Its finally here! I’ve been showing off some of the projects that have gone into my son’s new big boy room all month and its finally time to put them all together and show you the big picture.
And by big picture, I’m not kidding. This post will be very picture heavy!
You can follow these links to see the individual projects in the room:
This bedroom is themed all around this fire truck bed.
If you’ve been with me for a while you know that my son had a fire truck themed birthday party last year when he turned 2. His big gift was this big boy bed (great Craigslist find!).
After finding the bed we new his “big boy room” would definitely carry on the fire truck theme. With the impending arrival of a new baby, we decided to keep the nursery as is, and gave the spare bedroom a fun makeover fit for a toddler! (This project has been ongoing since February! With the new baby arriving at the end of March.)
The bedding for the truck was also a birthday gift.
BEFORE
This is a before look at the spare bedroom. It was mostly used when my parents would come to visit. Pretty much everything in this room left when we converted it to the big boy room. Most things were kept and stashed in the attic for future use. (Surely I can make that daybed look more masculine someday for one of boys…).
AFTER
And this is the after! New paint, new wainscoting, new furniture (and some not so new furniture with a fresh coat of paint!).
A room fit for my little “big boy.” 🙂
This is one of the main reason’s this room took so long to be put together. The beadboard wainscoting and trim. This was hubby’s job and unfortunately he was traveling a LOT during this second pregnancy. A lot like only home for a week per month. 🙁 It was hard to put him to work when he was home. I know he just wanted to relax and spend time with us! But we did have a deadline to at least get our big boy into this room and OUT of the nursery! And I couldn’t be happier with how the wainscoting turned out!
Another look at the far wall. Please ignore the people in the large frame to the left. I don’t know them… I knew I wanted the frame to go there (if you follow me on Facebook, this is the 16×20 frame I bragged about finding at Hobby Lobby for $5!), and I wanted it on the wall to get it out of the way until I had something to go in it.
To the right of the window are two vintage puzzles we scored at the Nashville flea market a couple of months ago! There will be another photo of them in a bit. And notice the curtains match the bedding! That was a great find on the internet. 🙂
And this is the 4th wall. The little fireman’s jacket is something my mom found and gave my son for his 1st birthday. Its way too small for him to wear now, but it makes for great decor! The plaque underneath it is a cast iron fireman’s shield. A great antique store find in Bell Buckle, TN!
The little desk was in the spare room as a tv stand (also an old flea market find). Now its where my son does his coloring. I’ve thought about painting it but haven’t conceded to the thought yet. The wood has so much character! The chair is an old schoolhouse chair from my son’s great grandmother. I do have some fun plans for this chair later on!
Behind the closet is ALL of the stuffed animals. We are big on stuffed animals aroud here! (I *might* have 3 garbage bags full of my own stuffed animals from childhood in the attic…I’m just sayin’!)
This toy box was mine when I was little. I’m thinking it might need a little Mod Podge love like I did to my shelves! Its currently storing holiday toys. The red bin on top holds all of my son’s mini photo albums. He LOVES looking at photos! All of the “baby animals” live on top of the toy box.
Also my son’s fireman hat and cowboy hat are hanging from 3M hooks. My boy LOVES his hats!
I’m pretty proud of the closet. I wish my own was this organized!
Let’s break it down…
1. The top of the closet has a set of shelves and baskets for holding extra pull-ups, more hats, toys, and whatever else I could stash up there out of sight.
2. LOVE these shelving bins that I found at Target! They are actually two sets of shelves stacked on top of each other. They hold a LOT of toys! Each drawer has its own theme of what they hold. And my son can easily get into them!
3. Last Christmas my son received a play cleaning set from my mom. Included was a broom, mop, duster, and small sweeper with a dust pan. My son loves to clean house! So they are hanging neatly on some 3M hooks in the closet.
Let’s jump over to my favorite corner of the room!! I just love the photo collage over the play kitchen. If you can’t tell from the first few pictures, this room has a seriously high ceiling. I can see this photo collage continuing to grow up and up!
The kitchen may possibly be my favorite thing in the entire room!! This was the BIG gift my son received at Christmas from us. I had big plans to make a kitchen myself, but it just wasn’t going to work out. This little retro kitchen couldn’t be better! And matches the decor perfectly!
I found this amazing Canvas Corp chalkboard paper at Hobby Lobby last week. I knew it would make a perfect banner for the kitchen! To attach the string, I simply loosened a couple of screws on the back of the refrigerator door, wrapped the string around them, then tightened them again.
I found various baskets at the Dollar Tree to hold the kitchen accessories (which were given by various family members at Christmas). The little rug in front of the kitchen is also from the Dollar Tree.
Next to the kitchen hangs my son’s grocery bag. Its hanging on a 3M hook (can you tell yet that I’m loving the 3M hooks??). My fabulous sister-in-law found this great bag and used iron on letters to personalize it for my little guy.
Attached to the left side of the kitchen are, you guessed it, 2 more 3M hooks! They hold the apron and chef’s hat. Personalized, of course, thanks to my wonderful aunt!
Let’s switch over to the opposite side of the room. This is our reading corner. The fire hall bookcase was an online Target find. Its fantastic! We have soooo many books its not funny. The hubs and I are big readers, and we’re definitely passing that on to our boys!
The black square floor pillow was a Walmart find, and the pillow sham is part of the bedding set, but is obviously too big for a toddler bed. But it works perfectly in our little nook!
And, of course, we have the Seuss printable and also a new shelf holding some of the fireman related books as well as a few fire trucks from my son’s collection hanging over the bookcase.
Just opposite of the bookcase are the two vintage puzzles I mentioned earlier. They are mounted in such a way that we can easily take them down if my son wants to play with them. But don’t they make for fun wall art?
Randomly, I also wanted to show off what I did to the clock on the wall. It was just a boring white so I used some wide black ribbon around the edge to spice it up a bit.
So what do you think? A room fit for a toddler?
My hopes are that this room will suit him for years to come, with just some changing around of some of the furniture as he grows. 🙂
mommyof3at928
Saturday 10th of November 2012
This is adorable, i wish i had this type of creativity. You have definately inspired my son's fire truck room. I'll be updating my blog with the status http://mommyof3at928.blogspot.com/
Michele {The Scrap Shoppe}
Tuesday 13th of November 2012
I would love to see it! :)
Save Money With Laura
Thursday 1st of March 2012
I just found your site by your Dr Seuss Printable. What a cute bedroom, I really love what you did. There are so many cute parts to the room I guess I would have to pick the reading area as a favorite, just the details of the fire books and then the motivational Dr Seuss print is just perfect! Great job! I am putting a Free page together with all the Dr Seuss things I can find to celebrate his 108TH birthday. I will add a link to your blog where people can print your freebie. Thank you so much for sharing and I WILL be back to see what other great things you have done. Please come by my Free blog, Smart Moms Saving Money. :)
Alison@Oopsey Daisy
Thursday 4th of August 2011
WOW!! Michele, this entire room turned out incredible!! I LOVE this! My little guy would probably never want to leave this bedroom :) I can't imagine all the work that went into it. Well done, my friend!!
~Beth D.
Tuesday 2nd of August 2011
This is fabulous! i love the fireman jacket on the wall. great idea! My son has a race car room and I'm trying to think how to incorporate something like that!
Kara @ Mine for the Making
Saturday 30th of July 2011
Way cute! I love all of the little details. And I want his kitchen...just bigger ;)