My son's bedroom revealed!

Thanks for your wonderful comments on my son's bedroom last week! Some of you have asked me if my son loves his bedroom, the answer is yes. The proof? My son, Isaac kept saying he loved his "beautiful bedroom" for a few days in a row after the room was finished and that makes mommy really happy!

Before we go into the details, I would like to say a big thank you to Linda from Calling It Home, the creator of The Room One Challenge (ORC) for inviting me to participate in this challenge. Without this challenge, the bedroom will never be completed, knowing full well the ultimate procrastinator that I was. If you are new to my blog and unsure of what the One Room Challenge is all about, you might want to check out the details here. 

As promised, I will discuss my thought process behind the design of this room and share the resources at the end of this post. 

Before the transformation, I had a general idea of what I wanted for the room. My goal is to turn the room from claustrophobic to bright and airy. This room started out as a bright lime green box with white mini blind and Pergo laminate wood floors. I knew the wall color and mini blind had to go!

I decided to have the room primed and painted in white with a focal wall. My initial idea is to have horizontal wood planks as the focal wall (we even saved the wood planks from the deck removal) but my husband rejected the idea in the end. He was concerned that the wood planks might contain harmful chemicals so I went with Plan B and painted the focal wall with stripes instead.

My goal is to create a fresh, fun and functional bedroom for Isaac on a tiny budget. This small bedroom has to multitask as a place for him to work, play and sleep so it needed a desk, a play area, a storage for toys and a bed. I had to admit, it was definitely a design and budget challenge but I love a good challenge so there was a lot of measuring and online product sourcing during the initial stage! :)

Like all rooms in our home, we decorate on a small budget so I always purchase inexpensive items that will give me the most bang for my buck. The design for the whole room started with the wall decal that I found at Meijer a few years ago. The wall decal were colorful and playful and most importantly, it was on clearance. It only costed me $12.99. 

I knew I wanted the wall decal to make a design statement so instead of adhering them to the wall like they were intended originally, I put my wall decals on large canvases so they look like a series of artwork. 

Remember the problems I had with the peeling decals? I used super glue for a quick fix (okay, not so quick fix). I was being careful not to get any of the super glue on my fingers but alas, I worked for almost an hour (pressing and lifting the decals) so I still ended up with some of the glue on my fingers. I cleaned with vinegar and nail polish remover for the next half an hour. Note to self: Always remember to wear a disposable glove when I am working with super glue! 



Anyway, I stumbled upon a striped rug on clearance with a similar color scheme like the wall decal the following year. To be honest, I got the rug because it was a steal and I love the colors and size for my son's bedroom, not realizing that it had all the colors found on the wall decal! When I got home, I put the rug and wall decal side-by-side and realized they were a perfect match! I was ready to make them work even if the colors don't go together so I scored on that one!

Before I started this project, I thought about getting a navy blue or olive green velvet headboard (preferably with nailheads) for the bed. However, knowing that we planned for a second child in the future, this bedroom will be shared. And that means we will need two identical velvet headboards.  Two velvet headboards are definitely out of our budget, plus, with two beds inside this small room, my son will not have an area to play at all. 

Since getting two beds are out of the question, another option is to get a bunk bed. After a lot of thinking, I realized that a bunk bed might overwhelmed the small room. In the end, we got a white trundle bed because it was the perfect solution for a small (shared) bedroom and for our budget.

For the window treatment, getting a roman shade with a blue trim would be ideal but it will threw our budget off so we got these beautiful striped curtains on clearance instead. 

Since we already have the striped wall (thick stripes), colorful striped rug (colorful stripes) and striped curtains (thin stripes) in the room, I decided to introduce a similar yet different pattern for the quilt or comforter. While stripes is my all-time favorite pattern, adding another striped item to the room will be too matchy-matchy and over the top. So, chevron it is for the bedding!

The cardboard moose head was not part of the design plan earlier but I decided to incorporate it when I had a chance to do a review. I thought the moose head added a bit of quirkiness and an unexpected element in the bedroom.

The desk lamp I received from Rejuvenation was a great addition to this room. It is perfect for balancing the light from the green teardrop table lamp I had earlier. The desk lamp was even more stunning in person and felt very solid. Did I mention it came with a wonderful CFL light bulb, too? I had been going back and forth about getting one in aged brass but I knew the polished nickel would be a better choice for this room. 

I have changed the shade for the green teardrop lamp because the original lamp had a yellowish shade that I didn't like. I think the bright white shade looked better for the clean, crisp look I was going for in this bedroom.

