Big Boy Bedroom - The Final Reveal!

No more #SundaySneakPeak's for this one - officially moving the boys room to the done pile!  I was on a tight deadline to get this room done before Blake's bday week, and I finished right on time.  I decided just to share a blog of this room all at once instead of breaking it down, so check out the included links if you want to see the step-by-steps for all the projects or feel free to shoot me a msg and I'd be happy to share my method!

I pushed myself building-wise with this one and am actually very proud because I think I was able to bring my skill level up quite a few steps.....the biggest challenge of course was the bunk bed for my little monsters.  Even though we have the space for both of them to have their own room, I really wanted the boys to share a room while they're small to 1) give them a chance to become closer but 2) be able to give them a dedicated play space, which is what Blake's room will eventually become. 

 

 

To fit them in the smaller of the two rooms, I decided to go with a loft twin bed / full bed inspired by this Pottery Barn Kids photo.  Our crib was this model, and the headboard is designed to turn into a full size bed, so I used the plans from the awesome Ana White to build a full size storage bed to attach it to - bonus is that I can use the storage underneath to serve as GOB's dresser!  For Blake's bed, I modified Ana's plans for her Camp Loft bed and raised it up about a foot.  I love this design because I didn't feel comfortable having Blake climb a steep ladder to get to bed each night, so the stairs in front give an easier climb and a place for them to hang out (another bonus - Cash the Dog's bed fits right underneath the platform so he has a perfect place to cuddle up at night and help "protect" the boys as they fall asleep).  I painted the whole bed, and the headboard, with gray chalk paint to tie it all together.  I'm beyond happy to say that the whole thing is incredibly sturdy and both the boys (and myself) can safely sit, lay, and hang on all parts.

The other really big project in this room was the Shiplap wall behind the boys bed.  I usually like projects that are fast, cheap, and easy - but sadly this project does not fall into any of those categories!  To be honest, it wasn't terrible, but if you want to take on something similiar just be prepared for the long haul!  There are a lot of different ways that I've seen to achieve the same look, but the basic method I used was to cut 1/4" plywood down into 6 inch strips and then use my nail-gun to attach to the studs in the wall (I'm still planning on writing a full blog post outlining my exact process when I do the playroom so stay tuned if you want the details).  Once it was all said and done, I love the way it came out!  I think it ties the bedroom to the rest of the house perfectly and adds the perfect amount of character.  I also took this room as my chance to test out adding window trim, which I eventually plan to do to the whole house especially after how good it turned out here!

To round out the other walls in the room I put together a mix of new and old and tried to go for a room that is perfect for two little boys, but also one that will grow up with them.  One wall holds our old Pottery Barn bookcase, but also some small book ledges that I built to hold some of our nicer books and pictures.  I also added some big canvas baskets I found at Michaels to hold stuffed animals, a stuffed dinosaur head and dog lamp from Target, and I finally got to hang the super cool growth chart my dad got the boys from Australia.

 

On the other wall, I used this idea from my favs at Young House Love to turn two Ikea bookcases into one large desk that they could share and found some small metal schoolhouse stools on Amazon.  I framed out some cork board that I snagged a while back at Michales for super cheap to have a place to hang artwork (those green baskets were also a super cheap Michael's find!) and tried my hand at some string art for the boys initials (The blank spots on the wall are for some special artwork that we're planning on getting the boys for XMas : )  Oh, and if anyone cares about paint colors, the door is painted Sherwin Williams "Sensible Hue" and the walls are "Nebulous White" which is a really light blue-gray. 

I finished out the room with some handmade artwork - which I try to put in every room.  The star print has their zodiac signs and a Galileo quote that I just love, and the Scrabble tiles are a little nod to both Eaphis and my grandmas who loooovvveeed to play scrabble.  It's so great to watch them climb, play and draw in this space - and to hear them have little conversations with each other as they fall asleep.  This is when working on my house goes beyond just making things look pretty....it goes to making this a happy home where we can create memories to last forever!

2 Years In

Happy Memorial Day everyone!!  This year not only does the 2 year anniversary of us being in our new house fall at the same time, but also the 6 month anniversary of Eaphis being at his new job which = a more flexible work schedule and more time spent with us ---- so it feels like a great time to take a look back at how far we've come before we move forward (and a good excuse to give everything a spring cleaning).  So without futher ado, here is a little before and after of the house (and us) two years ago and today!  I've been doing some smaller projects here and there while finishing up the looonnnnnngggg journey to get the floors done so I'll share those along the way.  This is a wordy post so feel free to just scroll through the pics and ignore my rambling if that's your style - I don't mind!  

