House Tour: Parker’s Big Boy Bedroom

Here’s Emily’s son’s room. I love the colors! Come back later today for the nursery and their sons’ bathroom…

“My three year olds’ bedroom was by far the funnest room for us to plan and decorate. We held off doing any planning until we found out we were having another boy. Once we got that news we knew the room could be all boy since our second boy will share this room with his big brother someday.

“For inspiration I love to look at boys bedrooms at Serena and Lily. My favorite bedding collection is this one. To start off the room we had to pick a bed. After seeing a post on jentrified of her son’s bedroom, I decided to do the same for Parker’s bed. Another hunt started for a spindle poster bed on Craigslist and we finally found one for $80. We spray painted it navy blue. (Ed. Note: Emily used Rustoleum’s Enamel spray line – my favorite. The navy blue is a really, really great color!)

“For the bedding I bought the Dwell for Target cars pattern when Parker was only 18 months because it was on clearance and I knew it was perfect for his future bedroom (yes, Todd raised his eyebrows at that one).

“To balance out the pattern I decided to make a solid quilt like the one at Serena and Lily. I ordered swatches of the Bella Solids from thefatquartershop.com so I could find the perfect combination. Once we settled on the right gray blue and a charcoal gray I ordered the fabric and the rest is history. The total cost was about $60 with batting.

“I really love the color orange and tried to incorporate it anywhere I could. I picked up a yard of an orange/cream check fabric by Denyse Schmidt and made another pillow. The bolster is a piece of selvage Jenny had. Next time I try to make a bolster, I’m consulting a seamstress. They are really hard to get perfect, as you can see I didn’t do a very good job. Oh well.

“We use the closet in this room for bedding storage, our vacuum, extra toys, etc. This meant that Parker needed a dresser. A campaign dresser came up on Craigslist for $15 so that solved the problem, kind of. I came to find out that there are “real” campaign pieces made out of wood and then there are fake ones made with particle board. Unfortunately, this one is the latter. But once again, Todd saved the day. He has been fixing each drawer as they start to break and it’s been great. Luck struck again a couple of months ago when I spotted another campaign dresser with the same dimensions on Craigslist. I went to check it out and sure enough it’s a real campaign (stamped and everything!) for only $30. It’s sitting in the garage waiting to get painted. Anyone want to buy a fake campaign dresser? :)

“I know we’ve seen it everywhere but I still love the Keep Calm Carry On print, it’s a great history story and we love to tell Parker to “stay calm” when he starts to spaz out (he’s really into signs these days and always asks us what the words say). However, we’re changing it up this week. It’s not done yet but we have all the ingredients to make this mirror to put above the campaign dresser and replace the Carry On print. Jenny recently did a round up of her favorite mirrors and when I saw this one I thought it would be wonderful in Parker’s room. I really wanted a mirror for his room but they all come off kind of girlish. This one, however, has great texture and is all boy.

“We found the lamp at Home Goods on clearance for $25 and the tray is a John Derian for Target. I love the Curious George lunch box with the little world globe on top (from ebay). The terrarium idea came after visiting the Davenport floral shop in Raleigh. If you live in the Raleigh area and haven’t been yet, I highly recommend it. This tutorial is really great. My one regret was not buying a taller piece of glass, it’s really hard to find plants that small. We recently replanted this terrarium since it died while we were on vacation this summer and turned off the AC. The new arrangement has a similar plant but now includes a pine cone, and a stick with a dead blue beetle on it (Parker found it while we were planting the terrarium – it was already dead). No surprise, Home Goods has the best selection of glass. I tried the thrift store route but couldn’t find any with lids and this is really important for creating the right environment for a terrarium. Hint – a terrarium will thrive anywhere there is a shadow. You don’t need sunlight or anything, just as long as there is a shadow. If you’ve been to Anthropologie lately, you’ve probably noticed the displays of succulents in mason jars. If you want to plant a succulent and have it live, you need to plant it on the surface, not down in the jar. Succulents need air and can’t have a cover like a normal terrarium. This is a great option for the winter when fresh flowers from the garden are not available.

