Boys' Bunk Room Reveal

Ladies and Gents, this is the moment you've waited for....

The boys bunk room is DONE and I am so excited to share it with you! This room used to be our guest room, but we realized that we could make the space work for our family so much better if we turned this into a bunk room for all five boys and turned their old (bigger) room into a dedicated play room. I don't know about you, but there are a couple things I was tired of:

1. Boys playing with toys when they should be going to sleep.
2. Stepping on those toys when I go in to check on them at night. 
3. Boys who couldn't nap while their brothers played. Or play while their brother napped.

So we decided to ditch the guest room and create a dedicated sleeping space that is only for their beds, their clothes, and a their favorite books. This allows their bigger room to house the toys along with plenty of open floor space to play and, of course, the monkey bars + rockwall play area we built for them a couple Christmases ago. 

Ready to see how we fit FIVE BOYS (and all their clothes) into one room? Let's check it out!

**Returning to this post more than 3 years later...we still use these bunk beds every day. They've held up great and love them as much as ever!**

DIY Forest Mural (great for a boy's room!)

I've spent most of my adult life in the no-murals-ever camp. I didn't want anything too themed because I knew I'd get tired of it and want to change it, so what's the point? But then... we started collecting all these little boys and one day I was like "THEY WOULD LOVE A CAMPING ROOM." Then it took me all of five minutes longer to come up with a forest wall mural and throw my mural-morals to the wind. And I totally l.o.v.e. it.

If you follow me on instagram, you've probably seen a few peeks of the surprise we put in the boys room for Christmas. Their camping theme room (or maybe more of a wilderness theme, there aren't actually any tents) is complete with a mountain peak climbing wall, monkey bars, and swings. A real winter adventure zone for all these little fellas! We'll be sharing the plans for all that soon, but today we're staring with how we painted the mural wall (which is easier than you might think).

Our first step was painting that wall. Their room is the same blue-ish gray that it was when we bought the house (we've barely touched the upstairs at all), and I knew it needed to be lighter for our forest wall to pop.

You can see the original color to the left of the door.

Organizing the Boys' Room + Free Printable Toy Labels!

We have to make a choice. Keep the toys under control, or be overrun. We're doing our best to choose the former, and we've found two main weapons in this battle - limiting the number of toys we keep, and finding a way to organize/manage the ones we have. Most of the toys are stored in the boys' room, so that's where we've been targeting our organization tactics.

We want them to have plenty of space to play with the toys we have. Because toys do their job better when the boys have room to spread out and stretch their imaginations. Keeping fewer toys stored on the floor helps, and so does our Ikea bunk bed.

Next to the bed we keep our basket of board books (these are books the baby can pull out, too!) and a box of wooden blocks (also baby-friendly).

Two Kids, One Dresser {less really is more}

Our two boys have always shared a dresser. It started because we just had one dresser, but now it's become a more strategic move. Our house is about 1200 square feet, but we want to make it feel as big as possible. Especially in the winter when we tend to be more cooped up, we want to have plenty of room for the boys to run and play. One of the best ways we've done this is to be careful with how we use furniture. Because less furniture = more space. We don't keep pieces that aren't useful (we recently ditched our little-used coffee table for more open floor space in the living room) and try to make sure the pieces we do have are really functional for what we need.

So let's take a peek in their dresser. We have it organized with little brother's clothes in the bottom two drawers (so he can reach them), big brother's are in the next two (he's tall enough to see in both of his drawers), and the top drawer has all of their socks and other miscellaneous items like leg warmers, belts, and tiny bow ties. Let's do a quick dresser tour, starting at the bottom - in the very bottom drawer is an organizer bin with his little underwear and all of his shirts. Right now it's mostly short sleeves and tank tops, but there are a few long sleeves tucked in the back for chilly days. The next drawer has jammies on the left side and all of his shorts (plus a couple pairs of long pants).

Big brother's drawer are similar - shirts and underwear on bottom, jammies and pants on top.

Dresser Dilema... what would YOU do?

