The Remaking of a Boy Room: A Train Room to A Camp Room
I enjoy updating rooms and spaces to make them more purposeful, joyful, and functional. For weeks, we planned on updating one of the boys’ rooms from a train room to a camp inspired room which matched his love of the outdoors, hiking, and rock collecting (and also Legos, we cannot forget the Legos). This young man is also going into the 5th grade, so a room upgrade was needed to match his interest and to better organize his space (he is a pack rat, drives me up a wall!). Below is the photos of the room before.
We didn’t have to paint walls or install any woodwork, so that was a huge bonus. But we did invest in a few new items, but we also found ways to repurpose a lot of the items I have collected over the years to use in this space. Lots of time on Pinterest and looking at magazines led to hitting up some local antique stores for décor items such as old books, oars, and signs. At the end of the day, this was a quick, easy and fun update (took about 5 hours).
I used old adventure books to help provide color and add interest in spaces and height (like on the dresser). Small railroad lamps, which also look like camping lamps, we already had in the room. A small fake campfire, fake wood stump (which serves as storage) and a new butterfly chair (leather chair in the coroner) provide a more mature but fun space to read, play and relax.
The oars, I love the oars! I found them at an antique store, and they were rough. I paid $50 for the pair, and we sanded them down and I choose red because I wanted to hang them on the navy wall above his bed. Red would stand out and I added yellow strips, that was a last-minute decision, but they turned out perfect!
Park prints and signs are all around the room and I hope to add more. The prints that line the edge shelf are numerous park poster reprints and some of the framed artwork is from Pinterest via free printable downloads. The glass apothecary jar on this dresser once contained Legos and now is filled with rocks and seashells (he has collected from trips and adventures).
The bed was the major cost. We upgraded the bed from a twin to a queen and got new forest animal bedding from Amazon ($34.99). The bed is from Amazon but like ones can be found on Wayfair. I would like to get a few more pillows for the bed and a camp blanket but in general the bed is awesome.
At the end of the day and about $500 spent total, we have a room that our son can grow with for many years and continue to add to it. It has a lot of personality, but it is still a calming and relaxing space for our son to spend time. The great outdoors and adventure await him!
rosemary-lemons.com 