Toddler Boy Room Makeover: Behind the Design
Toddler Boy Room Makeover
(all items used in this room are linked under their category)
Why a "grown up" kids room you ask?
When I think of a child's room I instantly think back to my childhood rooms. Bright colors and character wallpaper or decals placed thoughtlessly on the walls, plastic tables and chairs (nothing wrong them they clean up great!), character sheets and comforters that I vividly remember never being soft enough and always cold, it was a room I would get bored of very very fast and want to re decorate. (That could also just be a me thing lol!) I do remember how much my Mom loved doing rooms for me and I remember her always being so happy to re do them when I got an itch to change things up (if it was something we could afford at the time).
So, when I started planning out my son's new room for him and his brother to share I really dug deep to figure out how I could make this room something that can last through childhood and maybe even the teen years with only having to change minimal things out as they grew and wanted to make it more of their own eventually. My son is 3 and he changes his mind on cartoon characters more than I can bare to admit and for that reason I'm not a fan of doing an entire room themed to a kids show or true kids “theme” that he will decide one night he hates and won't sleep in his room. Instead I will go on a route that lets me change these items in ways that won't break the bank every time he finds a new favorite character; pillows, small decor pieces, wall art, a sheet of he really really wants it (I’m not anti childhood I promise lol) etc.
Something I also did in this room was include him in the "design" process. I let him pick through photos of rooms for each element in here, from the board and batten to the color of it. He chose his bedding, believe it or not the kid choose tan sheets over dinosaur ones, down to the leather color of the curtain ties I made. Not every kids room needs to be overly stimulating like we typically think kids want and need. I have seen my kids transition to sharing a room without it being a nightmare and I truly think it's because they were involved in this process and we created a space that is truly calming and still can be a fun space for them to play.
Let's get into the design of this room:
When we bought our home I feel in love with this little nook and knew one day it would be the star of this room. I always had a vision of this room feeling like a library you would find in a old craftsman home with leather chairs and mahogany walls but, a kids version of course. That theme started as "woodland" for my sons nursery and we never got around to completely finishing this room no matter how many times we tried. Flash forward 3 years and we have a 3 year old, 1 year old, and one on the way. We have two rooms for kids and knew the boys would now have to share, this room was in no way functional for two kiddos.
The first thing that needed to change was the closet. We never finished building this closet system and just had his clothing in his dresser, but we knew the dresser wouldn't fit in this room with a crib having to come in. Time to build an actual closet!
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| Closet Before (originally did have wire racks for hanging clothes and mirror closet doors) |
I wanted this to look like a custom built in and we did just that.
Two wardrobes, one for each child to have hanging clothing and a built in dresser in the middle with four drawers, 2 for each of them. We also installed outlets on the wall for a tv in the future.
Why I chose brick as an accent in the closet, something that isn't needed but adds so much to this room! I'll explain more later but we are planning to do built in bunk beds in here eventually so my thought process had to be a long haul vs right now. I know I want to have a stained shiplap/plank look on the inside of the bunk bed so I knew I wouldn't want to compete or over do the stained wood by adding that in the closet area. I wanted this to feel apart of the room but also be its "own" thing, so keeping the accent wall white but adding the texture of brick really did just that.
We were able to build this ourselves saving $100's vs buying pre made ones that would not fit the custom dimensions I wanted. For the full tutorial of the closet build click here
I really wanted this closet to help my children (for now just Killian) learn to dress himself and be able to find his clothes easier. So one thing I am in love with is I made little tags that have pictures of clothing so he can easily find what he is looking for.
Board & Batten:
Wanting the room to feel like a cozy library I knew it was time to bring a moody color in here to really make this room feel warmer and just have something extra. I picked out colors I was leaning towards and let Killian make the final decision, I'm talking at the Home Depot counter he is on Pinterest on my phone looking through "greens" because he wanted a green room.