Update: see the finished dresser here!
We need some input on our next furniture makeover project! We brought this dresser home but can't decide what to do with it!

We've made it this far in parenthood with just one dresser shared by our two boys, but with baby #3 on the way it was clear we'd be needing a second pretty soon. So when we stumbled across this guy for just $10 we decided to go for it. The finish was pretty rough but it had nice, sturdy construction (hello, dovetail drawers!). We spent an afternoon sanding it down to bare wood and that's where we're stuck. We've been throwing around several ideas but can't settle on anything, and we'd love to hear what you would do! A couple notes:

• We'll be using this for kids clothes and want something that can grow with them for years without having to be redone. 
• It needs to go with light gray walls (side note: we moved the boys into the former guest room last weekend so they would have more space - surprise! - it's currently a darkish gray but we'll likely repaint it a lighter shade.

#1 - The White/Wood Combo
I've been digging this two-tone style lately but I'm afraid it's too trendy and we'll get tired of it before long. And if we do go with this style I can't decide if we should do white drawers with wood frame, or wood drawers with a white frame. Does pregnancy make me super indecisive? Maybe. I'm leaning toward a wood frame because the top wouldn't get marked up like a white top would.

images via pinterest here and here

#2 - Solid White
Clean, classic, simple. But hard to keep clean with little boys running rampant around here? I do think we'll probably like it for years to come.

image via pinterest

#3 - Keep it Wood
I've been favoring painted furniture lately, but maybe it's time to mix it up with another wood piece? I would normally stain anything wood, but once we sanded it down the grain is so pretty I've been considering just doing a clear coat to seal it (that would be a first for me!). The main problem with this plan is that once everything was sanded it became obvious one of the drawers is a much darker shade than the rest. Hmm.

image via pinterest

pretty wood grain peeking out

rogue drawer on the bottom left

#4 - Navy Blue
A little more adventurous than the other options, but not too crazy. It seems so pretty and fun. Maybe the boys room is a perfect place to take a little more risk?

images via pinterest here and here

Of course there's always the tropical island option. Jk, guys. Jk.

image via pinterest

I'd also love to do something pretty in the drawers if I can find a good price on some contact paper... anyone know where to look?

image via pinterest

Okay. You've seen the contestants, and it's time to vote! White and wood, solid white, plain wood, or navy blue (and of course we'd love to hear any other suggestions as well)?

What would you do with this dresser?

Big Boy Bookcase {free plans}

Last summer we did a full makeover to bring the nursery up to big-boy status (read all about it here). Part of the makeover included building a new storage-packed bookcase (based on this one by Land of Nod) to house the toys and books. Today we're sharing the plans so you can make your own!

On of our favorite features of this bookcase is the built-in bin at the bottom. It's perfect for corralling balls or those pesky stuffed animals that never want to stay put. Plus it easily converts to a regular shelf when the kids get older (you know, past the stuffed animal stage).

The three shelves hold lots of toys and are easily adjustable to fit your specific toys or bins. Plus you can add a fourth shelf if you have shorter toys to organize, or cut back to two to fit taller baskets. And if this isn't enough storage for you, just build a pair! The flat sides make this bookcase perfect for lining up multiple units side-by-side (like this).

Overall dimensions for one bookcase are 33 3/4" wide x 60 3/4" tall x 12" deep.

Dinosaur Curtains {two pairs of curtains from one set of sheets}

We finished the big boy room makeover way back in the spring, but today we're finally going to take a closer look at those dinosaur curtains! We used a sheet set to make light, airy curtains with an accent strip across the bottom. This is the story of how I squeezed two full sets of curtains out of one twin-size sheet set.

