Kid's Bedroom Makeover Challenge!

We moved house at the end of the summer last year, and although one of the reasons we liked this house is that it didn't need any DIY doing to it, it is a bit of a white box. Well, a white and magnolia box. A white and magnolia box with stained pine woodwork. Grrrr!

Now I don't mean to offend anyone who likes magnolia or wood finishes, but it's really not for us. So I've had 'decorate entire house' on my To Do list for a while now! We've obviously put our furniture in, and (nearly) unpacked all the boxes. The dining room had a mini-makeover but we've not got round to some real decorating. Until now!

Wiss has been asking for a yellow bedroom since we moved in. He loves yellow. And getting up early! We have had enough of early morning calls (pre-6am, sometimes pre-5am!) so we thought that if we gave Wiss a 'big boys' bedroom then he may stay in his bed like a 'big boy'. Yes, we are that desperate!

Wiss went off to Nanny and Grandad's for the weekend on Saturday morning and the secret Changing Rooms challenge began! This is how the room looked before:

 

Nothing that awful but generally very bland, nothing exciting and too many toys! Our requirements were: yellow, more storage, less toys out, and just generally cooler! I also wanted to use things that we had already if possible, rather than buying more stuff. Lots of things that Wiss had in his nursery at the old house had been in storage so we rediscovered those, along with old shelves we no longer needed.

On Saturday we cleared the room and painted. The woodwork had two coats of undercoat and a top coat of white gloss. This made me so happy! The magnolia walls were repainted white :) and then the chimney breast became the feature wall (Crown Funky range 'Taxi'). Sunday was spent attaching the new light fittings. (I guess we/you should use a qualified electrician to do tricky stuff like this. We didn't though.) Then we had to put up all the shelves for storage before putting the room back together and adding the finishing touches.

I tweeted pictures and updates as we went along using the hashtag 'changingrooms' and I received so many lovely comments, and questions about certain things I thought I'd detail everything here. Just in case you were interested too.

This is what the room looks like now:

• Kids chair and road rug (hung over radiator) from Ikea
• Grey Blackout blind from Ikea too
• Inside of window recess painted dark grey (Urban Obsession from Dulux)
 

• 'Buzz' moon pendant light from Habitat (bought about 5 years ago)
• Metal Bus Eireann sign from Crystal Palace Antiques
• Perspex storage unit (on the wall) from Ardingly Antiques Fair (think it's from an old sweet shop originally)
• 'Star' wall light fitting from John Lewis, painted to match wall
• Vintage school desks from Ardingly bought for £20
  
  • Brilliant Lego storage head from Amazon 
  • Patchwork quilt made by me (with help from Ray Stitch)
  • Red bunting made by my mum for Wiss's birth
    
• Perspex Rocket on wall (I hope Wiss will make some flames to add to this)
• Multi-Storey Doll's House (which will have a blog post of it's own soon!)
  
• Robot Wall sticker around the light switch from Not on the High Street
• Unseen, but I covered the ceiling in 100 Glow in the Dark stars too

We were exhausted after a very busy couple of days, but couldn't wait to see Wiss's reaction. He was truly amazed and it was so sweet to see his face as he ran around the room looking at each bit in turn. It really did make it all worthwhile.

And I'm happy to report that on the first night in his 'big boy's room' Wiss stayed in his own bed all night and woke up at 7.05am! He could just have been exhausted by Grandad or maybe (fingers crossed) it may have worked. We'll see.....!