Boys Room Makeover

It's no secret that we're crammed into this little house like sardines. Doing the best with what we have has become a motto around here. While I'm a proponent of room sharing and the lessons it teaches, this many boys in that small of a space is tricky business. We're working with two bedrooms here, leaving one shoebox-sized room for all four boys. Despite having barely enough room for the boys' beds, we've also squeezed two dressers, a nightstand, and a toy box into their room. It was beginning to feel just a bit claustrophobic and wildly hard to organize. It was time for a change.

This was the boys room last summer. With school over, I found extra time to organize and clear out broken and unused toys. It was manageable but still packed full.

And then birthdays, Christmas, and seasonal wardrobe changes wreaked havoc upon the tenuous order that once was. We ran out of hangers for all the clothes that should be hung up. (Or is it hanged?) Both dressers accumulated piles of "good" clothes on top, piles of games that needed new spots on shelves, piles of overflowing toys, piles of blankets that toppled every time beds needed making because we don't have a linen closet. One Little Boy scribbled on a wall with a pencil and another wallpapered his corner of the room with his own artwork + miles of Scotch tape. Yet another was trying out for gymnastics and ripped a shelf off the wall, nails and all. The last son decided his side of the bed by the window was his own special cubby hole. That one needs to be watched for hoarding issues later in life, because the space was wedged full of treasures.

I transferred the piles of shirts and sweaters from dresser tops into the closet for the photo....

Hoarding pile discovered, as well as a large water stain. I enlisted my muscle to help take the bed apart.

This photo shows the nasty water stains (at the right) that keep seeping through the wall. And why do people paint over electrical outlets? Let it be, man. Let it be.

The boys need a room that works just as well for a 9 year old as it does for a 2 year old. Their old bunk bed was a twin loft over a double, and slept three boys comfortably--not four.

Using Christmas money from the last couple years, we invested in this double-over-double bunk bed with a pull-out twin trundle bed. It'll sleep five comfortably. Top and bottom bunks separate, so when boys move out two of them get full-sized mission-style beds. If they last that long. Ordered through Amazon and delivered by FedEx, I'm not sure how the driver muscled all four massive boxes out of her truck and through our back door. She was smaller than I am.

I decided while we were moving everything out this was the perfect opportunity to patch nail holes and repaint. It's something I'd have to do anyway before we move. Besides touch-ups, the room hasn't been painted in about five years, when our landlord spray painted the whole room in flat white during its remodel. (Previously it was electric blue.) Every scuff or fingerprint wiped off also removed paint from the wall.

I spackled no less than 30 nail holes in the plaster and sheetrock walls, which will save me a lot of time when we do move. No more nails are going into these walls! Our landlord came to look at the water-stained wall (the stain wrapped even around the adjoining wall) and insisted it was an old stain, even though you can feel moisture on the wall and baseboard. So I sprayed it with Kilz and if it comes back he can deal with it then. I used ColorPlace (Wal-Mart brand) satin interior paint in Dakota Ranchwood for the walls, and semi-gloss white for the baseboards.

Painting in old houses is like looking through scraps of previous inhabitants' decor styles. This old girl has seen a rainbow of colors, and the boys room was no exception. This corner reveals some electric blue and sage green. It also shows what rough shape the paint job was in.

After:

Room-redo day one the boys were so excited to help, carrying things out of the room, throwing stuff away, and grabbing things for me. Gavin helped erase pencil from the wall while Ian made jungle gyms of everything. The rest of the house took a hit as it absorbed the displaced stuff from the boys' room.

I thought the room would look bigger when everything was cleared out, but no. It looked smaller than ever. It left me wondering how on earth we had everything stuffed into it that we did.

The first night the boys were so excited to "camp out" on the floor. The next three nights: "Aw, we have to sleep on that creepy mattress on the floor again?"

The second, third and fourth days: "Is our bed ready yet?" These were my main painting days, in between laundry, school, and cooking.

I use a twin bedsheet purchased at a thrift store as a drop cloth.

This poor old dresser needs some TLC. It was once Eli's sister's, then his, then ours as newlyweds, and then passed on to our boys. I'm trying to decide if it should be sanded and painted blue to match their other dresser or restained the same dark wood color.

A nail left behind by previous inhabitants served as a handy paint-can-holder. There were about ten other nails and a 2" pin stuck in trim and walls that had been painted over. Keeping paint off trim also wasn't a priority for previous painters.

My view for the week.

Wrapping a paintbrush in a baggie and sealing with a rubberband is a trick learned by many many painting sessions, as washing out brushes seems to both waste paint and is also not my favorite chore. Taping trim as well is an art I've never mastered; paint always bleeds under the tape. I ran out of tape halfway through, but it didn't make much difference. I used that smaller blue brush to edge the whole room, and saved time that way.

The closet doors (Hey look! They shut!) get so much use that I decided to paint them the same color as the walls to help hide scuffs and prints. After snapping this photo I think the top cabinet doors need to be painted as well. Inside of the closet: still being organized.

Day 5, painted and dry! Bed assembly time! Eli did the majority of the building,  which was a tough lesson for me in stepping down and not commandeering the whole process. The bossy-oldest-child-syndrome in me still needs to be tamed on occasion (ok ok, most the time). My tongue was sore at the end of the day from me biting it.

Ian had fun playing with the dowels...and of course, one was misplaced. Never fear, necessity is the mother of invention. We cut an inch long piece off the handle of a wooden spoon, and with a little sanding it substituted beautifully.

Hey, thanks for the playset, guys! My new bed? Nah, I'll just sleep with you guys for the next five years. Ha.

Once the main part of the bed was put together I was able to start organizing the rest of the room, including scouring the closet for garage sale items and toys to pack away in a tote to be stored in the basement. This is a work-in-progress, and I think always will be as long as we're in this house. I've already moved the dressers around, trying to find the right layout. The trundle bed still hasn't been assembled, but it's there when we need it. I now have plans to make quilts for each bunk eventually.

The boys are loving the new bed. Their room has become a new favorite hangout spot, the bed transformed by their imaginations. It's currently a pirate ship, the bottom bunk being "below deck" where they keep prisoners. It's still such a novelty that they've wanted to go to bed since it was assembled. As long as none of them get sea sick, I'm ok with that.