The Boy’s Room

Up until a little over a month ago, Sebastian still had the girls coraly-pink curtains hanging over his closet (it was the girls’ room until several months ago). I’ve felt so bad but I’ve just been too busy with life and other things to put his room on the priority list. Not to mention the fact that my decorating budget is a sad $10-$20 a month so that money has been going to other spaces. Poor kid. But, when Anthony left for Ecuador a few weeks ago and I had my cousin, Faith, here to help, we dove into a mini-makeover of his room. It’s not finished by any means, but it’s better. Much, much better.

Here’s what it looks like at the moment:

Here’s a glimpse of what the room looked like before we started:

The fan shade was a little longer than I wanted it and the plastic lining was pretty beat up. I hung what was left of the curtain I used to recover these two chairs over his window to add darkness during sleeping times and the frame over his bed was blank.

I’ll have tutorials up asap on the stenciled curtains and painting but I haven’t got all the details on the fan shade because I wasn’t sure it was going to turn out as planned. It did though and lucky for me, I have another shade needing to be redone so I’ll write up a tutorial on that one!

Basically, we took apart the old lampshade, cut a new piece of plastic that was shorter, recovered the plastic with this thin fabric I found at Walmart (Walmart! I know! They have it in black and white too!), and put the shade back together. It’s much easier than it sounds. Pinky swear.

I went for a thin fabric so that the finished shade wouldn’t block too much light.

I bought the old shade at Dirt Cheap for $2 and used a half yard of fabric ($4 a yard) so this entire shade cost me about $4.50 including the hot glue. Cheap and good.

I made his closet curtains out of a queen-size flat sheet I cut in half and hemmed and his window curtains out of two yards of white duck fabric I found at Hobby Lobby. The sheet was $5 at Dirt Cheap and the duck fabric was $6 ($5/yard but with a 40% off coupon). I only flanked one side of his windows with a curtain because he pulls on the curtains when he’s up there and less curtain is safer in this case. Originally I was going to go for a roman shade instead but until I figure out how to work that out, a panel it is.

I stenciled the curtains using stuff I already had so that didn’t cost me a thing.

The green metal frame above his bed was thrifted for 50 cents and I just painted the foam board inside it with some paint I had on hand plus some I bought at Lowe’s and Hobby Lobby. All in all, it probably cost me $2 just counting the paint I used.

I want to do something cool with his crib (it’s my old crib!) eventually. My first idea was to paint the bottom half of it a medium gray so that it looks like it’s dipped but now I’m leaning more towards painting that big recessed area at each end. Maybe adding a stencil there or a simple geometric design? Time, and the blog, will eventually tell.

On the wall opposite the crib is a dresser we bought for Sebastian off of Varage Sale (an online sale site kinda like Craigslist) for $50 several months ago.

It’s not my favorite as far as structure and design go but it was cheap and I think a little gray paint plus the brass handles will take it a long way. I obviously haven’t done anything to the wall above the dresser. Right now I just have paint samples I picked up in the color scheme I want the room to head for hanging there. The lamp is still sporting the lampshade I made for the girls room way back when and the lamp either needs to be repainted or replaced. I’m also thinking of whipping up a new changing pad cover (check out my easy tutorial!) that will match the curtains.

On the window wall, I have some of Anthony’s childhood trophies sitting on the shelves.

I kinda want to spray paint them but I haven’t asked the champion about that idea yet because I’m a little scared he’ll be mortified…so when you read this post Anthony, what say you? Pretty please? With brown sugar on top?

The rug is from Old Time Pottery and I got it for $35 (which is their usual sale price for a 5 x 8) because it had dirt marks along one edge. I got those babies out though. I stole the yellow geometric pillow on the window seat from the living room and the other two were thrifted. Eventually I’ll make said window seat a tad more comfortable with a custom cushion. I’d also love to recover or sew a new slipcover for the rocking chair in here too. I’m over the brown and would love to go for a light gray linen or maybe crazy with a mustard color. And then there’s the looming popcorn ceiling and shabby brown carpet that I’d love to both disappear but that ain’t happening anytime soon. A mom can dream though…and then take the focus away with a big shade on a fan and a rug over carpet. :)

So far, I’ve spent about $55 in this room trying to turn it into something fit for a boy. Not too shabby, eh? It’s still pretty plain but the wall stripes (tutorial here) are a big help keep it off the ‘too plain’ scale.

And just for fun…
No kids:

A home office/guestroom filled with hand-me-downs.

Girl kids: