bedrooms, Home & Garden

a “Big Boy Room” for my little guy

January 9, 2012 by Elaine 18 Comments

Sigh, where does the time go? It feels like just yesterday we welcomed our little guy home and in a few short months he will be the big 0-3! Three? Really? sigh…

BUT, one of the perks of little boys turning into big boys is that their nursery needs to grow with them!

Over the next little bit I’ll be working on converting Chace’s room into his ‘big boy’ haven and will be sharing it on this blog as I do. Let me share what I have planned…

It all started with this bedding and my romance with it.

Dwell Studio

My parents bought it for me for Christmas (thanks Mom and Dad!)…  Yes, I got bedding for my son as my Christmas gift. And I was really happy about it. Either my folks know me really well… or just prefer their grandson over their daughter (both very likely scenarios). Either way, my ‘jumping off point’ for the bedroom inspiration was in my hot little hands.

So, with that, I began dreaming up some plans of how I could convert Chace’s room. I came up with this mood board based on what I was thinking. I wanted to make sure I could reuse some of the things we already had and wanted to have a plan of what to buy as fundage permitted.

I will go into further detail in a moment but first you need to see my plans for where all of these things go. This is the part where you laugh (or nod your head understandingly) at my “type A”ness.

Behold, a ‘to scale’ diagram of what I have in mind… What? That’s not crazy, I ‘er, ah, had to make sure everything would fit…

And a close up of each side, and the closet nook so you can read it better.
Now that you’ve stopped laughing (or if you actually know me, have almost stopped laughing) I’ll take you through the room. Chace’s room isn’t overly large or small (your basic 12′ x 14′ room) so I had to be rather creative when designing the space. I wanted a few ‘zones’ where he could do art, play, read and of course sleep!
As mentioned before, I wanted to reuse what we already had so the hamper, dressers, curtains, shelves and nightstand (to be stolen from the spare room) are pieces we currently own. The rest will come in stages.
Here are a few highlights of what I have planned:
Wall colour:
The walls will be paintd a nice steely blue taken from the inspiration bedding (the light blue seen in the owls and trees). The bottom half of the walls are currently white which will stay as-is. A chair rail divideds the wall and the top half will be repainted.
‘Nook’ colour:

A fun thing I am planning to do is to turn Chace’s current closet into a ‘nook’ (more on that below). My plan for painting this space is to do white and grey large horizontal stripes.

I just came across this picture which is exactly what I had in mind. I can’t wait to get started on it.
Modern Jane
































Closet ‘nook’
I fell in love with a few closets turned nooks across blogland and Pinterest and set about to create one for my little boy. Here are some of the inspiration shots followed by what I have in mind.


1. Thrifty Decor Chick   2. Little Hell Raiser   3. Home23DuncanBoys
























As mentioned above, I plan to paint deep horizontal stripes in grey and white. I also want to create a reading corner so will have some forward facing and traditional book storage.

Myers Three – how adorable is that pup!?





















































For seating I was thinking of having a beanbag chair but they’ve been challenging to find so I’m leaning towards creating my own ‘soft zone’ by hooking a pillow to the wall (as a back rest) and perhaps using a pillow or circle rug on the floor. 

ikea




























Of course every little nook needs some lighting…

ikea





































And a chalkboard area! I plan to paint some chalkboard paint on one wall (see diagram above for where it will fit in the closet nook).

Bloesem Kids
















































I also want to create a little ‘gallery wall’ along the back long wall of the closet nook. I plan to feature cute art, sayings etc. Bright, cheery and inspiring!
I’m also planning on having a table and chairs for art as well as some fun toy storage, shelves and a little area rug by his bed – which will also be new. Bye-bye crib, hello Big Boy Bed! I also have some plans to update his curtains from ‘basic’ gender neutral nursery ones with some little boy flava.
And last but not least, every little artist needs a place to hang their creations so I plan to have three little ‘gallery stations’ where Chace can clip (and change out) his mini masterpieces.

iheartorganizing

























So that’s the plan. Should be simple right? (what have I gotten myself in to?). No, but in all seriousness, I can’t wait to get started and create a fun little space for my fun little dude.
And I’ll share it all right here on this ‘ol blog for those of you who’d like to follow along :).

UPDATE – see all the Big Boy Room upgrade posts here!
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