One Room Challenge – Week 2 – Boys Bedroom Design Plan

13 Apr One Room Challenge – Week 2 – Boys Bedroom Design Plan

I’m excited to be participating in the One Room Challenge this spring, and last week, I revealed that I will be doing a six-week makeover on my boys room.  This week, I am talking about the design plan and the inspiration behind it.

My boys have definite opinions on what they want their room to look like.  They both love color, so we have had lots of talks about using color in the appropriate amount, what the word “restraint” means when it comes to creating, and the benefits of learning how to “edit” oneself.  It’s funny too…how art imitates life.  My curly top mentioned how “sometimes people have to edit their words, too, just like in a room, Mom!”  So yeah, there are all sorts of life lessons you can give while designing a room.  🙂

When I asked the boys what colors they wanted in their room, they pretty much said “all of them”, though they eventually decided ‘blue’ and ‘green’ definitely needed to be prominent.  When I inquired about the ‘characteristics’ the boys wanted their room to represent, they stated the following words, in this order:

• Colorful
• Texture (cough, designer’s kids)
• Imaginative
• Artistic
• Adventurous

Like I said in my last post, my boys are getting older, and I know “sleepover years” are coming, and I like the idea of each of them having room for a friend.  Plus all four of my children are still young enough that they love sleeping together in the same room sometimes.  Thus the idea of a bunk room setup was really appealing to me.

pamela jimenez design

elle decor

Practically speaking, I also find the end-to-end bed situation really works well in a kids room.  It allows for a lot of play space and lends a more spacious feel to the room.  I feel kid spaces in general can start to feel real cluttered, real quick.  The more open play space, the better, usually.  There are several different setups you can choose from when you are going for the built-in bunk look.  For example, I love the ladder idea shown above, but we have enough space to do a set of stairs between the bunks, and I think it makes the beds easier to make.  Working around those ladders seems like a bit of a headache.  I’m thinking of late night, sick kid kind of stuff.

One thing I believe really takes a beating in a boys room are the walls.  I mean, seriously, those walls see quite a bit of scrubbing!  Therefore, addressing that problem was important to me.  I think doing a beautiful wainscoting three-quarters up the wall, painted in a high gloss paint, will be just what we need around here!  (easily wipeable!) Plus I think it will add some nice architecture in the space.

We were really inspired by this look.

markalunas architecture group

Figuring out how four bunks will work with the windows has been a bit of a challenge (see below), but I think I have a solid idea of what to do.

Above the wainscoting, I wanted to do a fun wallpaper.  I scoured the world it seemed for the perfect pattern, and I think we found it in this Makelike Forest design.  It was a tough choice between the blue and the green.  (also, major props to Makelike for sending awesome huge samples!)

The kids picked the blue, and I couldn’t be more excited about it.  It feels graphic and modern, and I think it is sophisticated enough to last us several years.

makelike zigzag wallpaper

I love an oversized gingham pattern, and I think it is so spot-on for a boys room, but I wanted to give it an artistic flair.  I envisioned a watercolor-influenced check pattern working so well with the wallpaper, and I thought it would be perfect as privacy curtains on the bunks.  After not being able to find what I was wanting in the colorway I needed, it dawned on me that this may be the perfect opportunity to collaborate with an artist whose work I have enjoyed (and used!) for years, Vivian Ducas, of C’EST LA VIV.  I talked with her, and she put together some samples of check patterns in a few different colors and varying scales.  I am excitedly waiting on the samples to get here!

c’est la viv

Reading lights are a fun quality of built-in bunks so I have been on the lookout for something interesting.  I was so pumped when I found just what I was looking for at Round Top a few weeks ago!  (you may have seen this on my Instagram) These antique shiplights have been turned into sconces, and they are so neat.  I plan on adding a switch to them for ease of use, but otherwise, they are pretty perfect!  I originally found these lights in the silver finish with the brass wingnuts, but then I found all brass so they all came home with me!  I will use the extras for clients or other projects, I am sure.

Something that will definitely check the “colorful” box is the rug I found for their room.  If you don’t follow Jennifer Harrison from Flea Market Fab on Instagram, you should!  Her sales are so amazing, and most of the time, I gasp over every item she lists!  Not only is she extra cool, she is also very kind.  She put this rug in her van and brought it to me in Round Top all the way from Cleveland.  It was SO fun to meet up and chat, and let me tell ya, she is just as awesome as you would imagine in real life.  I am so grateful, Jenn, thank you!

Last but not least, art!

I definitely want to include some inspiring art in this space, and judging by what my boys said they wanted in their room, I think it is important to them, too.  I found the Sister Corita Kent signed lithograph pictured above at a recent sale, and I knew it would fit in with the room design.  The boys were really pleased with it, and I enjoyed introducing them to a new artist.  I will probably change the frame.

As far as adventure goes, I am sure there will be plenty of that happening in this room 🙂 , but I am extra excited about a rather rare, large, vintage pair of Tonto and Lone Ranger prints I found on Ebay for next to nothing.  I want to mix in some of the boys personal art with these finds, and of course, allow for important things like lego storage and books.

It is only week 2, and I am feeling the pressure, but I feel like we are making progress.  The changes we are making to this room are pretty major, and they take time!   I decided to address the closet issue I talked about last week, which is a win-win for the kids AND me in more ways than one.  More on that next week.

Special thanks to House Beautiful for being the media sponsor of this season’s challenge, and to Linda from Calling It Home, for organizing it.