I had a terrible time finding the perfect thing. Big Brother loves dinos, but so many dino fabrics are babyish or crazy colorful. I really wanted something light, clean, and not cartoony. A thorough fabric search both in-store and online turned up nothing like what I was looking for (except one single fabric that was $30/yard. *faint*). So I broadened my search - duvets, sheets, shower curtains. Nothing was safe. And finally. Finally. I found something. It was a sheet set at Pottery Barn Kids that would just fit the bill. Except... where the actual bill was involved. Ideally you would want flat sheets for making curtains, and I like to plan on one curtain per window which would mean two flat sheets for this room. But PB only sells their sheets in sets. And a twin sheet set was $59 (but they have lots of great boy prints and most are on sale at the moment for $47). There was no way we had the budget to double that, so I just ordered one set and vowed to make it work! Another note - shipping was OUTRAGEOUS and we could not find a way to get it cheaper. Almost $20 between shipping & taxes. Definitely recommend buying in-store at PB Kids if you can.

When my sheets arrived I started by washing & drying them. Then I set to work on the fitted sheet first (since it was smaller and I could cut the flat to match whatever the final size would be).  I started by cutting right along the corner seams so the corners opened up flat like this:

Juniper Books Children's Library

I've read a lot lately about how important it is to read to your kids. And we really want to raise our boys with a love of books. Which is why we are so stinking excited about our new library of children's classic books!

Not only is it a wonderful collection of classic children's literature, but it's one we love to display because it is so pretty to look at!

This set includes 30 books from one of our new favorite book sellers - Juniper Books. They offer ready-to-ship and custom book sets for both kids and adults. You can check out the full list of the titles in this set here and see all their available collections here.

The children's classic set is really beautifully well made with bright colors and pictures. It has some great titles, including several great adventure books for little boys like The Swiss Family Robinson and Peter Pan. Plus a few of our favorites from our growing-up years!

Black Beauty, anyone? I don't know how many times I read this and dreamed of having a big black horse.

Here's a peek inside. It looks just like I remember!

Don't need any kids books? They have tons of other sets on the site for adults too. Husband and I have been drooling of the Harry Potter sets which... wait for it... come in custom jackets for the Hogwarts house of your choice. Hufflepuff all the way, baby.

Books are a great investment for your kids. In fact, books are one of the four gifts we plan to get our boys each year for Christmas (something they want, something they need, something to wear, and something to READ). And a beautiful set like this is something they can even pass on to their kids years down the road.

We can't wait to start reading these books to the boys. What are your favorite books to read with your kids? 

Disclaimer: We received consideration from Juniper Books for writing this post, however these are our honest opinions and we would never recommend a product we did not believe in. Happy reading!

Brainstorming with Sherwin-Williams

I've been thinking for a while now about how to bring our nursery up to speed. You know, since it's not actually a nursery anymore. It's been sort of thrown together and shifted around to grow with Big Brother, which has resulted in a kind of not functional-totally blah space. But its days are numbered because Sherwin-Williams is sponsoring a Big Boy Room makeover! They are giving us a chance to try out their Emerald™ paint and primer in one. It's the best paint with advanced stain blocking technology. But they really had me with its exceptional washability. A certain little boy has been known to color on the walls, so easy clean-up is an important factor for his own personal canvas... I mean bedroom. Besides testing out a great new paint, we'll also be using some really fun color selection tools.

But before we talk about where we're headed, let's look at where we've been. The colors and layout worked really well when we got it ready for our first bundle of squish. I still look at this picture and think, "Awwww, my baby's room!"

But times change. Tan walls are super boring when the room is for such a vibrant little fella (plus our second little fella will be moving in before too long!).  With a room that's just 9' x 11' we need every inch to pull its weight both with function and style. So we're making some plans:

Room for two little boys to sleep is the easy(ish) part. We can flip Big Brother's bed to make a loft on top and room for a second mattress underneath. This is assuming that Big Brother can safely scale the ladder before Baby Brother moves in (hence the "ish"), but that's looking pretty promising since he already climbs up and perches on the top rail. That's also called "giving your mother a heart attack."

Now on to the more pressing issues. Number one is the books. We need a place to stash them and this basket just isn't cutting it. Something like a small bookcase/nightstand might be the perfect fit.

Toy storage has also become an issue. Keeping in mind the room is small with two doors and two windows (which we are so thankful for) this is pretty much the only place that works. But our current set up of... wait for it... a small bookcase, three milk crates, and a tiny recycling bin... is bursting at the seams. We'll definitely be adding some hefty storage to hold all this and hopefully more.