I actually bought the 'Now Panic And Freak Out' pillow for my living room (I bought the same pillows in 3 colors- red, green and black so I could switch them every now and then) but decided the red one would look best in my son's bedroom so the pillow is officially his now.

Because the room is so small and Isaac had a ton of toys, we got him two vertical storage systems to fit all (most of) his toys. I didn't plan for a laundry hamper in the room at first but I thought the nook was perfect for it. Now my son knows where to put this dirty clothes and pants.

I got 'The Country Gentleman' canvas art not knowing where to put it earlier but I guess it worked for this bedroom.

I had to remove the clock's battery before taking pictures so the "moving eyes" wouldn't turn out blurry.

This clock was actually the first thing I bought for Isaac's bedroom when I visited a gift shop about 6 years ago. I was drawn to the whimsical element of it. If you have noticed, the clock had the same colors as the puppy hooks so they worked well together, again happy accident! 

When the clock was hung, Isaac was extremely excited! In his own words, he really "likes his beautiful clock".

The puppy hooks make me smile every time I look at it. I just love how adorable they are!

Isaac's very own mini art gallery. 

I had plans to incorporate more artwork next to each side of the curtains but decided against it because I was afraid that the room might look too busy. By leaving the walls blank, I thought it gave the room the breathing space it needed.

The floating branch was actually a DIY project that I had been procrastinating for over a year. I have always like the DIY yarn wrapped branch idea I frequently stumbled upon on Pinterest. I decided to make a similar one for my son's bedroom when one of the branches from our Birch tree broke one day. What can I say? The project was meant to be!

The initial idea was to make a branch mobile by hanging a few paper airplanes from the branch. However, I didn't like how the airplanes turned out so I just hang the branch instead. I also felt the paper airplanes might compete/ clash with the rest of the colorful accessories I was planning to add later. So, floating branch art installation it is!

I hope you enjoy reading about what goes behind my crazy design brain in this long-winded post. Now, let's get to the best part, the resources!

The resources:

Wall paint: Decorator White from Behr

Wall paint (stripes): 780E- 3 Sterling from Behr

Wall decal: $12.99, on clearance from Meijer

Blank canvases: $7-$8 each (using 40% off coupons) from Michaels

Green teardrop table lamp: $18, on clearance from HomeGoods

Polished nickel desk lamp: Free (sponsored) from Rejuvenation

Cardboard moose head: Free (in exchange for a review) from  Uncommon Goods

Leather rhino: $5-$6, on clearance and I used my credit from Pottery Barn

Small trains: $2 from neighborhood yard sale

Alarm clock: $12.99? from Target

Pencil cup: Free (in exchange for a review) from See Jane Work

Pencils: $3-5 from Meijer

Branch: Free

Yarn: $9-$10 (all 3 colors) from Michaels

Striped curtains: $35 each (discontinued), on clearance from PB Teen

Curtain rod: Free, inherited from our previous master bedroom (discontinued) from Z Gallerie

Trundle bed: $350-$400 (discontinued) from Daz Furniture

Rug: $29.99 (discontinued) from Crate & Barrel

Chevron quilt and sham: $130-$140 on clearance (discontinued) from PB Teen

White sheet set and pillow case: $120 (out of stock) from PB Teen

Now Panic And Freak Out Pillow: $17.99 from HomeGoods

Desk: $69-$79 (out of stock/ discontinued?) from Ikea

Chair: $79 from Ikea

Trash can: $5 from Bed, Bath and Beyond

Laundry hamper: $7.99 from Ikea

Hooks: $2.99 each from Ikea

Wall clock (Karlsson): $35 from a gift shop

Toy storage system: $39.99 (each) from Ikea

Blue storage box: $5 (each) from Ikea

Red storage box: $4 (each) from Ikea

Green storage box (each ) from Ikea

Frames: $3.74 each (on clearance) from Target

Sphere: Free (I used my design dollars), (discontinued) on clearance from West Elm

Apple: $5-$6 from HomeGoods

Artwork: $29.90 from HomeGoods

Curtain wire: $12.99 from Ikea

Curtain hook with clips: $2.99 from Ikea

Art frame: $9.99 from Ikea

Printable art: Free design (giveaway win) from Plum Street Prints (printed on glossy paper at Target for $2.89)

Bean bag: $17.50 on clearance (discontinued) from Target

I hope you enjoy checking out my son's bedroom. Thanks again for all your lovely comments last Wednesday! I really appreciate it.

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