I thought it was high time I offered you all a ‘Big Boy Room’ update before my little guy outgrows it! Ha. Kidding. That won’t happen for some time (thankfully)!

For those of you following along, you may recall my grand master plan for turning Chace’s nursery into a room fit for a growing toddler that I shared back at the beginning of the year. I’ve been slowly picking away at it since, and now there are only minimal things left to do before it is complete. Luckily all the big items are done so time to share!

From the doorway, the room looks like this:

The cute owl bedding is what inspired the whole ‘scheme’ – that and trying to use as many things as I could from the nursery – dressers, shelves and curtains. The furniture was white and ‘birch’ toned so those few elements were my jumping off point. And of course I wanted to be able to do all of this on a pretty tight budget (enter Ikea).

I got the bed off of Craigslist but it is this one from Ikea. However, mine wasn’t $179 for just the frame, it was $60 for the frame AND slats!

I’d also like to add art above the bed but don’t want anything heavy that could fall down and hurt my little sleeping angel so would like to put up these sweet clouds from Umbra. I love how they play off the owl and trees and think they will look great on the blue wall.

I’d also like to add a little area rug for cute 3-year-old feet as they get out of bed and have found these two that fit the bill. Not sure which I will go with but will decide based on which one looks better with the bedding in person. I hope it’s the round one as that is my fave. Both are from Ikea.

Recently we got this little table and chair also from Ikea here and here for some hardcore colouring/crafting/block building/car playing sessions. Chace loves it and I do too. I really wanted his room to have ‘zones’ – and being a pretty basic/smallish room that was a bit of a task!

Behind that you can see a glimpse of the toy storage station that we brought in. Also from Ikea (are we seeing a theme here)? All of these are from the Trofast line that they carry. The nice thing about this product line is that it is so versatile. You can literally build to suit to fit your own specific needs.

Yes. I made labels. So what? Sue me… or make fun of me. Your choice. Chace likes ’em.

Above the toy storage are the two shelves that Chace had back in his nursery – moved over and refreshed with more toddler friendly things.

I already had this frame but loved how it tied together the ‘birch’ and ‘white’ furniture elements of the room into one thing. Plus these frames are free standing and chunky – light but still masculine.

Chace loves pointing to this and saying “Daddy and Chace with Elmo shirt!”

Looking at the room from over by the window, it looks like this.

You can see Chace’s growth chart which you may recall from here, and his closet nook which I blogged about here.

The only change I’ve made to the nook since I blogged about it is the addition of the soccer bean bag chair – before it had some pillows from our bed as a stand-in. My coworker gave me the bean bag chair as her sons had outgrown it – SCORE GOOOAAALLL! Daddy is a soccer goalie so very fitting.

There is one shelf at the very top of the closet which I’ve yet to add some storage bins too (not shown in the picture above but you can see it in the one before that).

Opposite to the books, the other corner of the closet has a little chalkboard which I shared here. (This picture is from that post which is why you see one of the ‘stand-in’  pillows in the foreground.)

And last but not least, the other wall looks like this – oh how we can’t WAIT to get rid of the change table… baby steps-breathe-baby steps (potty training isn’t going so well).

See that blank wall? Well I have an idea for that which I’m currently working on and will share very soon!

So that’s it. Only a few things left to do but almost there – and a loooong way from his nursery (you can see some old photos of that here if interested).

What do you think? Would love to hear your thoughts :).

UPDATE: the special project I was working on for that blank wall is now complete and can be found here!

link party

My little guy’s bedroom makeover is coming along well. First I came up with a plan, then some painting took place, his closet was transformed into a ‘nook’ and most recently a tree growth chart was added. It’s slowly but surely coming together…

When you last saw the closet nook, it looked like this:

but if you happend to notice in the plan (albeit changed slightly), I had one more element to add – a little chalkboard area!

The small wall opposite the book shelves (that you can’t see above) looked like this…

but now looks like this!

I had planned on creating a ‘frame’ out of moulding and painting the inside with chalkboard paint but when I came across this chalkboard decal at ‘Real Canadian Superstore’ for only $5 (the same place where I got this tree growth chart) I could not pass it up.

I chose the ‘clip board’ shape as it had the most real estate (and was fun and boyish) but they also had plain circles and and an apple shape as well. There wasn’t as much drawing room on them though.

Putting it up was pretty simple. First you gently remove a small portion of the backing, then you secure the exposed portion to the wall and SLOWLY peel back the rest of the backing while smoothing down the decal. The film is very thin so you have to be a little careful during this step to avoid any tears and/or kinks.

To hold the chalk and brush I simply used a clear shower caddy and some 3M removable hooks (I love those hooks as they don’t mark up the wall and no holes are required!)

