 18 that would mean that they would only be living here for 10 more years. Therefore I wanted to choose a wallpaper that I could see being in a guest room (cause I imagine that is what this room would become) down the road. I have adored this hygge and west pattern for years – I actually adore everything from hygge and west, but specifically I adore this pattern. This wallpaper will go on the wall behind the kids bed – it will look dope.

Textures and Patterns
There is a lot of pattern in my design and I really like how it’s kind of crazy, it makes the room buzz a little bit in a good way. It is a kids room after all, I feel like they could use a little chaotic energy and there will be enough white soft space to balance it out. I wanted to keep the navy striped rug they have because it’s in good condition – it’s actually gotten better with age – it used to be very pilly and now it’s not! The size is good too, and 9×12 rugs are expensive, so let’s just say it stays. I love mixing it with this knit blanket from schoolhouse electric. The blanket has a good weight to it, and it’s double sided. I like to have the dark navy side facing out in the winter and the white in the summer.

I also included pattern in all of the neutral elements too. There is a wood grain pattern in the beige wallpaper, the muted greige sheets have a understated pattern too. There is a big flannel euro sham at the head of their bed with a window pane pattern, and then a sham and pillow with variations on a pin stripe. I think it all works in a kids room!

The Beds
We ordered these grey metal beds last spring – they were so affordable that we had to spring for them. I spent a lot of time looking for the right bed (you can see all the options I considered in this post), and I’m glad I pulled the trigger on these. Just a few weeks ago we upgraded the boys from their prison style mattresses (that we got for them when money was way tighter) and got them new mattresses. The new mattresses were an investment but so worth it. The boys are some comfortable and happy to spend time in their rooms now. I didn’t realize that I had been such a bad mom making them sleep on garbage mattresses.

Roman Shades
The boys’ room is the only room in the house that we have slatted blinds on the windows. The blinds are fine, but cheap – we got them at the Home Depot when Finn was little. They look nice from the street when the lights are on. I’d really like to upgrade the window treatments in here and get a inset roman shade with blackout lining. I want the kids to be able to pull the blinds and sleep in on the weekend if they want to – they wake up with the sun now, but if my memory serves me correctly, teens like grunge music and sleeping in on the weekends, so.

Desk
The corner left of the windows will be the perfect spot to put a wall mounted desk with the shelves on top. The kids are starting to get more and more homework and I want to there to be a desk in their bedroom for them to work on. I love this desk because it has a narrow depth and minimal look. I have some hoarded white eames dining chairs up in the attic, and I can reuse one of them as a desk chair.

So that brings us up to speed on the kids’ bedroom. You guys need to hold me accountable on this one, k?