Summer Projects

So being an artist isn't always about illustrating books for me. As a mom and a homeowner, I LOVE decorating and designing rooms. I have many grand plans for rooms in my house and I have to keep telling myself, "One at a time."

Well, this summer I didn't listen to myself so well. I did FOUR at a time. It all stemmed from the fact that my teenage son wanted his own room. He was still sharing with a younger brother. So, my husband graciously gave up his office in the basement for our son (what a great dad!). But then, because of the age of the other kids left upstairs and positioning of the rooms, I decided to rearrange and move all of them. So one room turned into 4 (one for each of my kids). I mostly used items and decor and paint I already had. In the end I only purchased 1 gallon of paint, 2 sets of bedding, 4 magnet boards, 2 sets of vinyl decals, 4 storage boxes, shelving, 1 lantern, 1 leaf canopy and 1 curtain panel. Not bad for 4 bedroom makeovers.

Sorry I don't have the before pics. I'll give a brief description of each room's prior state.

Room #1 for teenage son- Small space made cool and functional. (by the way, we love orange and green around here as you'll notice later on)
This room just had blank white walls and the metal shelves on one end. We moved one shelf to make one side into a desk/shelf for my son. Now I just need to get a metal or acrylic sheet to lay on that shelf for a smooth writing surface. I installed ikea shelves/organizers in the closet, painted stripes on one wall and used magnet boards mounted to the wall as a headboard. The clock, the magnet boards, the bedding and the metal shelving is all from Ikea.

Room #2- for preteen son - a lego enthusiast

This room used to be a deep steel blue and had a travel theme (map on the wall, planes & boat pics, suitcase side table). It's actually very similar in style to the room he moved from which he was sharing with his brother (the big room).  It took an extra coat of white paint to cover all that blue though. I used idea expedit shelving (2 of them) as a bedframe with storage boxes underneath and painted and laid a piece of plywood on top as a bunk board instead of a box spring. I actually had 2 like this in their old room but since his brother moved out, we used the shelves that were under his bed, turned them on end and made them tall shelving. Now he has space for all his legos. I have to say, I love Ikea!

Room #3 - for the only girl in the family

This room used to look a lot like room #2 does now but with 2 beds in it (similar paint job etc.) But our little girl LOVES turquoise and black and had a grand time picking out the bedding from Ikea. I bought the paint, the bird decals from dalidecals.com, 4 black storage boxes and the black lantern for this room. I painted the blue wall and the blue branches and used decals for the birds and birdcage. We hung a black lantern with a bluebird and blue butterfly in it up in the corner. This was a fun room for me...I could live in it. 

Room #4 - for the baby boy (now a toddler)

This room used to be our daughter's. The walls were sage green and had white flowers painted on one of them. The bedding was pottery barn pink and green and we had hung a large sheer white panel draped above her bed as a canopy. When cleaning out the room, I couldn't believe how dirty a little girl could make the walls of her room. That was the worst part of all of this...having to clean out everything. But it was much needed. The money we made in a yard sale with all the stuff we cleaned out of the rooms paid for the renovations. Anyway, our toddler loves robots and monkeys so I painted all these designs on the walls (trees, robots and robot monkeys). The carpet circles used to be in my husbands office, the bedding on my oldest son's bed, and all the paint was from other previous projects. I bought the leaf canopy from Ikea. It's called a LOVA CANOPY and is only $15. And I bought the curtain panel from walmart for $12 (to help darken the room for naptime). 

He's excited to sleep in the "big boy" bed someday.

but for now I'm keeping him in his crib (He LOVES the robot monkey next to his crib)