And that was it!

Now my budding little artist has a new canvas :).

We’ve been wanting to get a growth chart for our little toddler Chace for quite awhile now. And look what popped up this weekend!

what skill!

{ Still need to put something above his bed } – work in progress….

linking to: addicted2decorating

Things are coming along nicely in ‘project-big-boy-room’ as outlined in my grand master plan. For those just tuning in, I’m working on turning my little guy Chace’s nursery into his big boy room. He’ll be three soon so time to de-crib and welcome him to twin bed-ville. As well as update to his older taste (‘sniff) and activity level. (update– he now has a big boy bed and is OUT of his crib!)

First I dismantled his old closet and repainted the room along with his closet turned ‘nook’. Next up was adding some toddler pinazz to that little nook. And here is how it looks now…

Now, the nook isn’t finished but is certainly on it’s way to earning it’s stripes. Oh wait, it already has it’s stripes… nevermind.

I still need to do his chalkboard area, add some storage bins on the top shelf and come up with some seating as outlined here (those pillows are just ones from our master bedroom) but it’s certainly starting to take shape. It’s amazing how a standard small closet (double door, about two feet deep – NOT a walk-in by any stretch) can seem SO much bigger when you yank the ‘ol doors off and start playing.

So let me break down the elements for you and let you know how I “got ‘er done”. First up is the ‘gallery wall’ portion of ol ‘nooker.

You can see that I added eight elements which I will break down in detail below. But first let me start with the frames and layout, as well… that is where I started! All of the frames were f-r-e-e as I either already owned them or they were graciously given to the Elaine-weekend-project-fund by generous donors. Such a great charity.

I began by coming up with a layout on the floor. Here is one version of 300 trys and in the end, didn’t get used as I dumbly forgot to account for the lamps. But hey, this was my process and I’m sharing anyway. It did help me plan out what I wanted in each frame and what size I needed of each piece so it was usual for sure.

I sprayed the four brown/black/gold frames white and kept the two silver shadow boxes and one silver frame as they were because I thought the silver would play off the grey stripes nicely. Plus add some contrast to the white frames.

Then I was off to design some pieces (all were done in Indesign and/or Photoshop unless otherwise noted).

When I thought of what I wanted to put on the gallery wall I wanted to have a range of things to add texture and interest. I also wanted some pieces that were a bit interactive and could act as fun teaching tools so the idea for this ‘number chart’ was born…

I designed this piece using some little icons I found here and made the number of animals match the large number above/beside them. I also put the name of the animal. This way we can practice counting, number recognition, colours, words/names etc. And so can Chace ;). Ha.

Next up is this little owl art that I did as a subtle homage to Chace’s big-boy bedding. I found the owl line drawing free online and designed the rest in Photoshop. I choose textures that were fun, interesting, textural and colourful. Then came up with the little tagline ‘give a hoot’. Hoot! Hoot!

I thought it would be fun to put this into a shadow box frame because 1) I had it and it was free, 2) it was something different and added some ‘layering’ to the gallery wall.

Then I was on to this fun subway art that I can’t take any credit for designing. I simply downloaded it from here, printed it and popped it into one of my spray painted frames.

Always a fan of inspirational quotes I loved this one by Dr. Seuss. Paired with this adorable chameleon (found here) and some of my scrapbook paper (the green circle strip on the right) it makes a fun and colourful piece for my little guy :).

Next we have a simple white letter ‘C’ (to stand for ‘C’hace) found at Michaels Crafts…

And the cutest photo ever (in my humble opinion) taken of Chace last summer ‘helping’ me water the garden. Who’s watering who? I did the words “so. much. fun” in Photoshop for a little designey touch . I then got it printed at 8″x6″ which is a unique enlargement size. The ‘matt’ is scrapbook paper – the same as used in the quote/chameleon image above. And look, his shirt matches the stripes. Totally planned (not). And yes, I totally just said “not” à la 1989. sweet (not).

I love how the wood grain comes through the letters. This photo makes me laugh every time I look at it.

Then I was on to making some robot fun because Chace likes to say ‘R.O.B.O.T’ in a pretend mechanical voice and I think it is hilarious… so I wanted to encourage that ;). I found my little robot shape here and did the same type of treatment as I did on the owl. I also put him in to a shadow box frame to match his little friend. I made my R.O.B.O.T smile by changing his mouth shape and then added the words “smile every day” to the piece.

And last but not least is a cheery piece that I made just because I wanted to… and I love the message. My mom used to sing me that song when I was little so why not pass it along to MY little sunshine.

