A Big Boy Room for My Little Man

In a little over a month, Ty will be 2 and a half. He still loves his crib, but I know the time will come quickly when he'll be ready for a bed, just like his big brother, and we're sort of hoping to make the transition before Thanksgiving guests arrive.

We have three bedrooms upstairs in our house - one is Matt's room, one is the guest bedroom/office, and one is the nursery, or Ty's room. We have a few things to switch around upstairs to make it all make sense.

First of all, there is a queen size bed in the guest bedroom that we'll be moving to Matt's bedroom. Then we'll need to move Matt's twin bed into the guest bedroom, or Ty's future room! The plan is to build (well, my husband would prefer I buy, for time's sake) a trundle bed so that when we do have guests, Matt can sleep on the trundle bed in Ty's room, and the guests can take Matt's room.

I've been working my tail off trying to clear out the excess clutter that we all seem to acquire once we have children. I took last Wednesday morning and cleaned out all of the closets upstairs - Matt's, Ty's, the guest bedroom and the closet that leads to our attic. We were going back to school shopping the next day, so it needed to be done, I just didn't actually think I could do it!

And while Matt went to the cabin with my husband, Ty and I tackled the attic. He was actually very helpful, although he did pull out some old toys that I had stashed away.  I was sweating like a pig while he was happily playing with a bike he found and a car that he loved last year! But after a couple of hours, the attic was somewhat organized, and I had 3 big bags of stuff to donate. I have to go back in again to really situate everything, but I'll wait for fall weather, so it's a little more bearable.

So now that the guest bedroom closet is not full of outgrown clothes, I think I can start planning this big boy room. One of my favorite parts of the design process is making inspiration boards! You may say that I'm a dreamer, but I'm not the only one. ;) Ok, sorry... check this out!

If there's something this boy loves, it's animals! Big or small he wants to pet them all, and talk to them, and play with them, and just be buddies. So I thought it would be fun to incorporate that into his new room, but in a style that can grow with him.

When I saw the Otomi stencil from Royal Design Studio, I knew I had a starting point. I love the deer, the birds, the bunnies, and the fish, as well as the leaves, acorns, and bugs in this pattern. It's playful, but in the right colors, it can be subtle, and not too theme-y. The walls in the room are already painted Palladian Blue by Benjamin Moore, and I think they'll stay. I'm planning to paint the stencil on just the wall behind the bed (above) in White Down, a white with a slight warm gray undertone that I've used on all the trim and built-ins throughout our house I've painted so far. It will look similar to the sample I created above on the inspiration board. *Please ignore the pile of stuff I still need to sort through on the left. This is real life, folks!*

Right now we have our desk in this room, which serves no real purpose, other than as a place to hold the printer and some files. A new home shall be found for it all! In it's place will be a cozy spot to read before bed, and to snuggle when he's sick at night. I have loved the Poang chair from IKEA in this colorful pattern since they first introduced it a few years ago. For under $100 it's the perfect addition, and it's surprisingly comfortable! The bedding I chose is also from IKEA, again for $10, I'm sold. And the curtains, too. Great color, great price. Although I might have to add some fabric to the back to make them block-outs. ;)

We already have the owl rug in the nursery. The colors work until I can find something else. I would love to make this barn door headboard from Shanty 2 Chic, but I'm not sure if my hubby will be on board, since it's taken me months to make a farmhouse table, mainly because I haven't had time, and it's so big that I can't build it in our basement. But school's starting soon, and this headboard could make it up the stairs safely... we'll see!

These honeycomb hexagon shelves on the other hand will be constructed and hung on the wall above! And if I get awesome at faux taxidermy (har har), he'll have some white resin animals heads on his walls as a nod to his dad's hunting obsession. I wish these puppies weren't $50-$100, but I'll see what I can find at TJ Maxx & Homegoods. The arrows are a find from One Kings Lane, but I'm pretty sure I can use one of the tutorials that I've seen floating around other blogs to make a few.  I might have to add some framed feathers, because we have quite a few chicken, turkey and blue jay feathers around our house from adventures!

I'm excited to get started, but before I can do that, I need to finish up Matt's room. We've switched ideas in there, and that's okay since he's getting a different sized bed now anyway, and the accessories just never came together before. Check out that inspiration board next week. It's a little more themed, but I promise I won't go overboard. ;)

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