The Boys' Room, Part I

I've been wanting to work on the boys' (plural!) room for awhile, but for one reason or another, I haven't--until this past week. I've seen some great productivity in fellow (or recently) preggo bloggers and their projects inspired me to get off my duff. I've also been touring nurseries on Ohdeedoh for room ideas, which has done nothing but increase my "to-do" list exponentially.

This was the room before Sally, Maegan, and I used 5 gallons of white paint to freshen up the walls and change the maroon walls to a lime green that I've since grown tired of (it must be my hormones because I usually love anything painted green) and have pledged to repaint a taupish-grey color in the near future. I love how large the room is, but I miss the wood floors in our old place. These walls are also a bit too textured for my taste, but it's something we can live with in a rental.

I haven't completed the room yet (sigh). I'm still working on Moses' soon-to-be big-boy bed situation since we currently have a nice trundle bed in there, but I think it's too much bed for Moses and too large for the space so I'm rethinking that arrangement. Then, there's the wall that I need to repaint. I'd also like to organize the walk-in closet, too. After those three tasks, I should be done with the room and be free to move on to other (more important but less fun) tasks, pending a cooperative baby!

When you walk into the room, there's a storage space on the wall for Moses' often used shoes and jackets. I have all the supplies (except a letter--what will we name this baby?) so that Moses' little brother will have one, too. The wooden crate is meant to hold cds, not shoes, but a little repurposing can go a long way and, with a little training, hopefully save me from the daily shoe search.

Here's Moses' current crib and dresser that will soon become baby #2s. I loved this train idea and had been wanting to change the previous artwork for awhile so I used two pieces of fabric and Heat N' Bond to appliqué the plane. I was hoping to get away from the travel theme in the room, but I loved the idea of a biplane too much. This was a nice, lazy way to redo that large canvas and I'm pretty pleased. Plus, if I get tired of it, I can just do something else.

I took down the dirty mini-blinds and hung some cotton tab-top curtains which I dyed green and added a fun ball-fringe trim to. The green is a little darker than I intended as I've learned that cloth dying is a very delicate process with little room for error (that test strip really is important). I'm still pleased with the results and think they add more color and whimsy to the room. For the record, I'm now obsessed with ball fringe!

For storage, I found some great cloth bins at Dollar Tree and mini-suitcases at Hobby Lobby. They are wonderful for storing random toys and small books. I also bought a toy organizer from Target--it's so nice to be able to access the toys and put them away easily. Since we have a lot of white wall to contend with in that room, I hung up an old dart board I scored from an estate sale and two other pieces of art I've found in the last year.

There's a large part of the room that I haven't shown, but that will come with Part II, once I've figured out the bed situation and painted that darn wall. I'm running out of steam more easily these days (hello, third trimester) but I'm planning to have the other things done in the next month. We'll see.

-Lindsey