Thursday, May 17, 2012

Boys' Room Redux

The constant marching of time - or the continual stretching of a certain almost-five-year-old - has caused me to revisit the boys' room once again.  The toddler beds had to go and since our boys share a room that is approximately 100 square feet, bunkbeds were our only option.  So, we did lots of research, I drove my husband nuts with asking his opinion on things, and in the ends, we bought the sturdiest set we could find - and they were conveniently at our local all-wood furniture store just two blocks away.  Since they were going to be such a massive piece of furniture in such a small room, I chose a clear wood finish. 
As well as new beds, we also decided on new dressers for the boys.  The previous iteration of this room had one six-drawer vertical dresser.  The little one's clothes were up high.  Since then we have realized that he needs to be able to reach his own clothes in order to progress to that stage of wanting to dress himself (duh!).  So, we went cheap: two four-drawer malms in a light wood finish.  I decided to jazz them up a little bit with some giant vinyl letters of the boys' initials.  This served the dual purpose of looking cool and helping them to know where their clothes were kept.
That's the basics of why and what we did in their room.  Now for the inspiration for decor.  About a year-and-a-half ago, I came across the most awesome modern children's bedding by a company called Boodalee, which was sadly going out of business.  I scored two duvet covers at a highly discounted price and then poof! the company vanished into thin air.  I love the fabric.  It is architectural.  It is fun.  It is bright.  It is more like sophisticated-child than super-cliche boy.  The colors were interesting.  I never would have thought I'd be decorating with teal, but the combination of teal and green with grsy and black is completely wonderful.  I love using blacks and grays and white to make colors pop.
The added storage in this new iteration is ridiculous.  The lower bed has a full 12" clear underneath it.  So, after I stuck our pack-n-play, co-sleeper, travel cot, luggage and spare diapers/pull ups, I bought four Ikea storage cubes (found in the kid's section) with wheels on the bottom.  They hold dress-up hats, all the boys' shoes, trucks and balls.  I also scored two extra dresser drawers.  One is for linens and one is for out-of-season-clothes. 
What's new in the room:
~~On the curtains, I covered the previous stripes with new stripes to match the updated color-scheme.
~~I bought a new paper-lantern-star.
~~New dressers as mentioned above.
~~New bed.
Everything else is still the same.  Same bookcase, pictures, etc.  Due to the cost of the bunkbeds (we chose sturdy over cheap - we live in an earthquake zone), I wanted to get everything else done with the money I made from selling the toddler beds and a couple other baby things we were done with.  I managed to do it! 
What do the boys think?  They love these beds.  The little one is prone to nesting anyway, so he likes his lower bunk.  The older one likes the "view" from his bed.  I will admit, though, that more than once so far we've found them both curled up asleep on that top bunk.  After climbing up and down that ladder for a week, I am also noticing both kids are more confident on play structure equipment, which is an added bonus.
It's funny what different furniture does to a room.  In this case, it made the room feel much more orderly and organized, but also more long and narrow.
Here is the updated room:




2 comments:

  1. I love the bedding! Too bad that company went out of business, I would seriously make a trip after seeing these pictures. Also, the paper lantern star is amazing. Where did you get that? You are so great at decorating; I love it all!

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  2. I bought the stsar at Fireworks in Westlake Center but I've seen them on amazon and at various stores in the mall. I just happened to be there and it was the right colors.

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