We have had quite the upheaval in this past year with bedrooms. In Illinois, Ethan had his own room, and Collin and Brennan were next door in a bunk bed, and it worked rather well. In the rental house, Ethan had his own room again, and Collin and Brennan were next door in the bunk bed, and it was disastrous. When we bought our house two months later, we put Ethan in his own room, Brennan in the guest bed next door (which had purple walls, his favorite color), and Collin two floors below in the basement in the bunk bed alone. It worked, but I hated having Collin so far away. In fact, this winter while so many nights were interrupted by someone throwing up, Collin and Ryan slept with walkie-talkies so we could go down and help him get cleaned up if/when he got sick. In March, we moved Brennan downstairs to join Collin in the bunk bed, and the guest room remained empty upstairs. Then over 4th of July weekend, we did another major switch. We moved the bunk bed up from the basement, and Collin and Brennan joined Ethan - still in his crib - in his room upstairs. We moved the guest bed to the basement and began the process of revamping the upstairs purple room into a little girl nursery. Want to see the results?
Girl Nursery Bedroom
So the room was already painted a deep plum purple from the previous owners, and Ryan was not interested in repainting it, especially since we are having a girl. I've been really into gray and white as accent colors in the rest of the house, and I thought they'd look nice with the plum walls.
I decided that with just gray and white the room would be a little boring, so I looked around on Pinterest and fell in love with turquoise as an accent color. I thought it would be fun to have just a few pops of that color to off-set the neutral gray and white.
One trip to Hobby Lobby solidified my decisions. I found those adorable puff balls to hang from the ceiling, as well as all the gray chevron art work for above the crib. The plan is to add her first initial inside the open-frame centered above the crib, but we just barely settled on Katelyn, and Ryan is very picky about font selection. I'll get around to it sometime.
Now Baby Girl's crib deserves a section of its own.
Since Baby Girl and Ethan are going to be about 22 months apart, I was concerned about having him out of our cherry crib in time for her to move into it. Then Ryan pointed out that the dark purple walls would look pretty bad with dark wood anyway, and we decided that if we found a cheap white crib, we'd grab it. We were garage-sale-ing in May, and someone was selling their white crib for only $40. We figured next Spring we could sell our cherry crib and its matching changing table - when E is done with it - for at least that and break even, so we decided to buy it. Unfortunately, we were running short on time (Collin had a soccer game starting soon), so we paid, grabbed the pieces and hurried off. We put the crib in the garage that afternoon, and mostly forgot about it. Fast forward to six weeks later - We were finally ready to touch up the chewed edges and set it up... And we discovered we were missing both of the side walls! Somehow we had only brought home the front and back walls. Stupid. We didn't totally know which house we'd bought it from and certainly not who the people were, but we figured it was worth a try to attempt to find them. I tried to get Ryan to go drive around knocking doors in the neighborhood we remember buying it in, but he said my big belly looked far more desperate. True fact. The first door I knocked on was a rude lady, and I almost lost my courage. Then I found another house I thought was the right one, but when I knocked on the door, no one answered. Finding a scrap of paper in the back seat, I scrawled a pathetic note and left my name, phone number and confession. Three days passed with no answer... And then I got a message: They had found the other two crib walls buried in their basement and we could come pick them up! Hallelujah! And thus our baby girl got her white crib. Whew.
Baby Girl's dresser has its own story too.
When we first got married, we bought a cherry dresser for ourselves. We didn't have the money for a matching bedroom set until I was pregnant with Brennan, at which time we moved our dresser into the toddler room. It's been Collin's and/or Brennan's ever since. When we realized we wanted all three boys in one room, we also realized that a horizontal dresser wouldn't fit and that we'd need a vertical one instead. I really wanted a white horizontal dresser - so it could double as a changing table - for the Baby Girl's room, so Ryan suggested we spray paint our old one. I was doubtful, but it turned out perfect. He also sprayed a cherry mirror we already owned to turn it white too. The finish is great, and it looks really nice. And it only cost us the price of a few cans of spray paint. Score!
And there you have it, our little girl's purple, gray, white and turquoise nursery. I seriously have had so much fun picking everything out and putting it together.
Three Boys in One Room
Now this room is far more about functionality than looking cute. We have several different wood finishes mixed together, and it is quite cluttered. But we did it - We got three boys and all their clothes into a room that is roughly 11x11. Miracle.
So for now, Ethan is still in the crib. It transitions into a toddler bed, so that's our next step. He napped in a real bed on vacation last week, so we'll probably start that process soon. Yes, there is one empty picture frame above his bed. I still do have a few chores left to do. ;-)
We kept the transportation theme that we've had in our Boy room all along, so many things (art work, sheets, lamp, rug, accent pillows, etc.) were able to roll-over. The biggest additions are both of the dressers. The three-drawer platform dresser - which fits ever so snugly under the lofted bed - holds Brennan's clothes.
For now, we still have the changing table in there for Ethan too. I only have one changing pad though, so we'll be taking that out soon. We think the best option is to also take out the rocking chair (even though Ethan still really loves to get rocked and sung to before nap and bed), and then we'll put a bench that doubles as storage in the spot the changing table is currently in. You probably can also see that Collin and Brennan also both have a fan clipped to their beds. That room gets mighty toasty at night with all that body heat, but the top bunk is too close to the ceiling light to put in a fan. Yes, this room is truly more about function than style. And don't miss all their artwork/collections on the bulletin board. Yes, moms don't always win the decorating battle.
The dresser at the foot of the bunk bed has Collin's and Ethan's clothes in it. At first, we also had a ladder mixed in here, but Collin liked to take it off at night so that the "ladder monster" didn't come up. I was also constantly getting Ethan down from playing up there, so now Collin does some gymnastic-maneuvering each morning and night to get up and down, and we saved the space too! The ladder is in storage in the basement.
And it wouldn't be Collin's room if I didn't have to buy black-out curtains. That boy loves the dark! Ethan has been sleeping better since we got them hung too, so I guess it is better this way anyway.
And there you have it - all four kids, all on one floor, in just two bedrooms. Go us! Now we have a dedicated guest room and bathroom in the basement all prepared for my parents' baby help and any others who wish to stop by for a night... or a week!
