Hayden's Room

I have been busy busy working away the last week or so. My big project was Hayden's room. I also had a lot of small projects in between... you know, while I was waiting for paint to dry. Hayden's room was blah blah blah. There was no color. It was still very nursery - babyish with the baby safari animals theme. It was driving me crazy, and when we bought the toddler bed and took away the large crib, it seemed to make the room even more empty and blah. Something had to be done!



BEFORE shots ^^^


I contemplated for a long time, then all of a sudden, I whipped out an old paint can and started painting. His room definitely needed some height. Everything was so low to the ground, besides the window wall of shelves. I put some tape up and painted the big stripe. Dirk says, "I didn't know you were thinking of painting in here..." Well, I wasn't. I just sort of thought of it and decided to do it, all within 30 seconds. I think it turned out great and really added more dimension to his room.



It still needed something on the walls, and I wanted it to be quick, easy, and inexpensive. I'd seen the pendant garland done in many kids rooms before, and decided to make one out of scrap fabric, twine, and a hot glue gun. I didn't really like it until I hung it up, now I love it!




I created the "H" hanging on the wall out of mod podge and scrap book paper. I painted some wooden stars to add to his moon, along with some star hooks for his hat and jacket. I changed out the old valence mistreatment and created some new window treatments with a bolder color. I painted his tin buckets blue and red, and switched out a couple of his toy bins for blue and red. I finally finished painting his ugly ceiling - a job that as been waiting for over a year to get done. I also painted the metal parts to his shelves, so they are now white instead of tacky copperish.



(Yeah, yeah, yeah... there's a tv in my toddler's room... that was a decision made on a very frenzied and stressed out night, that turned out to be the best decision of the year.)

The part of his room that took the longest was the chalk board. This was a scratched up old marker dry-erase board that lasted me through high school and college. I tried to sell it at my yard sale for $2, but it didn't sell. I'm so glad it didn't sell, because a few coats of primer, a lot of chalk board paint, some red paint left over from my exterior house paint job- and Hayden has a nice big chalk board. He loves it!

And in case you missed it- I made that tractor quilt and pillow case, too!



Total price to transform a boring baby room into a functional and cute toddler boy room:

$55

This includes buying the toddler bed. Pretty good considering I was ready to lay down $50 just for a New bed!

I still plan to paint the dresser black to match the bed. I will also switch out the changing table (whenever he shows more interest in the potty) to a little table and chairs set for him.

Maybe this week I'll show you some of the other projects I've been working away on.....