The Boys' Rooms

I love my house as it is, but we are constantly doing something to make it a little better/more useful for us. I'd love to finally one day say…ahh, it's done. But in reality, I know that won't ever happen. We both are DIYers at heart. And besides, we save a whole lot of money by doing things ourselves. As much as we hate it sometimes while we are in the middle of something that feels like it will NEVER get done, in the long run, we are always happy with what we do. I use this blog to remember details about things that I normally would forget and I want to include some of the things we do in our "spare" time. 

When we moved in our house 6 years ago, we barely used any of it, but as our family grows we are starting to use every single inch and I love it! I could always use less house to clean and ours isn't anything fancy, but it's ours. Sometimes (A LOT OF TIMES) we consider selling it. To downsize. To move outside of town. To build something to fit us better. But, whatever the reason, we always have decided against it. This is our home. This is where all of our memories as a little family are. We know that a house doesn't make a home and that we would be happy with wherever we end up but for now, we will continue tweaking our little house and making it ours.

First I'll start with the boys' rooms. They are two of my favorite rooms and the two that are the closest to being "done". Bishop's (future both boys) room is huge. Like, way, way bigger than ours. I figure we just need to have a few more boys to fill it up ;)  It doesn't have a very big closet or it's own bathroom or honestly we probably would use it as ours because our room is half the size! We first had Leon's old bed from when he was little since Bishop decided not long after he was 2 (way before I was ready!) that he was done with the crib. The bed worked  for a while but literally was about to fall apart so we had  to look at other options. I knew I wanted the room to be a "shared space" eventually so I looked at built in bunk beds and twin beds. I adore the built in look but it didn't really make sense at the time so we went with twin beds. (We can always change anyway) After looking high and low for twin beds, I just couldn't find any that I liked that I could afford! So being the Pinterest queen that I am, I found some great DIY plans and Leon built them. He did a fantastic job! He also painted stripes on the wall. The blue pieces were mine when I was younger and we just painted them. I still have to have something over their beds but I'm not sure what. A big picture of them over each? Maybe a wall sconce? I got my bedding idea from Pinterest and I made the pillow. The other bed may not ever get a matching one, even when Ben moves in! I'm not trying to rush my baby, but I can't wait until they share this room together. Bishop can't wait either, he mentions it often. He's happy with sharing it with Abby for now though. 

Leon also made this bookshelf and I just love it. It really is a much better option for us than a regular bookshelf because you can see books so much better. It doesn't hold quite as many but we keep about half of them in another room and rotate them out. And, at Christmas we had  the entire shelf full of Christmas books! The kid loves to read!

The train table was my nephews that we cleaned up got a new train set for when he was 2 or 3. Sadly, he has never really been into trains much so it doesn't really get played with a lot. He had much rather build a train track himself than play with the one that Leon so tediously glued together for him.  Funny how kids are so different! I'm keeping it though, because it just may be Ben's favorite toy!

Maybe one day he will get some sort of window treatment, but with 7 windows in his room, I'd just assume not have any. In fact, the nursery is the only room in our house that even has curtains. I just prefer to not have them really. I'm sure it might look better but I love all of the light.  

I've moved all of the costumes to the closet since these were taken and I plan on doing some sort of storage for Legos and such in there. Leon also is eventually going to make a table like the one he made AK with some chairs and paint it white maybe. Oh, and it could use a rug or 2 but I don't even know what to get so I just haven't looked! So, we have a few things left to do but for the most part, it is done! 

And, here is the nursery. It probably is my favorite room (well, toss up with the kitchen). It is so cozy in there. I love rocking my babies and reading them stories in that chair. It's my happy spot. 

Leon did a super job on the board and batten. He followed a tutorial I found (Pinterest, of course) and made it happen exactly how I wanted it. I have been dying to paint some our rooms white but he isn't into it so this is the closest I may get. 

I found the dresser at a yard sale and Leon refinished the top and I painted it with chalk paint. I absolutely love how it turned out!

This is the same room 6 years ago…back when it was "JJ's room" not long after we moved in. 

I think it looks a LITTLE better now.

And, I don't have a picture of Bishop's room back then but it was a much bigger version of the same yellow with absolutely no furniture in it. Every single room in our house was YELLOW when we moved in! Well, take that back, 2 rooms were green. But, mostly yellow. I like yellow too, but it was a whole lot of it. 

Maybe next I can share our kitchen renovation!