Decorating A Boys Room Hunting Fishing

As with all DIY projects, the boys' room redo took much longer than expected, but hip, hip, hooray it's done! It all started with this design board. Next we repainted the walls, stained some shelves and installed a new light. And then end-of-summer-fun and back-to-school craziness and a few project hiccups later, I finally spent this past weekend finishing up the space. It came together just as hoped – merging my neutral-loving aesthetic with boyish charm and lots of personal touches.

Welcome to the new and improved boys' room.

vintage-outdoorsy-boys-room

Our three boys {ages 9, 8, 5} share this room and a couple of things were important in the redesign.

1. It needed to feel light and bright. The two sets of bunk beds are dark and take up over half of the room, so it was necessary to balance the space with lots of white.
2. The boys wanted their own reading lights and places to keep their special things.
3. We wanted the room to reflect the boys and stay away from being overly theme-y or feeling too young.

I think we succeeded at all three.

bunk-beds-and-windows

The walls are now white, the ceiling is faintly blue and a custom window treatment {by my mom} made of painters drop cloths runs across the entire window wall. It's amazing the difference a fresh coat of paint made in the room. The previous color was a nice neutral beigey-gray, but it just felt so dark. I was nervous going white, but after seeing this room transformation, we're seriously considering painting our whole house white.

shelves,-chair,-anters

The inexpensive shelves hold a quirky mix of the boy's favorite things: books, baseball cards, trophies, a bottle cap collection and a few pieces of drift wood from their favorite beach.

shelf-styling-pinecone-print-dot-garland

The stamped wood round sits on the shelf next to a couple of my oldest's beloved hardy boys books.

wood-round-and-hardy-boys-books

bed-and-chair-from-above

That woven footstool turns out to be a great multi-purpose piece: I love it for propping my feet up while I read at night, the boys love it for stashing random toys when it's time to pick up their room.

On the other side of the room are two more bunks, an old chippy dresser and new art wall.

boys-room-dresser-and-bunk-beds

Each bed has it's own reading light, a metal wall locker and cork board for saving special notes and photos.

guest-bed-with-light-locker-and-cork-board

reading-light-locker-cork-board

The collected art is really where the concept for the room began.

boys-room-collage-wall-seek-adventure

The Be Brave canvas was the starting point, then came this darling camping/hunting print.

wall-of-art-with-dresser

With the chalkboard antler print, a photo of No. 2 on our favorite beach, Atlas' announcement, a mini version of the Make Good Choices print, a pinecone print, painted canvas and striped bunting, it makes for a eclectic, yet clean little grouping.

cork-wall-in-boys-room

One of my favorite features {and the one that caused the most headache} is this cork wall. It is just a small wall right when you enter the room and it seemed like the perfect place for the kids to tack up special photos, awards, notes. I'll share all the details of this project fiasco later this week, but for now I'm just happy that those tiles are finally stuck to that wall.

be-brave-strong-and-courageous-lindsay-letters-canvas

I finished all of the last minute touches late on saturday night while the boys had a sleepover in the bonus room. When they saw the finished room in the morning, they were so excited {well, as excited as a 9, 8 and 5 year old boy gets about a finished bedroom} and that made the whole thing worth it. It's bright and charming, clean and boyish … just the look we were hoping for.

I'll share a full list of sources this week, but if you have any specific questions, please leave a comment and I'll respond back with the answer.

//UPDATE//

for all of the sources, click here.