As necessary to me as breathing is my need to decorate the space I live in. My genetics contribute to the obsession, with both sides of my family having a love to beautify whether through decor, landscape, photography, or other art. I've chronicled my journey on this blog, sharing my different decorating projects (always done on the cheap because that is also as necessary as breathing). The living room, bathroom, bedrooms, furniture projects, sewing projects, the rug.... the list goes on and on. I know the majority of my audience loves to decorate too since these posts have been some of the most popular. So it is only natural that my brain turned to decorating when we found out for sure we are having a boy in September. Right behind, "Oh no, circumcision!" and "Oh no, we have to find a boy name," was "Oh goody, I get to decorate a boy's room!"
There is a small room upstairs, across the hall from our room that we will use for the nursery. I feel very blessed to have this space, small and awkward as it may be. I am sure plenty of you would give your right arm to have a bedroom for each of your kids. You may be green with envy, but a missing arm will do you no good. Unfortunately, I can't increase your space for you, but I can let you help me decorate mine. Sounds like fun to me!
Here is what we have to work with:
The room is 7 feet by 9 feet plus a dormer that is 5 feet by 5 feet. The ceiling in the main part of the room is 7.5 feet tall in the middle and slopes down on each side with a ceiling height of just 6 feet in the alcove and knee wall height of 4 feet on the left side wall. There are 2 doors going into the room, and a small closet door and built in dresser.
I decorated the room to serve as my office, but found that it was too far away from my mischievous children and I moved my computer downstairs. The desk and old PC are the only "office" remnants. The walls and ceiling are currently on the peachy side of taupe. It is way to0 peachy for me and I am looking forward to painting it. You remember my husband's yearly painting rule? The one where he says I can't paint the same room again within the same year. This is one of those painting projects I immediately knew I would dislike the paint color for an entire year.
A huge recent change to this little room is new windows. We recently purchased the remaining 7 windows for our house! My diligent, wonderful, hardworking, not to mention sexy husband has been putting them in one by one and the difference is startlingly breathtaking (how do you like those adjectives and I am not even exagerating!). Let me show you the view from this little room before (this was taken on a bright sunny day in case you can't tell):
I am sure aluminum windows seemed like a great idea 30 years ago. Such an improvement from the original wood, or so they thought. Unfortunately, the aluminum windows fogged up between the glass (constant no matter what the weather) and sweat on the inside when it was cold. Our whole house was full of nasty windows when we moved in over 7 years ago. Slowly, but surly we've been replacing them. As I sighed with great relief to be able to see out my upstairs windows for the first time, I asked my husband why we didn't do this 7 year ago. He reminded me that we had other priorities over the years and listed the many things we were able to buy and needed to buy in the meantime. Living wisely with limited funds is a lessons in patience always, but the payoff is so rewarding. Would I have appreciated my new windows as much if I hadn't had to scrimp and save and wait and clean mildew off cills for the last 7 years?
Remember the view from our tiny nursery room before? Here is what we see through the new windows now:
Worth the wait!
We all enjoy the new view. Now back to decorating...
This is how I envision the furniture arrangement. There aren't tons of options, but if you have another idea, feel free to let me know and I'll rearrange my virtual room. You can tell I am having too much fun here.
(Don't be disillusioned by "door to bathroom" and imagine some spa-like tiled retreat with a jacuzzi tub. Imagine more a closet that was turned into a 1/2 bath with a 6.5' ceiling, a toilet that flushes 1/2 the time, and green counters and sink. Everything is a work in progress around here -- spa-like tiled retreat coming in the next 10 years or so).
The floor is wood, painted dark blue. I would like to do an area rug for the main room and another for the alcove. The desk will go out and I will put a rocking chair there. What more does a baby need? Coordinating bedding, curtains, paint, and decor, of course. This is where men like my husband roll their eyes, and you crazy home decorators get excited with me!
I will share my ideas for this room in the next post. I have four very different looks that I am considering and I will put a poll up for you to vote. I would love to hear your comments, words of advice, and ideas for decorating for a boy!
7 comments:
I'm still dreaming/planning the decorating for my boy's room since the remodel (6 months ago). Can't wait to see your ideas!
I definitely envy your ability to have a room for each child! Mine share a room so we have a gender neutral theme going out of necessity. I'm really looking forward to the day that we move to a new house and I get to decorate a boys and girls room!
If I had the luxury of decorating a little boys room I would have a hard time choosing a theme. I happen to love outer space and cowboy themes. Tough to choose. Although now that Ethan is showing a definite preference for all things involving a ball I might be willing to do a sports themed room for him even though I myself don't find the theme very appealing. I'm not a sports nut by any means.
What a great descriptive story. Madison has a very similarly shaped room (no closet). It was a sewing room with builtins everywhere and painted wood paneling. I HATED it. Madison was the perfect motivation for Rick to get in there and rip out the useless builtins (truly useless) and sheet rock and paint. We have an alcove too. I have a recliner in there and bins of books. That is where we read everynight and I can't wait to eventually turn it into a play area (the tent idea is GREAT!). I can't wait to see how the space turns out. Did you get pregnant again as an excuse to DECORATE?! What fun.
Gotta go vote for my favorite!
Fabulous view I'm glad you were finally able to get your new windows!
Alysun you're amazing! I'm so not a decorator. Every wall in my house is the same color - white. We have area rugs on our wood floor so that our feet won't get cold and the coffee table has a place to sit. Looking at paint color swatches is overwhelming enough to make me give up on painting entirely (which is why we still have white walls). I think my husband lucked out when it came to our decorating budget. :)
That being said, I love your ideas. I can't wait to see the finished product!
I've always thought that extra room upstairs/office was very cute. Liam gives his approval because that is where he, being a boy, stayed when we were there and he quite liked it. :) You always make everything look so warm and cozy. I can picture you caring for little man in this room. I'm so excited for you.
Oh, our old house in Portland had rooms like this upstairs and I loved the character of each one as awkward as they were!
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