Here is how the room looked when we bought the house:
And when we moved in, I put Quentin's crib on the wall, painted his name over it, and called it good My original thought was to paint his name HUGE on the wall, and then have photos right overtop in the middle of it. But, this is how it turned out.
At a garage sale I found a bright blue metal bed for $15. So this was my item to "work around."
It appeared to be the color of painters tape, which inspired me for stripes on the wall. I didn't love creamy-beige-offwhite color of his room, but instead of painting the whole thing, I wanted to blend this color with more of the contemporary pops of color. So I painted white stripes over the bed area (to accent the high ceiling peak) and used blue painters tape to cover my wobbly lines. I had to paint over the "Quentin" name - so that determined where to start my stripes. I decided I didn't care if they were all equal sizes.
This is how it looked after completing the stripes:
My favorite wall art would be one very large scale piece that was fun and had good colors for my room. However, I have a closet filled with odds and ends, and it was more prudent to use those. This is what I came up with:
I put the crib on the other side of the room:
If I were choosing - brown wouldn't be my accent color. but since I had the brown curtains already, I went with it. And my sister in law had given us this brown elephant blanket years ago. It was nice to pull it out again. The gold lampshades were on clearance, so I was happy that the brown could welcome those tones in.
If I were choosing, a Restoration Hardware look would have been my preference - beautiful layers of neutrals. But since I found the blue bed, I knew I needed to scoop up that price and work with it. And having brown curtains made me need to embrace that - as well as the beige walls. That meant I get to narrow my options, which is actually VERY FREEING. If I had unlimited options, I'd be overwhelmed and not confident that I was making the best choice. But there is a lot of freedom within limits! Since I was going blue, orange is the opposite on the color wheel and so it easily compliments. I knew I was looking for things in blue and orange, and that was a a fun hunt.
This was my most expensive side:
This "poof" was $15 at Walmart.
The lampshade was $10 clearance at Target
The lamp was $15 clearance at Lowes
And the alarm clock is that cool "display on the ceiling" that was originally $65 and I bought for $10 at Tuesday Morning (nice clearance area!)
The blue tray was also Tuesday Morning clearance for $3 and the blue pillowcase another $3
The giraffes are from a friend in Brazil
I wasn't strict with "orange only" - this was a $3 chair from goodwill that is red, but I'm still using it.
Even though I have blue and brown, it doesn't bother me to throw some black in too. Here is a window that a friend gave me. In our old house I had made these drawings for the boys room, so I used them again here by gluing them to the window glass.
Dresser $10 at a garage sale. Not a great dresser, but it works.
The truck was 80% off on clearance at Hobby Lobby.
The outside view is a nice feature of the room too
And one last photo:
This was a fun project - not very expensive and a drastic difference. I wanted a "teen" feel to the room, so that it was balanced between my son feeling like it was his room, and adults still feeling comfortable and welcome at our home. A "teen" feel seems to bridge that gap between a 3 year old and 33 year old.
God really helped things fall into place and gave me cooperative kids and smiled on the project, and it was nice to spend time with Him doing this.
You did such a great job Karianne! The art collage wall is my favorite. Your house is so very creative...thanks for sharing and inspiring!
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