I love how the ‘grunginess’ of this font plays off the crisp graphic nature of the rest of this piece. I also added a subtle little heart in place of one of the rays.

After the images were all up I turned my attention to the lights. Since I did not have them when I put up the gallery pieces, I made ‘space’ for them by cutting out 6″ round circles to use as place holders. Since I knew which lights I was getting I was able to find this information on the website (Ikea).

You may have notice that the ‘C’ and picture of Chace have swapped spots since this step. I was planning on running the electrical cord behind the photo of Chace but it ended up working better in behind the letter ‘C’ so I switched them. I know. I’m a rebel.

Here is a close up of the light I chose. I love this light for a few reasons: a) affordable ($19.99 each), b) adorable – bright and cheery colour with a sweet little cloud motif and c) ‘tamper proof’ so perfect for little two-year-old hands. The light bulb is actually enclosed so little fingers can’t get in to trouble. As well, the ‘on/off switch’ is a easy to use push button. The lamps are Skojig from Ikea.

Installing them was very simple and easy, needing just a few plugs and screws. I used my paper template to line up the base and marked where I wanted to drill with a pencil through each screw hole. Lucky for me, each lamp hit a stud with one of the screws. Not that it would have mattered too much as these are really light and I did use plugs as mentioned, but always a bonus! Oh, and I found the studs by using my studdly husband stud finder. Very similar to this one – love that guy tool.

You can see how I ran the cord straight down and behind the letter ‘C’. I did the same on the other side (but behind the R.O.B.O.T. image) and also used a few of these little clips to keep it all straight and tidy.

Of course Murphy’s Law dictates that the cords aren’t long enough to reach the electrical outlet so I brought in my friend Extension Cord for the job. I was able to tuck the cords under the baseboards along the carpet line (yay) but when I got to the plug we had a bit of an eye sore. Add to that the fact that these ‘child proof’ ones were very ‘odd’ (for lack of a better description) we had an even bigger eye sore.

Avert your eyes. I warned you.

I wasn’t overly concerned about it (as that would drive me crazy) but what I didn’t like was that it could be tempting to a certain toddler (cough-chace-cough) to ‘play’ with this new toy. Plus, with cushions and such getting pushed up against it I didn’t want to worry about it becoming partially unplugged.

So a quick trip to Home Depot yielded this dollar piece of plumbers tubing. Now, I know it’s not “pretty” but did the trick to help me make this little obstacle safer. Chace’s fingers can’t get in there to
unplug and I don’t have to worry about the plugs becoming dislodged creating a hazard. And, with the pillows in front of it (I’ll remove our master bedroom ones and do something different there in the future) it’s not noticeable. (um… I don’t need to remind you that I’m not a professional but it kind of works right?)

Moving on to something prettier, let’s talk about the new book shelves – which are really just the Ribba picture frame ledges from Ikea.

Being 3.5″ deep they are perfect for showcasing books. Plus at 21 5/8″ wide they fit my closet depth of (about 2′) perfectly.

To centre them on the wall I marked the centre point of one shelf (on the back) to use as a template.

I then marked the centre point of my wall using each stripe as a placement guide. Each stripe is about 13.5″ tall so perfect height for books (yup, that was planned)! I then matched up the two centre points, held the shelf in place (very easy to level when working with already levelled stripes) and used the tool above to make a depression mark through the holes (one on each side) – marking where to drill. You can see one of the depressions and the centre point mark below…

I then repeated this times five and simply drilled and hammered in my plugs. Followed that up with 10 screws and the shelves were up! These shelves come with little white circle stickers that you place over the front of the screw hole marks so that they are disguised and the shelf looks more seamless. Although they were missing for one shelf… grrrr.

But regardless, we now had shelves!

Time to load them up…

And we were done!

Not bad right!? Speaking of bad, let’s revisit the “before”… as I hang my head in shame.

And to save you from scrolling, here is the the “after” (with a lot of little work)…

Chace loves it! We read his bedtime stories in here and he asks to sleep in it every night. So cute.

And his first reaction when he saw it? Well, he did what any little boy would do. First he played with the ‘mechanics’ – light on/off, light on/off, light on/off… and then he grabbed all his blankies, yanked most of the books off the shelf and made himself comfortable.

And so he should.

So that’s how my little plan is slowly taking shape. What about you? Yanked any closet doors off lately? Painted any stripes? Used rany andom pieces of plumbers piping for child proofing?

UPDATE: Here is how it looks now (after a few more tweaks). Details here.

See all the Big Boy Room upgrade posts here!

linking to: addicted2decorating

My little guy’s new ‘big boy’ room!

But let me back up a bit.

