a room for the boys: creating a shared space.

upstairs renovation: part two// shared boys room.

With the birth of their sister fast approaching, Kevin and I have been working on turning our 2 year old's bedroom into a room to share with his 16 month old (nearly) brother.  

This project has been all fun for me, other than moving everything out of the room for new carpet (see upstairs reno part one here) and anticipating the actual process of getting our now baby to sleep in a big boy bed and have both the boys adjust to sharing their sleeping space with someone else (a process we haven't actually tried to tackle yet, baby is a tricky sleeper). 

We knew that a room for 2 toddlers had to be sturdy, practical and tough so there is nothing fragile within reach of little fingers in this space. We also tried to leave as much open play space as possible and have easy access places for toys, blankets and clothes.

We (like most) are always trying to minimize costs as much as possible so much of what you see in this room is handmade, made-over or the cheapest (that is still very hardy) that money can buy.  It amazes me how much you can do yourself. 

Luckily we both love creating, in our own ways, so this would probably fit the bill even if we had a bigger budget. (links/sources at bottom of the post)

It also helps us to plan way ahead for two main reasons; 

First, we can build or buy over a period of time and budget accordingly.

Second, it gives us time to do lots of searching and research for the very best deals and options as well as allowing time to look for items or paint or whatever to go on sale.

I'm all about rooms growing with kids, so nothing in this room (or the nursery for that matter) is innately babyish. Along this same line we chose to have full twin size beds instead of toddler sized beds that would necessitate the purchase of bigger beds down the road.

I really hope that getting these boys used to sleeping in each other's space goes as smoothly as creating a space for them to share did...suggestions or success stories welcome. :)

dresser: ikea// tarva five drawer

dresser knobs: home depot// liberty model#P65015C-SN-C

dresser stain: home depot
bed frames: kevin

art work/quotes: me, kevin and lee

pom pom garland: me (tutorial here)

duvet covers: h&m (both sold out but this would be awesome for a little guy)

storage unit (between beds): ikea// besta tv unit

baskets in storage unit: home goods

legs: home depot

stuffed animals on beds: amazon

quilts: grandma :)

bike hooks: hobby lobby

before and after: our home a year later. (or part of it anyway)

Way back in October Kevin ripped out all the carpet on our main floor (3 rooms) and put in hardwood floors while the boys and I were away visiting family. (renovation post here)  
Now that we've been in the house for a little over a year now, I'm finally getting around to taking and posting "before" and "after" pictures of the front and family rooms.

It's been crazy and happy for me to see all that we've been able to do to make this home our own in this first year. (first home tour here) We always have a million DIY and renovation projects buzzing around in our heads, and now that we are blessed enough to own a home we are finally able to try some of them, it's something we've really learned to love doing together and something we both feel passionate about.
We had our second boy the morning after we moved into our house and it's been a crazy whirlwind ever since.

Anyway....if you're a sucker for renovation "before" and "after" projects like I am, here it *finally* is.

Front room:

BEFORE:

Front Room: 

AFTER:

Renovation, in the middle of it, really isn't pretty, it's messy, always more time consuming than you planned, stressful and crazy. And if you're in a similar life situation to us, timelines get d r a g g e d out. We didn't get our new baseboards in for a good month after the new floors were in.

But, with some planning and lots of deep breathing :) it can be SO worth it, monetarily of course, but it also brings a lot of satisfaction to see something from the planning/envisioning stages through reality adjustments and then to the final product.

Family Room:

BEFORE:

The home had these funky shades separating the front and family rooms that we hated, such a waste of space. So Kevin tore those out (the day I came home from the hospital with our second I think) and put in see-through shelves. Which we LOVE.

Family Room:

AFTER:

glass pieces: antique chemistry pieces Kevin found//vase: Pier 1 Imports

bird: West Elm//vase: Target//candle holder: H&M

We have some other changes in the works and in the planning phase. (most of them unplanned until recently, thank you 20 year old house...) 

I realized I never even did a full house tour when we moved in so I'll work on getting the undocumented spaces up on the blog too, for my record if nothing else. :) I love being able to look back at pictures of where we've been.