A Room to Grow Up In.
Becoming a big brother means an official big boy room! With our second child on the way, we decided to move Simon into a new room and keep the nursery mostly as is for now. We wanted to do this months in advance of the new baby coming so it felt special to him and not like we were kicking him out of his room to make room for the baby. It’s been a couple months now that he’s been sleeping in here and so far, goal achieved. He was so stoked about his new big boy space and loves showing it off to visitors. My design goal was to create a space that felt cozy, charming, & timeless. I wanted it to be kid friendly without being too juvenile so that as he grows up, he doesn’t grow out of it. At least not for a while hopefully!
A new space doesn’t need to be entirely new. To make this budget & earth friendly, we reused, thrifted and DIY’d a lot of things. A few years ago I repainted our spare room, which at the time was my home office. I kind of always envisioned it becoming Simon’s room when I painted it and felt like the color (Dark Olive by Benjamin Moore) was still perfect for his room. We decided to move our existing queen-sized bed frame & mattress into his room so that it can double as a guest bedroom when we have company. While I don’t really think a 3-year-old needs a Queen-sized, it made sense for our living situation. A platform bed also works well for a toddler since it’s lower to the ground making easier for him to get in and out. And yes, we did upgrade our bed in the process which was an added cost, but either way we needed to buy a bed so this was a win/win.
A few personal touches in the space include the cozy corner where he can read books and listen to stories, a Converse shoe inspired bank that once belonged to my husband, moon artwork above the bed (the kid loves the moon!), and a “Yes, You Can!” pennant from Oxford Pennants that we reference daily to a boy who often tells us he “can’t”. Overall, we all really love this room and I’m excited to see how it evolves as our little man grows up.