For those of you just tuning in, I’m working on turning my little guy Chace’s nursery into his big boy room. He’ll be three in a few months so time to de-crib and welcome him to twin bed-ville. As well as update to his older taste (‘sniff) and activity level.

His nursery was sweet. Decorated when I was preggo eggo and we didn’t know what we were having. As a result, we kept it neutral. A light celery shade and white made their way up on them thar walls (why the pirate?).

Furniture placement was functional for a newborn but as Chace grew and we had to make some changes (baby proof by moving the crib away from the blinds, move a tall storage unit to our family room for toys etc.) As a result, the ‘cuteness’ of the nursery started evolving. Throw in some toddler gear, a toddler bed that we were hoping to transition him to (“no mommy, crib”), random things on his bookshelves, a new toy bin and we had this…

Not horrible but definitely not functional for a growing two and a half year old! No room to play, an outdated palette (for his age) and decorative items that are too ‘feminine’ and/or baby for him (the mirror, rocker etc.)

And don’t even get me started on this closet…

A functionally-challenged closet. And I’m a neat freak (oh the shame).

However, as mentioned in detail here, I had a plan! Here is my design layout ideas and mood board to refresh your memory.

As mentioned previously, my real ‘jumping off point’ was the bedding (and using existing pieces of furniture) and I am pleaseed to report that ‘step one’ has been executed is complete.

WE HAVE PAINT PEOPLE! Ah, ‘er, Operation-Step-One-In-Chace’s-Bedroom-redo is done.

As part of my plan was to turn Chace’s (can we say’ underused’) closet into a cool dude ‘nook’ I began by removing the doors and emptying his closet of the ‘stuff’ and the shelving (except the top shelf which I am reserving for some storage).

I was left with a lot of these pretty craters.

Oh, and some nice scuff marks.

Since I was on a roll I removed the shelving, mirror, art print etc. from the walls as well and began patching those holes.

Then I got my patch on and did the same to the closet/future nook.

My plan for this future reading/chalkboard/inspiration gallery nook was large horizontal stripes (refer to this post for details. So, once everything was patched, sanded and ready to go I did a fresh coat of white and then I measured the closet from the floor (excluding baseboard) to the roof. Then I played around with 6, 7 and 8 stripes. I decided on 7, making each stripe 13.3″ tall.

To make measuring these out uber-easy I used a tape measure which I had marked at the notch past 13.25″…

and my fave DIY tool – my laser level (clouds parting, angels singing).

This puppy is redonkulous. If you’ve never used one of these, let me break it down for you.

a) Turn on and line up the laser beam on the mark you made with your ruler
b) find the ‘level’ spot by using the water/air levels built within the main unit. You can have the laser pointing horizontal (in my case) or vertical.
c) Once the little water bubble tells you that you are level apply light pressure and this amazing gadget suctions to the wall!
d) make your pencil marks in intervals along the laser line that is projected
e) yes, it bounces around corners and keeps going!
f) to do the ‘other side’ of your level line, rotate the middle section, re-level your water/air thingy and repeat.
g) turn off and release.
h) genius!

That bubble doesn’t look level but it’s just the picture I promise.

Next I lined up my painters tape along my pencil marks. I taped on the ‘inside’ of the white stripes since I would be painting grey over the fresh coat of white.

Made a pencil notation of which stripes were to be grey (so I didn’t mess up and paint the wrong one!)

Then I started painting the stripes! The colour was chosen to coordiate with the cute owl bedding as seen here.

I applied two coats and then removed the tape. In between these steps I also did two coats of blue (again, inspired by the new bedding) around the top part of the main room.

And now for the ‘ta da’ moment.

Here are is the closet nook all painted (yet unadorned)…

(does anyone know how to remove that gross stain in the closet? It was from a candle – wrapped in tissue, IN a box). Holy die transfer Batman. Crickey). Suggestions welcome…

But back to the stripe action. Here’s a tip. I took the tracks for the door down BUT left the little holes as they were when patching the others so that future re-installation of the doors would not be a nightmare. You can see one in the corner here.

And how did the room turn out? Just peachy bluey.

Oh, and I must mention that Chace does not sleep in an empty crib. He was just taking part in the toddler relocation plan that I was running while I let the room air out for a few days. Blankies went with…

Your crib days are numbered kiddo (but I not so secretely love them). Next on my Operation Big Boy Room hit list is a new bed (gasp).

And how did the new paints work with the bedding? Here is the bag it came in held up to the wall in the room and stripey nook so you can see for yourself.

I think it’s a hoot hit.

Yes, I just went there.

Having so much fun with this. Can’t wait to work on the next phase!

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

link party

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…

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.

Modern Jane

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!