House Crashers: Kids’ Room Edition

Today we’re crashing house’s again!  This week we are diving in to children’s room decor.  Check out these different design ideas on two different kid’s bedrooms.

Lisa:

I’m a lazy decorator and nowhere is that more apparent than in Lucy’s room. In our old house, we didn’t even paint her room – formerly our spare bedroom – once we found out we were having a girl. Instead, I sought out bedding that matched the walls and was successful, though it was very gender-neutral. Our friends who had a boy had the same safari-themed set.

We’ve been in our new house for a year and I haven’t made much progress as far as having a Pinterest-worthy kid’s room. But it works for us. Also, Lucy is rather territorial and prefers to keep things as they are.

Lucy loves animals so I try to keep them everywhere. Her bed is littered with toys; her “friends.”

I found the purple rug at West Elm. The dresser, bureau and bookcase are all from our old bedroom and aren’t a matched set. Her Pottery Barn crib converted nicely to a toddler bed but I’d like to point out that PB claimed the toddler conversion kit we bought wouldn’t fit because it wasn’t from the same “collection.” We tried it and it worked so I call BS on PB “collections.”

Yes, that is a changing table on the dresser despite being out of diapers except for nighttime. Any takers?

The wall decals are from Target; they match the purple rug. One of the octopus’s {octopi?} only has seven legs. This has bothered me.

We need some wall art above her bed but I’m always afraid she’s going to yank it down. More wall decals may be the answer.

There is a lot I’d like to do with Lucy’s room but I want to wait until she can help make those decisions. I grew up in a bedroom that had wooden paneling and orange carpeting; I would have given anything to change it so I plan on giving Lucy that choice.

Elisabeth:

So, when I got pregnant with Finn, I knew that I wanted to base his room design off of my sister‘s illustrations.  I loved the graphic look of a couple of her black and white prints, and I also like black and white as the base colors – our entire house has the same palette – with pops of bright colors.  I did not want to have a babyish nursery.  I wanted his room to last him through his toddler years, at least.  So, using the Zebra’s All Around and the Arrow Collection as a base print, we went from there.  My baby shower invitation used the same illustration/theme.

Using the single zebra as a jumping off point, along with the Fisher Price Bounce N’ Spin Zebra (hand-me-down from big brother, Hudson), and a Zebra crib toy that Hudson chose as his first present to his brother, we got started.  I love Andy Warhol/PopArt type collections, so she turned the black and white zebra into colorful prints that we matted and framed.

We made pillows using the Zebra and Arrow Fabric, then I re-purposed a super affordable Ikea baby bedding set into the striped pillow cases.  (It was a crib sheet.)  The curtain over the window actually used to be the bed skirt for the crib – when we moved in to our new house, the previous curtain didn’t fit – so I was thrilled that this worked!  We also opted for a mini-crib this time around.  Since we bed-share and use a pack-n-play in our bedroom most all of the time, this was a good option because the bedding is all the same size, and it will convert into a twin bed later.

The futon was a local buy from a friend, and we got a great deal on it – it’s serves us well as a great guest bed when we have family in town.  And, it’s a great height for Finn to climb on.  😉  The thumbprint tree was a Pinspiration and served as the “guest book” at my baby shower.  The letter was written by Hudson in church a couple of months after Finn was born.

The Beatles’ print was from Finn’s first birthday party – lyrics from “Beautiful Boy” – which was my “theme” song for Finn during my pregnancy.  The book is an old Folktale that we thought was pretty cool.

I am in LOVE with the Cubicals from Target.  They are affordable and an awesome way to stash store a lot of toys, without a lot of clutter showing.  I’ve officially entered into my minimalist stage, so organizational options like this make me very happy.

Finn’s bedroom door has a nameplate that was custom painted by a friend of mine from high school, using my baby shower invite as the inspiration.  On the top of his toy shelf, is a feather children’s toy from Brazil, lamp from ikea, and another one of K’s prints.

On the other side of the room, we opted to NOT use a standard changing table and instead I re-purposed a dresser that I bought off of Craigslist for $40.  I added some super cheap black knobs from Ikea.  The shelf above the dresser is also from Ikea.  I DIY’d the lantern mobile based on a mobile I saw on Pinterest.  It cost me less than $10.

The chair was a hand-me-down from my sis (wouldn’t fit in her apartment), and the dolls were mine as a kid.  The print is another KZ Original.  I’m still not thrilled with the closet, but it’s a work in progress.  It had those track sliding doors, which I can’t stand, so that was the first thing we took down when we moved in.  I re-used Hudson’s original changing table (from 6 years ago) as shelves, and it’s working well.  That was money well spent.  🙂

Anyway – overall, I really love the way that Finn’s room has turned out.  It is awesome to have a designer in the family, and I’m thrilled that I was able to re-purpose so many items and save some money.  I still want to paint the walls gray, since all of the furniture is white, but the rest of the house is still lacking any decor (yes, this is the ONLY room done in the new house), so painting will have to wait.

What is your favorite element of your kid’s room?  Any favorite DIY tips to share?