He chose "Woodland Lichen" by Sherwin Williams (Color match at home depot in Behr-Satin Sheen) and I could not be happier with his decision! Click here for the full post on the board & batten
Lighting:
Click here for Vintere Fan/Light Combo
One of the most important elements in a room is the light choice. If you have a smaller budget for a room makeover skip some other decor options and go with a light you love. It's something that just adds a finished look and you will not regret it, I promise. When I was putting together my mood board I came across this fan/light combo from Fanimation and I feel in love. It was exactly what I pictured for this room and the best part...It's a caged fan so when we do have bunk beds I will not worry about little hands trying to play with the blades! Fanimation offers some great accessories for their fans like fanSync which allows you to pair your fan to your smart home devices and smart phones! Yup, we tell our Alexa's to turn on the boys room fan and light so that means no spending hours looking for that lost fan remote! (which does come with this fan and has a wall mount included). As far as the lights on this fan I was blown away with how bright they are (can be dimmed), they include LED edison looking bulbs but they are cooler than the typical orange light ones. This was the darkest room in our home because the bedrooms do not have ceiling lights or boxes so Scott did have to run the power to this room, not something I would tell you to DIY.
Beds:
Reading Nook:
Plant is from Target Dollar section and the sign is from Hobby Lobby, sorry I don't have links for these items.
My favorite space in this room! Killian loves his books and I really wanted to make sure they were in a place he could access them himself and also be able to function as decor. The metal file holders I found fit perfectly into the space made from the board & batten (not planned) and I knew we would either do a table to chairs or two kid chairs here. Once we had this room mostly done I found bean bags that looked like leather but was is actually a fabric material and they are so perfect.
I have to have their sound machine/night light in a reachable area so on the little table it is, Maverick loves to turn it on and off for his nap and bedtime. I also kept the decor simple here because they both play with it so nothing that is breakable. Just a simple faux plant and little sign for now.
Textiles:
With dark green walls I knew I needed to keep some elements a little more muted and neutral but I didn't want to sacrifice patterns.
Killan's bedding was something I knew again I wanted to keep neutral so I can easily switch out pillows or sheets if he wanted something special. I am not completely against character sheets if it's something he really wants one day but, for the comforter I definitely wanted something clean, simple and most importantly soft! I found some options at Target and let him pick out the one he liked best he chose this one and he also chose these sheets (it's just a fitted sheet) the fox pillow has been around since his nursery and it's definitely well loved at this point.
Curtains from Woven Nook were a perfect element with the fun pattern and balancing the built in with the black/white colors.
Woven Nook has given me a code for you to use for 10% off your next order!
RANSONS10
A small detail that is often overlooked when using curtains is the tie backs. I really wanted to bring in something with actual leather into this room and I instantly saw leather ties for these curtains. Problem: they run from $10 + shipping on etsy to over $30 in stores (for one!) so I made them myself and it was a fun one day project, I have a tutorial on my Instagram (highlight button labeled DIY Leather Curtain Tiebacks) and I will link the blog post here when it's up. For the curtain rod I used gas pipes from Home Depot and spray painted them with a hammered black spray paint, I love using gas pipe for curtain rods because I know these puppies aren't going anywhere even with kids pulling on them (make sure to screw into studs).
A rug, in a kids room? On top of carpet?
YES! I never really thought of having a rug in bedrooms that have carpet but seeing this Ruggable Rug in here has me convinced it's 100% a necessity to really ground the room and bring your eyes to this little nook.
Use the code below for 10% off your own Ruggable Rug!
AFF10
This room is not "finished" and I don't think it truly will ever be. I want to add decor to the walls but as of now we are all enjoying the simplicity of this room and I do not think you need to have a room 100% filled to say it's complete. A home or a room takes time to fill and I hope these items can help you with your little ones room too.
If you have any questions on this room please leave me a comment or reach out on Instagram and I will be more than happy to help!
Thank you to Fanimation, Woven Nook, and Ruggable for helping to bring this room to life.
*Links may be affiliate links and if you choose to make a purchases through the provided link I may make a small commission, (the price is not raised but it does help me out). This in no way affects my opinion, recommendation, or review I have given. If I am using a product I will give you my honest thoughts at all times and I will not recommend anything I do not use with my family or fully love.
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