Boys’ Room Makeover Reveal

YOU GUYS!!! Welcome to my longest-running room makeover yet!! It ONLY took 11 months to finish it! hahaha! I am SO happy and relieved to say that my boys’ shared room makeover is DONE! DONE I TELL YOU! Here I am publishing the post the day after all these bloggers do the amazing 6-week One Room Challenge and I’m all… uhhh, yeah take that 6 weeks and square it!! That is how impressive and awesome I am. 😉

I shared back in January, my design plans for the room and all the before shots.

Here is a side-by-side:

Looking toward the closet before:

And after:

 Here’s what the inside of that closet looks like: 

For complete closet organization makeover details, GO HERE.

For tutorial on making Craftsman style paneled closet doors, GO HERE.

On the other side of the room, it looks a whole lot better too!

The puzzle map wall art is a DIY and for the tutorial GO HERE.

The desk is something I built, and to see complete build plans, GO HERE.

The ghost chair is the Ikea Tobias chair, and is the perfect chair for this small room. It takes up virtually zero visual space, but is still very functional for the desk, without getting in the way of the comfy reading chair in the corner. The gray armchair was a brilliant deal I got at Target (waiting until it went on sale for 25% off, then using my Redcard for 5% off plus free shipping and handling, I paid $218 when it was originally $299 at the time), and is the Felton Tufted Chair in Pewter. I left the branch orbs because I still like the visual interest they add to that corner without making it feel busy with things on the wall.

The rug was a part of my original design plan and I was thrilled that Land of Nod wanted to sponsor this rug! It is the Tally Rug in Blue. It is one of the highest quality wool rugs I’ve ever owned. It is soft, plush, cleans amazingly, and is the perfect pattern and color for this room.

The curtains I’ve seen so many places, but I found both panels at HomeGoods. The striped pillow was a seasonal one from Ikea.

Land of Nod also sponsored the Big League sheet sets, which are a very soft jersey cotton with pictures of sport themed objects all over it. It was the inspiration for the rest of the color I incorporated throughout the room. Since they are sold out, here are similar ones.

A big project that I didn’t do a tutorial on, was staining the bunkbed. I used General Finishes Java Gel Stain and after sanding the wood slightly, applied the stain in a very opaque fashion– almost like I would paint, but allowing the lighter wood to peek through. After it dried, I gave it 3 coats (with a paintbrush) of General Finishes High Performance Top Coat and it has held up great so far!

The green shams and quilts on the beds are from Target. On the lower bunk, the monogram pillow, and the football pillow are from Target and the colorful stripe pillow I bought on clearance from Land of Nod.

The top bunk has a navy fringe pillow and a green lizard stuffed animal pillow both from Target.

At the same time that I had the bed moved to the middle of the room, I decided to add bead board wainscoting to the walls below the existing chair rail. I simply purchased the bead board and stapled the panels to the wall below the chair rail, then filled holes and edges with caulk and painted it all bright white. I also painted the upper walls a different shades of gray: Farrow and Ball Cornforth White (the same color as my living room).

One of the last finishing projects I did was to make this little hook rack where they normally hang their backpacks. I just bought a few hooks at Home Depot, and used a 1×4 that I routed the edges and attached it to the wall. Home Depot sells these, pre-made for pretty cheap, but their holes to attach them to the wall were not where my studs were, so I figured I could easily just make my own a save a couple bucks. The clock is from Target.

One of the new additions I love the most is this modern fan. Lamps Plus partnered with me again on this room makeover and I am so happy with it! It is a flush mount 44″ Minka Concept II Brushed Nickel Ceiling Fan.

 

The brushed nickel was a finish I had repeating in other areas of the room and it is the perfect size. The other fan was too low and Owen, who sleeps on the top bunk, would sometimes hit his head on it. This fan doesn’t have that problem and it also has a brighter light (despite it being a super tiny bulb). We love it.

The bedside lamps were found at Ikea and are both in the same brushed nickel finish and mounted to the wall. Now both boys can read in their bed and turn off their light without disturbing the other.

Speaking of reading… I also built this simple bedside book shelf for the top bunk and attached it to the studs so it would be very sturdy.