The dresser is working for now with two drawers for each boy and one shared for socks and jammies. I feel like they'll probably need more drawers when they are bigger (and have bigger clothes), but we're probably just going to stick with this for now and cross that bridge when we come to it.

We'll be updating the curtains or at least adding a second panel to each window. Or we might hang some art to better fill the space by the windows instead.

The other big problem in this room are the colors. The walls are totally lifeless. And then there is every other color imaginable on the curtains, green bedding, and a blue canopy. Want to see more?

BOOM. It's rainbow and then some. Some better organization and storage will calm this area down, and some new paint should help tie everything together.

So let's have a little fun and see what kind of color this room needs!

First I played around a little with the Sherwin-Williams Chip It!®
 tool which can instantly turn any picture into a paint palette using more than 1,500 Sherwin-Williams paint colors. It works kind of like Pinterest because you can pick any picture on the web, hit your Chip It!® button, and Sherwin-Williams will create a palette with up to 10 colors that match. I played around with this art print hanging in their room. It was fun, but ultimately I didn't have one single picture that embodied everything I want for the room... so I had even more fun with the next tool!

Color Visualizer will turn your computer into a virtual design studio. With this tool you can actually put colors on the walls to see how they work together! They have stock photos like this you can work with:

Or you can upload your own photos to see how colors work in your actual room! We had some fun with this.

We knocked a few things out pretty fast, but there were a few front runners. We decided we definitely wanted to go with a grayish blue since it felt very boy but could still work as a neutral backdrop. We toyed with the idea of blue under the chair rail and light gray above, but that felt too formal for a little boy's room. We're still tossing around the idea of a green canopy to tie it into the bedding, but a little boy would be so sad to lose his moons (the white spots on the blue canopy) so I don't think we can do it.

SW 6230 Rainstorm, SW 6162 Ancient Marble

Next we tried something a little more dramatic with a solid blue wall. Hmmm, getting better.

SW 6230 Rainstorm, SW 6199 Rare Gray

Then we went even a little crazier with blue all around. But with such a small room I was afraid this would feel too small and dark, so it was knocked out of the running

SW 6230 Rainstorm

So we tried a compromise and dressed up the one-wall look with some horizontal stripes.

SW 6230 Rainstorm, SW 6162 Ancient Marble

We didn't want to totally abandon a solid color, though, so we tried it out with some lighter shades. It didn't tickle our fancy quite like the contrast that came with the darker blues, but the calm, cool feel still made it a favorite.

SW 7617 Mediterranean

When it was all said and done, SW 6230 Rainstorm and SW 7617 Mediterranean were our runaway favorites. So we ran down the street to our friendly neighborhood Sherwin-Williams store to grab the swatches and see how they played out in real life. We especially wanted to make sure whatever we chose went with the wood trim throughout the house. We taped up our favorites, along with the lighter and darker shades of each. Then the hard decision making started. We felt like our original two would feel a little too dark, but we still wanted a lot of contrast. So we were really drawn to the second from the bottom, SW 6221 Moody Blue. (I also got some light gray/white chips and we decided that a really light almost white would work best)

So we gave it a try in the Color Visualizer. It was great as an accent wall!

SW 6221 Moody Blue, SW 7010 White Duck

And then we had another idea to make things more exciting... stripes on the storage wall, anyone?

SW 6221 Moody Blue, SW 7010 White Duck

We made that little mock up and it was love at first sight. So that's the plan - one wall blue, two walls white, and one wall striped. We can't wait to share the finished product with you guys! In the mean time feel free to visit Chip It!® or Color Visualizer to create your own perfect color combinations. For even more tips and ideas you can check out Sherwin-Williams on Pinterest, Facebook, and Instagram.

But wait... there's more! Sherwin-Williams is giving away a $50 Sherwin-Williams gift card! To enter, all you have to do is answer this question:

What room would you make over with Sherwin-Williams?

Good luck and happy painting!

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