boys room

002 Caleb had a few days off last week. And around here that means… fresh paint! I mean, what else is there to do with time off besides paint and sand and create furniture from a pile of wood? We have been working on a plan to improve the boy’s room for a while. And as usual I forgot to take ‘before’ pictures so I had to dig through the archives to find this one, above, from November 2010. We were missing one ‘J’ obviously.

Nothing terribly awful about their room, but they were desperately in need of a fresh coat of paint and some additional space. The #2 and #3 bedrooms in this house are super tiny. Basically we only had space for their beds and a dresser, and about 5x3 feet of floor area. Forget asking them to play with their toys in there. They really needed some extra room.

Enter solution.

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Here’s the room after we emptied it and painted the walls a neutral grey. I think this photo is a pretty accurate representation of the wall color.

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Caleb built and constructed parts of the beds in the garage and then we dragged them into the room for final assembly. The sun was already sinking as we started putting them together. The beds are made of 2x6, 2x4, and 1x6 boards so they are HEAVY monsters. They had to be carefully braced and mounted on the wall so it took us about two and a half hours to install them.

But so worth it!

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The beds are off the floor and create a ton of play space underneath.

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The room is a mix of modern grey/white/yellow color scheme, while still keeping the rustic feel we love with the chipped paint dresser and Yoda art.

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A yellow tray catches random bits on the dresser. The Yoda canvas is constructed from an old pallet that Caleb was good enough to salvage from the side of the road for me.

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Over the window we created a valance box out of 1x8s and some molding. Neither of us had ever worked with crown before and we learned that it is a beast. If you don’t know what you’re doing it will eat you up and spit you out. We chewed through our extra three feet before we got wise and googled. Turns out crown molding is actually very easy to cut if you don’t overthink it like we did. Another trip to Home Depot for another strip of molding and we were back in business. 

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Underneath the bed we attached shelves atop a chalkboard surface for displaying the boys favorite Lego sets. Also within easy reach of little hands.

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Industrial light in place of the ceiling fan they used to have.

So here’s the before:

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And the after:

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I want to move in myself.

EDIT to add: Although the beds don’t have rails, both the boys sleep with this set of bumpers that prevent them from rolling off. We’ve also given several lectures, educating the boys on bed safety and rules. Caleb and I have both climbed all over these beds to make sure they were safe for our little guys.

Comments

Katie said…
wow! that is really cool! I want to move in, too : )
Anonymous said…
Love it Hon, looks great! Ummm....safety rails?!

Love,
Dad
Sarah T. said…
You guys amaze me.
Anonymous said…
If they get a stomach bug, I vote for a pallet on the floor!