Owen likes not having to jump down to pick a book out. He simply puts a couple that he is reading for school plus a couple of Boys Life magazines up there, and nothing gets very cluttered anymore.

My Owen has never been into fantasy books, but loves realistic fiction (especially about sports) and his favorite author right now is Tim Green. He devours every one he gets his hands on.

Another little finishing project I did was this soccer ball string art.

I actually regretted not buying something similar I saw on Etsy, but I wanted it a larger size than I saw and I thought, “String art! Such an easy craft!” Famous last words. It was so so annoying and time consuming. But I do love how it looks and that corner of the room was needing something round on the wall to balance out all the straight edges and lines.

If you can’t tell, my boys are OBSESSED with soccer. The live and breathe the sport. It is in their blood (they are half Brazilian and have dual citizenship)! Shout out to my fellow Brazilian friends– wasn’t last night’s game against Argentina AMAZING? Ahhhh gotta love a good whoopin’ against our biggest rival!

Their passion for soccer isn’t going away and while I was finishing up their room, when they thought I was done, they taped up their favorite Neymar Jr poster… it looked so sad taped to the wall, so I decided to make them a decent frame from 1x3s nailed to a 1/4 sheet of plywood and just tape the poster inside.  Looks more legit. 😉

I think the last little project that I haven’t mentioned is the stuffed animal corral.

This was actually a project that Alex helped me with– last Christmas when we were brainstorming gifts for siblings, Alex told me he wanted to give Owen something to hold all his stuffed animals. I designed and built this one that hangs over the end of the bed and he helped me paint it. So, technically we have had it done for almost a year,  It is a GREAT gift idea and super practical for kids who collect stuffed animals (without taking up floor space)! Tutorial for the Stuffed Animal Storage HERE.

Here are a few more shots…

It feels so incredible good to have another room to check off the list! Sometimes makeovers don’t go quickly– life happens and other things take priority. It is important to finish, though. Don’t let them drag on more than a year because it gets more daunting the longer you wait and if you are like me, you’ll hear that to-do list in your head every time you walk into the room. What did you think? What was your favorite part?

Just to recap.. this is what I did to the room:

Stained bed (GF Java Gel Stain)

Painted walls (Farrow and Ball Cornforth White)

Installed bead board wainscoting & painted white (Off the shelf bright white)

Built closet organization (tutorial here)

Installed bi-fold doors (tutorial here)

Built a desk (tutorial here)

Built wall book holder (tutorial here)

Built stuffed animal corral (tutorial here)

Installed hook rack by door

Made soccer ball string art

Made puzzle map wall art (tutorial here)

Added refinished night stand

Installed wall lamps

Replaced mattresses, rug, bedding, curtains, armchair, and ceiling fan.

In case you missed my sources mentions in the text above here is the 

FULL SOURCE LIST:

Ceiling Fan- 44″ Minka Concept II Brushed Nickel Hugger Ceiling Fan from Lamps Plus

Rug – Tally Rug in Blue from Land of Nod

Sheets – Big League Sheets (Sold Out) from Land of Nod (SIMILAR HERE)

Green Shams and Quilts – Target

White Down Comfortors – Ikea (SIMILAR HERE)

 Orange, Yellow, Green, Blue Striped Throw Pillow – Big League Color Block Throw Pillow (Sold Out) from Land of Nod (SIMILAR HERE)

Monogram pillow, football pillow, navy fringe pillow, and green lizard pillow – Target

Wall mount lamps – Ikea (SIMILAR HERE)

Striped pillow on gray armchair – Ikea (Sommer 2016 collection discontinued, SIMILAR HERE)

Gray armchair – Felton Tufted Chair in Pewter from Target

Ghost chair- Tobias chair in clear from Ikea (SIMILAR HERE)

Pencil caddy and Brushed nickel task lamp on desk- HomeGoods (SIMILAR HERE)

Striped curtains – HomeGoods (SIMILAR HERE)

Wall clock – Target

Bedside table – Vintage refinished in Annie Sloan French Linen (SIMILAR HERE)

Frames on table – Distressed Wood and Two Tone both from Target

Bunk bed – Craigslist find (SIMILAR HERE)

Branch orbs – I made them a few years ago