Tour: Boy's Room

It's been awhile since I've posted a room tour. It seems there's always just one more thing to do. Niels and I finished several projects in the last few weeks so I hope to have a few more of these going up soon. In the meantime, here is a tour of our newly-completed boy's room.

Our son is now four. He was two-and-a-half when we started building. In our old house, he was still in his nursery, which was a slightly lighter blue and chocolate. His favorite color had been yellow for quite awhile, and while he campaigned hard for a yellow room, we're all happy that we went with blue (Sherwin Williams Scanda, to be precise) because now blue is his favorite color. 

D's two favorite things are trains and books, followed closely by Legos, blocks, planes and rockets. As a general rule, we use our bedrooms mostly for sleeping. Most of D's toys are in the basement, but he can have quiet toys in his room: books, stuffed animals, a drawing board, and occasionally a Lego creation or an odd train make their way up. 

Two things we love about our son are his love of reading and his willingness to take naps. So he spends a decent amount of time in here. We wanted it to be a peaceful place with lots of words to inspire and encourage him to be a boy who makes loves God and makes good choices. 

When we were designing the upstairs, we had the option of making the space below into a retreat area in our room, part of D's walk-in closet, or a space for our son. We chose to make it into a book nook (or a super-secret-hiding place, depending on D's mood). When he's a little older, we may turn it into an indoor tree house, and when he's much older, we can turn it into a desk space.

Our family is not big into clothes. Niels and I decided early on to keep D's wardrobe fairly small since he grows out of things so quickly. We keep the vast majority of his clothes in the dresser under his gallery with underthings in the armoire. 

When he's older and more concerned about what he wears, he'll likely use his closet for clothes, but for now, his closet holds mostly books and a few dressier items and jackets.  

I bought these two laundry baskets on clearance for $5. They're just a little too big for our shelf, but they work well enough for D's spare sheets and sleeping bag (Thomas the Train, of course). The other basket holds his "friends," all the stuffed animals that he no longer plays with but isn't ready to donate.

The walls have lots of juts and bumps, but I think we made the most of them. These shelves hold D's treasures, like photos of his namesakes, a sculpture of a little Chinese boy that I bought when I was in China, a train wire sculpture made by his grampa, and a train made of the letters of his name, which we bought in Paris. The Thomas the Train hooks were much-appreciated gift from a friend.

D's armoire holds his radio, underwear, socks, shorts, and PJs.

I love that the totes and drawers are at D's level so he can put away his own clothes.

Along the side we have a verse and the guide to living we wrote for him for his baby dedication.

Every little boy's room needs a bottle of scary spray to keep monsters, shadows, and any other frightening things a little boys can imagine. (It's water with a few drops of peppermint essential oil). 

The last item on our to do list was this gallery of (mostly free) printables. The good night art is based on the phrases we say to D each night in English and Dutch.

I was very proud of this night stand makeover. It was my first attempt at painting furniture. Certainly not perfect, but much improved from the orangish hue of the previous incarnation.

D's library box is always close at hand and full of books. I bought about twenty of this bins for $5 each at Ollie's. I learned my lesson to buy as many matching totes as I think I will possibly need all at once. It was a good thing I did because they were all gone the next time I looked for them. I made simple labels for all the totes because our son has inherited my love of order. 

Our little engineer loves his train pillows. 

One of the first accessories I found for the room was a lucky find. I had seen this boy's room with the words "soar" and thought it was a great sentiment for boy's room. One day I was at Big Lots and found this sign on clearance for $10! All three of our colors, a plane, and the word soar. Big score for Mommy!

Most things in D's room (other than his furniture) are either second hand or DIY projects. Our one splurge was getting organic sheets. Since D is a good sleeper and has allergies, we coughed up the big bucks for these Pottery Barn train sheets. We are definitely getting our money's worth out of them. 

The ceiling fan above D's bed is the Hunter Ashlyn 42" white ceiling fan, with the blades and pull replaced by Hunter blue/green airplane blades.

The ABC/I Heart You art is a carry over from his nursery. I bought it at Target about three years ago. 

Above the book nook hangs an international mobile I found while I was still single. I love that it has a Dutch person on it. 

Wrapped around the three walls of the nook is this alphabet train from the dollar store. 

I bought these letters from Hobby Lobby and attached them to the wall with magnets after a certain someone tore them down. If I had known about command strips, I would have used those instead, but the magnets are fun, too. 

D is very particular about the books in his book nook. On the left side, he has his favorite books on top, with his "God" books on the lower shelf. 

The center shelves are all about transportation, especially Thomas the Train.

The shelf on the right holds his Dutch language and cultural books. He has many more books of each category in his closet and we rotate them around fairly often.

Under the Dutch shelf is this personalized art display. 

In case you've missed the other tours, you can also see our kitchen, pantry, family bathroom, guest room, and laundry room. You can also take a paint tour.

Thanks for taking the tour!

Linked to:
36th Avenue * Between Naps on the Front Porch * Crystal & Co. * Dedicated House * Diana Rambles * DIY Dreamer * Fluster Buster * House of Hepworths * Housewife How To's * I Heart Naptime * It's Overflowing * Just a Girl and Her Blog *  Made in a Day * My Uncommon Slice of Suburbia * Not Just a Housewife * Real Coake * Thrifty Decor Chick * Wait Til Your Father Gets Home