Friday, February 5, 2016

Boys' room

When we first moved in this house, most of the house was painted a flat, inoffensive beige. I don't like it, but I can live with it.  However, the three upstairs bedrooms were painted a hideous mustardy beige. The boys' room doesn't get much natural light, so the beige was even more awful in that room.

I can't find a picture of the boys' room prior to being painted, but it was the same color as the master bedroom:


The management company would not allow me to paint anything white.  However, they agreed that I could paint the upstairs bedrooms the same color as the rest of the house.  I hired our painter to do the bedrooms, but he could only fit in two bedrooms before we moved in.  We did the master bedroom and Princess's room.  When I bought the paint, I had the paint store color match the downstairs paint...and (ahem) then I had them use only 25% of the color and I used a satin sheen.  The sheen and the pared-back color makes the beige less awful.  You can't really tell that it is a different color--sort of like when you go up the paint chip in a different room.  

Sadly, since only two bedrooms were repainted, that left the hideous beige in the boys room for months. Every time I walked in the room I said "ugh, I hate this color." When the landlord had the exterior painted, I paid one of the painters to do it on the side, and it was finished in under two hours.  Now all three upstairs bedrooms are an inoffensive cafe au lait-ish color.

Nearly everything in the bedroom was from our old house.  When we moved in, I asked the boys what we should do with their room, and their answer was "leave it exactly the same." (Harrumph.)  


The red persian rug that doesn't match was a $45 craigslist find. I have been searching craigslist since we moved in for a different rug, but nothing has worked out yet. I bought the beni ourain rug from RugsUSA, and sent it back.  


The red painting was in our dining room in the last house, and the dressers were purple in Princess's bedroom in the last house.  They don't fit in her room in this house, so I painted them a cobalt blue and gave them to the boys.


None of this was staged. There is an owl and a raccoon skin hat on a bowling pin and four million legos on the dresser every day.




I'd like to get some art for over the beds, but nothing has presented itself as the perfect thing yet.  I've also toyed with getting bunkbeds.  The main reason I haven't gotten bunk beds is because it seems like changing the top bunk would be a pain.

11 comments:

  1. Hi Lisa, You are a very wise woman and your instincts are right. I agree , never ever get bunk beds if you are the one that has to change the sheets - it makes an chore 10 times worse.
    Kind Regards
    Cathy

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. It does seem like a pain, and it would totally end up being my job. I'll just keep procrastinating on that decision. :-)

      Delete
  2. Yes, moving on from a loft bed for my older boy- nothing is more misarable than trying to change a high bed in the middle of the night that has been puked or peed on..... ps, loving seeing more in progress shots and updates!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. thanks, I have a few more progress shots in other rooms, stay tuned!

      Delete
  3. Another person chiming in to say bunk beds suck, and the extra floor space is so NOT worth the hassle they come with! Love the blues and reds, and the patchwork bedding :) .

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. thanks Marian! I love love love the madras bedding; it is one of my favorites.

      Delete
  4. My entire house is painted inoffensive beige (well, with the exception of the half bath that the previous owners painted in black and white stripes.... like a circus tent). I am gearing up to start painting room by room, but it takes a huge amount of mental energy for me to make paint decisions. I also had to comment on the bunk beds. My daughter thought she wanted a loft bed. Until we stayed at a hotel that had bunk beds for the kids. 2 nights of that, and she whole-heartedly agreed that a top bunk was not for her. Bullet dodged!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I painted the entire interior of the last house (except for the downstairs powder room) Dunn Edwards Whisper. Makes for a cohesive interior and once you make one decision, you're done. I also just really like white and having it in every room. what colors are you thinking of?

      Black and white stripes sounds...very circus tenty. Oy. I hope they didn't tape off, it takes forever to sand down the stripe edges, and it shows through when you paint over.

      Delete
  5. Yeah...my daughter's loft bed was a full size. What terrible memories those are, the changing of the sheets. All the curse words. (We got rid of it last year. Whew.)

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I was thinking perhaps a low loft, like an L-shape where the lower bed fits perpendicular under the top bunk...but it really sounds like everyone hates bunk beds, no matter the size :-)

      Delete
  6. We had two loft beds, down to just one now. I don't think the sheets have been changed on the loft since summer, but my kid is a senior and frankly, I'm just not going to worry about that. Soon as she's off to college, that bed is gone. Not only are they a pain to make, but if you ever want to move them (when, for example, you want to paint or do something to the floor), you have to disassemble the whole bed. Two thumbs down.

    ReplyDelete

Yay! You're commenting! I love comments!