Kitchen

I feel like holding a Photo Hunt contest for these pics of the kitchen - there are so many small but great changes we've made to not only make it look awesome but also make it super functional!  I just put the backsplash in a few weeks ago, and we added the under cabinet lighting right before that - so pretty and shiny!  

I don't think I ever shared a pic of our "Command Center" which resides right between the kitchen and the dining room.  It holds our schedule for the week, upcoming big events, grocery lists, and Eaphis just hooked up his new Amazon Echo....I'm not sure if I like it or I'm terrified it's going to kill me one day.

Morning Room

Happy to report the table is holding up very well and serving us well not only for meal time, but craft time / hot wheel time / work time..........check out the details of my first big building project here

Living Room

So clearly my will to cleanup died in this room - as you can see not all that much has changed but now that the floors are done we have some big plans for the next year - hopefully in the year 3 update all those toys will have a nice hidden home

Powder Room

Ahhh - that's better..............check out how the Powder Room came together here

MudRoom

The mudroom is like my Moby Dick - I just can't seem to finish it.  But it has everything we need to function right now so slow and steady seems to be working

 

One of the first projects I ever took on was to turn the coat closet off the mud room into a toy closet.  As you can see, we definitely put this thing to use!

Hallways

 

The best view of how long the house looks with the new floors is down the two hallways.  I also don't think I ever shared any pics of my pantry hallway - I used magnetic knife racks and hooks from Ikea to turn this little passage into my own hidden spice cabinet.

Dining Room

Again, not any huge changes in here, but we did hang up my wonderful light fixture from West Elm (super discounted because a sales associate broke one of the glass jars) and added some antiques that I've been collecting

Front Room

Besides changing up the furniture and bringing my favorite antique table up from Florida, Eaphis bought me this awesome butterfly print for XMas and I used a technique from my girl Joanne Gaines to make the hanger

Front Door

Since I walk past the front door of our house 100x's a day to get upstairs, I love that this little corner makes me smile every time I walk past it!  There have been quite a lot of small projects in here recently - I built the coat rack in the corner, painted the front door, made the wooden picture frame (where I can swap out pictures and quotes through the year), hung our new pet antelope, and added this awesome brass floating frame from my mom (I used a leftover drawer pull to hang it - Eaphis literally just noticed that little detail yesterday for the first time LOL)

Loft

The loft has come together great and serve the exact purpose we were hoping - a 2nd living space upstairs where we can lounge, work, and let the boys play - thanks to adding our leaning shelves from Crate and Barrel and two chaises from Ikea.  It's hard to tell but we're also about 75% done painting in here - baby steps right?

Guest Room

Ummm yeah, still a hot mess

Master Bedroom

Wow - I really didn't realize how far this room has come until comparing these pictures!  Goes to show how far switching out a few things (trim, floor, paint) can transform a space!  I also gave in and bought blinds....and I have to admit I love them and Eaphis was totally right about buying them for the whole house.

Master Bathroom

Not much to report that I didn't include in my last post - Check out the details on our first two rounds of bathroom updates here and here

Guest Bathroom

A little bit more lived in, but holding up great and we all still love it!  If you want all of the nitty gritty of how I re-did this space you can find it all in the archives and check out the final reveal here. Two additions - 1) I added crown molding which I didn't get to earlier  2) Made my own Restoration Hardware inspired Eye Chart...Blake loves to test his eye site before bathtime.  Guess I'll know when it's time for glasses!

Grayson / Blake's Rooms

So - now we've come to the moving forward part of this post.........the next rooms up in my master plan are the boys room.  We will be moving both of them into Grayson's current room (as you can see, it's much darker and smaller so perfect for a bedroom) and Blake's room will become a dedicated playroom (again, as you can see much brighter and bigger, and besides the tiny little bed it's basically a playroom already).  I've already started to paint, move things around, built a desk out of two Ikea cabinets, and my dad just stopped by on Friday to hang the ceiling fan....the next step in my plan is pretty big so I will post a much bigger "Phase 1" post then and let you know what's up next.  My goal is to have the bedroom part of this project done by Blake's birthday so need to keep the DIY train going!

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So phew....that's it!  I hope you enjoyed this little trip down memory lane with me.....I actually remembered some things I had forgot!  Oh, and if you're social media inclined, you can follow me on Twitter at @lindseyjoy_diy  Full disclosure, I am not the biggest fan of Twitter but I do find it's a good place to share progress photos before I have time to write a full blog post, and to cyber stalk my HGTV crushes : )  So until next time - enjoy the rest of your holiday weekend and the start to your summer!