(image by Emily)

“We found the activity table on Craigslist for $60. It was custom made for the family we bought it from and is solid. As I was checking it out and deciding whether to buy, the mom commented that her boys have been jumping on it for years. Sold. As you can see we painted it white on top, but painted the legs orange. I thought painting it all orange would be a bit too much. We also had a new surface cut and Todd added handles to the corners so it would be easy to move for when Parker wanted additional surface area. We use plastic bins underneath to keep the toys organized, kind of. Parker actually really loves dividing his toys between the three boxes but who knows how long that will last. I would love to get these rolling crates from Serena and Lily to put under the train table but that price is ridiculous. Instead I’m going to have my carpenter (aka Todd) build something similar to these.

“I am SO happy with the roman shades! They’re blackout lined and the fabric is absolutely perfect for a boys room. You can get the fabric here. You only need about 2.5 yards of fabric for a standard roman shade so these are super affordable. Just remember to take your 40% coupon to Joanns when you buy the blackout lining. Another great secret from a professional seamstress is to fabric glue the hems and sides! In fact, she told me that most seamstresses do this with their roman shades, very sneaky. FYI, Rowley Fringe Adhesive is the BEST fabric glue, at least my seamstress friend says so and I totally agree.

“I always wanted to use a chair as a bedside table but it always seemed unrealistic since we believe strongly in nightstands with a lot of storage. I found a set of vintage children’s Windsor chairs at the flea market for $8 each. The chair has actually been perfect as his bedside table. We usually keep his favorite books on the seat so they’re easy to grab while we’re lying in his bed. I thought we would sit on the chair to read books to him in bed but he prefers that we lay down with him.

“Finally, the book case. It was an antique when my parents bought it about 30+ years ago. It was my sister’s when she was a little girl and has been in my mom’s T.V. room for the past 20+ years holding all of her favorite books. I begged to have it when my mom re-decorated her T.V. room recently and they were happy to oblige. We had it shipped all the way from Washington state using uship.com. Has anyone else ever used this service before? It’s awesome, but you have to be flexible on dates to get the best price. The couple who delivered this bookcase was passing through my home town and were only there for three hours, my poor dad had to rush home from work and get it emptied and ready in time. A week later it was in North Carolina. It still cost $200 to ship but considering the distance, the fact that the piece was gifted, and is a sentimental piece, I easily justified the cost.

“We’ve since added about 100 more children’s books that my parents sent us. If there was a show for “Book Hoarders” my mom would be the star. She loves books and has been collecting them all her life. We tease her that we’re going to have a huge bonfire someday with all of her books but it really is one of her most charming traits. The book case is decorated with various trinkets from my childhood bedroom such as a kaleidoscope, decorative boxes/bowls and one of my grandpa’s farmer hats.

“The lamp is a three dollar thrift store find. The shade is from Target recovered in the same Thom Felicia fabric I used in our master bedroom, just in another colorway. If anyone has any ideas on what color to paint this lamp I would love to hear it. The cream is kind of boring, maybe orange?

“The print is a family tree we saw in Martha Stewart Living. You can find the template here.

The ceiling fixture is from eBay, but IKEA sells something very similar.

Sources:
Bookcase: gifted from parents
Bed: Craigslist
Navy Spray Paint: we’re out so I don’t know the exact color, found at Ace Hardware
Room Color: Horizon, Benjamin Moore
Frame for Family Tree: Target
Family tree print: Available here
Classic Children’s Books next to lamp: Anthropologie
Vintage children’s Windsor chair: flea market
Vintage fisherman’s pendant: ebay
Lamp: Thrift Store, shade is from Target, fabric is Thom Felicia
Prints above bed: 20X200, frames from Target
Car Duvet and sheets: Dwell for Target
Extra pillow: made with Denyse Schmidt fabric
Solid quilt: made with Bella Solids fabric, fatquartershop.com
Activity Table: Craigslist
Dresser: Craigslist
Paint on Dresser: Sweatshirt Gray, Benjamin Moore
Lamp on dresser: Home Goods
Bird Tray: John Derian for Target
Curious George lunch box: Home Goods
Vintage World Globe: ebay
Terrarium: glass is from Home Goods, rest of materials are Home Depot

Our thanks again to Jessica of JJ Horton Photography for the images.