Boys room reveal



Well I mentioned in a previous post that I'd been working on a little project and now I can reveal all.  With Buster moving into a big bed I thought it was the perfect opportunity to give the boys room a bit of a makeover.  I'm not one for theming kids rooms as I feel they have too short a life before they need to be made over again as kids grow up and out of the theme.  With Henry and Buster sharing a room I wanted to create something that made better use of the space without cluttering it up, and a room I hopefully won't have to change until they leave home.

 

There were also a number of things we disliked about their room.  Firstly, the venetian blinds were old, brittle and yellowing.  Secondly, there is an additional door in their room that leads to the backyard.  We wanted to seal it off but still retain the window because it allowed in the afternoon sun.  It also made furniture placement a bit limiting.  Paint was also peeling from the walls and there were some other holes that needed patching.

 



BEFORE PICTURES

What a mess.  Check out the door in the corner.  What the?



Bye bye dinosaurs.

Dark and dingey.  Let the makeover begin.

Blue tape, ladders, paint - my little project in progress.

 

Painting the ceilings was not easy.  Our ceilings are high and pitched.

I initially anticipated that making over the boys room would take a week or two. I needed to empty the room, patch and prep walls, then repaint. We decided on roller blinds to replace the venetian window fittings and because our windows are not standard size they needed to be custom made. From start to finish my little project took two months. All the prepping and painting took longer than I thought. My other job as a parent kind of had to take priority over the painting and revamping process. Also, because of the high pitched ceilings, I was up and down ladders so many times, it really chewed up the time. Mum came to help me paint for one day, and Michael assisted on weekends entertaining the kids so I could get on with it.

Look at that outside door now.  Less of an eyesore me thinks.  Blind from IKEA and installed by Michael.

We had made the decision early on not to get bunk beds.  I'm not a fan.  Yes, it would create much more space in the room, but again it's that long term view I have of things.  Henry is likely to be quite tall, will he be able to fold himself into a bunk bed when he's 14 years old?  Will the boys still want to sleep in a bunk bed when they are teenagers?  Also, there is no way we could trust Buster on a bunk bed.  I have a friend who is a nurse who worked in a kids ward of a hospital and she had so many horror stories about injuries (minor and serious) from bunk beds it was just a no brainer to not get one. 

Assembling Buster's bed.  Notice the skirting boards - I painted them too.

Testing out the bounciness of the mattress.

AFTER PICTURES





Ta da!  Let there be light.  Toys now in roll out boxes under the beds.

Henry's bed.

Buster's bed.

The boys are very happy with their new room.  Buster loves his bed and is sleeping well in it.  Henry often climbs into Buster's bed and reads him a bedtime story.  It's a very proud parent moment to behold.

I have to say I love the boys room too and am pretty chuffed with my efforts.  It was my first foray into a complete room DIY.  It was exhausting and rewarding.  I had a lot of fun doing it, which was helped that the boys really didn't have a say in what the end result was going to look like and didn't really care.  I'm sure it will be a much different story when it comes time to tackle Milly's room.