Modern Dragon Trainer

Once upon a time (about fourteen years ago) a new couple moved into a house ready to have their first child.  They wanted the perfect nursery with realistic animals and painted something like this.

Cute right?  There was the crib, the bamboo ceiling fan and it was perfect FOR A TODDLER!

Fast forward fourteen years and guess what, it’s still there!  I haven’t been able to paint over it and my tween son had to live with it until he moved into the teen room that I wrote about last year.

So my little guy moved into this room and while he loves animals, he was over this space.  He wanted dragons and more specifically he wanted “How to Train Your Dragon” bedding.

Character bedding.

Not my favorite thing to work with.  So I got to thinking and planning (around the same time I planned the other two rooms, A YEAR AGO) and started collecting items.  First up, the bedding.  Ugh.  And then this month I got to work.  I painted over all of the animal murals (after taking 10,000 photos) with a more modern blue. Selected an accent color to keep it fun and added in the fun stuff.

The toothless decal came from this shop.  The gentleman there was really great to work with and took time to write up installation instructions and everything.  So helpful.  And then the fan blades came from this shop.  I purchased a regular black and chrome fan from the store and switched out the blades.

This is the bedding that I had to work with.  Fortunately with the “treehouse bed” (that’s what we call it) it’s not on display as much as if it were a standard style bed. Down the road when he’s tired of this the decal will peel off and I can switch out the bedding/accessories.  Definitely less of a commitment than the safari murals (hello learning experience)!

To know me to to know that I can’t stand empty walls.  Over the summer I collected How to Train you Dragon artwork from various shops.

This little corner is a little busier than I’d like but he need a bulletin board to display his artwork. He also has lots of lego folks so the letterpress tray holds them nicely now (once HE fills it up).  He also inherited the bookshelf below that I technically should have painted white but I got lazy.  🙂

And then the little plush dragon are hanging on fishing line with alligator clips at the end.  Quite possible his favorite part of the room. He can unclip them whenever he’d like to play.

It’s quite a makeover but my dragon trainer is pleased.  And it’s a little more modern looking so his parents are pleased.

 

Taming the rainbow

Recently I finished a room makeover for my gal.  What I shouldn’t tell you is that I started planning it a year ago. I’d like to think that was because I’m detailed and thorough and wanted everything to be perfect.  But the reality was that I have three kiddos and it was summer break and well you know how that goes.

So twelve months later I was able to carve out some time and get to work.  Because I was so eager (sure…eager) I forgot to photograph the before shots. And I do have room photos taken years ago when it was a little kiddo space…but I can’t find them. I promise that I’m more together in my daily life.  But I do have this photo.

Taken before the whole transformation went down.  Goodbye aqua walls.  Goodbye cherry tree with five symbolic birds.  Goodbye other stuff that you can’t see in the photo.

And hello to a bigger girl space.  She wanted yellow. Well actually she wanted rainbow until I said pick one color and we will incorporate the rainbow.

This is what I can up with:

The wallpaper covered the cherry tree and we kept the curtains, bed and the chandelier.

She inherited a new dresser (from little brothers room who gets a makeover next) and a new “doll house” for the American Girls (AND THEIR STUFF).

She got lots of frames and a message board for organizing artwork, notes and other important nine year old things.  And of course she got a faux turquoise deer head (aka Rosana).

The room will never be this clean again so I took extra photos.  🙂

And finally we turned the wardrobe into a desk area because she WANTED a desk area and I wanted the wardrobe.  See how well I compromise?  Team player here!

So there you have it.  A room fit for a nine year old.

Up next, a safari nursery makeover for my little dragon trainer.  Wish me luck!

Teen Room

I really shouldn’t admit this BUT, my poor teenage boy has lived in his little kid room for about 13 years now.  Annnnnd….he’s 13.  It was time to give him a more mature and simplified space.

Recently we completed an addition on our house so we shuffled rooms around. His room got a new coat of off-white paint.  This is huge for me, lover of all things color.  I made him a big bulletin board (his request) that I mounted on a painted blue rectangle.

And then added music related accessories.  The guitar in another painted blue square and then framed album covers.

Keeping the paint color neutral really helped the albums on the wall pop.  Here is the room with the furniture added.  I found this really cool vintage snare drum that was turned into a lamp.

And then the whole room with the bed.

I need to work on cord management next!  We are both really pleased with the room.