My passionate little Munchkin is in his big boy room with his older brother and now it is time to address the room for our two youngest – Max & LJ.
We decided a long time ago that we thought sharing a room was a great idea and this is the first time we are going to be doing a shared nursery! It’s kinda crazy to think we have two little ones in cribs. It’s kinda like decorating for twins which to me is a huge challenge. Fitting two cribs, a rocker and enough storage in one space for two people isn’t really easy. Then pile up limited wall space and some weird layouts and you can find yourself stuck!
As you may remember, the nursery looked like this….
Well, we had borrowed that brown crib and have since returned it. The large W and green mirror has been moved to the Big Boy Room and I am ready to recreate the space without repainting. The recliner/rocker is still going strong and we need to move it into the playroom because there is more space in there for reclining action (the playroom chair is dying a slow staining death). We want to keep the cubbies in here and the dresser. Everything else is kinda up in the air.
Right now the room looks like a bomb went off. We moved Will’s old crib in here temporarily for LJ but it is a really BIG crib and we are thinking that we can just sell it on Craigslist and replace it with two matching new cribs for cohesiveness. We also had a bed set up in here for when the Petersiks came to visit and haven’t taken it down again.
You can see we are in the middle of transitioning LJ’s clothing. It seems like every month I go through the size-up process with one of the boys and I dread it. I LOVE seeing their cute ‘new-to-you’ clothing but trying to figure out what fits and what doesn’t takes forever! One day I’ll have to show the massive amounts of boy clothing we have…it’s terrifying.
I really want this room to be calm. And to be slightly themed….you know me…I love a good theme 🙂 I think that the idea of ‘flying’ is fun….anything that revolves around flying would be cute. I also like a little industrial look with turquoises and muted tones. I think they would play nicely with the gray wall color and the white washed brick accent wall.
Now for the moodboard….
Here are the sources….fabric, lighting, Delta Children Ava 3-in-1 Convertible Crib
I will go more into details as I order the items!
The best part about this space will be that flying kinda represents both of these little ones. For LJ’s gender reveal video, we did a pillow fight….full of feathers…which go on a bird that FLIES. And with Max’s gender reveal video, we just went down to the creek and made paper airplanes….do you see what I am doing here with connecting these invisible lines?! 🙂 I guess it doesn’t really matter if there is ACTUALLY hard core connectivity….the point is…the room will have an underlying theme and it will be “calm flying”… like “gliding”. And maybe that will help reduce the turbulence when it comes to bed time 🙂
(I’m very proud of that last line…just in case you were wondering. 🙂
Update : Looking for more info on something you see in our house? We have a Shop the Bower House page with paint colors and links to accessories, furniture and decor!
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Preach on the transitioning of sizes! HATE IT! It goes from closet/drawers to the tubs in the closet, and then finally to storage. It ends up being a three stage process that takes months 🙁
Target used to have a ceramic paper airplane! I love subtle themes.
So fun! I love that all your boys will be sharing rooms. I’m expecting my second boy in a few short weeks & we will eventually have them sharing a nursery. GULP! Will Maxi be in there soon with LJ?? Mine will be 18 months apart, & I’m planning to wait until the baby is sleeping through the night before moving him in… we shall see! Love your “theme”!!
LOL I am reading as I nurse and take a break from the clothes transition right now! We have 6 boys and I hear you loud and clear!
Love the room idea, though anything you go with will be adorable!
the crib link isnt working 🙁
This is going to be such a cute room! I am redoing my boys bedroom as well. We have a transportation theme with a vintage edge. We are making built in bunk beds, which is a huge undertaking but will be worth the work. I am loving the color scheme you have going in here!
Ok, I was just at a massive new Restoration Hardware store that just opened in Denver, and they have a whole floor of baby & kids stuff. In a girls’ room vignette, they had these amazing paper dresses made out of old maps and framed in shadowboxes (they were big – at least 2′ x 3′). I have 2 little boys, so I immediately thought that it would be a very cool to DIY something inspired by that, but with airplanes or something. I think you should check them out and see if they lead to any art inspiration for the nursery.
**ok, those dresses are definitely online (should have known, duh)….called “Hand-Folded Vintage Map Dress.” They’re seriously beautiful in person. Kinda underwhelming in photos.
Where is the grey glider from?! The link didn’t work when I clicked on it.
I just fixed it…it’s Delta brand 🙂
xo – kb
Sorry – I had to fix it. I’m not great at links apparently 🙁
xo – kb
WHAT?! NEEEEEEED!
xo – kb
Yup. Weston and Will are together and LJ and Maxi Knight will be together. Then all four boys will share a bathroom (AHHH!).
xo – kb
I’m loving the brick wall! Whenever we have another baby we are doing industrial themed and I’m totally doing your pallet wall! Can’t wait to see the final nursery!
The moodboard is awesome. If anyone can bring it to life its you. I am looking forward to seeing it. The nursery will be beautiful like your babies!!!
Ohmugoodness! We found out we’re having our third boy in march and after a stroll through hobby lobby, I decided on a “world traveler” theme, so similar to your ideas! There was a jade (or deep turquoise) fabric I bought for a crib sheet and a duck cloth with gray planes, navigation symbols, globes, etc that I’ll be using for drapery. I’m excited to see how your nursery ends up! 🙂
I have the same light fixture in my office and love it! It can hang kind of low, so if you have tall folks around or low-ish ceilings in that room (which i don’t think you do!) just beware. But we always get a ton of compliments, and its very bright.
Love the theme, not sure I’d invest in 2 cribs since LJ likely will only be in one for less than a year. Maybe a white toddler bed instead.
We just got the same crib and I love it. The one you linked though is from Amazon and says $600! We got ours from Target for around $230 using our Target Red Card!
I love what you have planned! Here’s to a calm turbulence-free revamp of the room! 🙂
I love this mood board and can’t wait to see this room revealed all over again! I’m hoping since it’s just furniture and layout that it’ll be a pretty quick and easy project for you 😉 xx
It converts to a toddler bed so its definitely for longer!
xo – kb
Love the mood board, can’t wait to see where you go with it. And to watch your four littles continue to SOAR!
Oh good- I thought it was just ME who couldn’t get a handle on the size-up thing! #clotheseverywhere
Also, I literally just pinned this yesterday: (airplane sketches)
http://howtonestforless.com/2014/06/12/vintage-sketch-airplane-posters-set-4/
Hi. I have five boys. I actually didn’t mind the clothing changes. One way I kept sane was limiting the clothing I saved to one large rubber tote per size (two containers when they were at or above size ten). Each time we changed sizes I kept the very nicest things. Whatever would not fit in the box, I gave away. Volume is what causes the difficulties.
Another neat solution I saw but never tried was a family closet. All the clothing was in one big closet and sorted by size. In the evening each child would get clothing for the next day and lay it by their bed. This would illimate the drawer pillaging that so often happens. If the closet was a walk-in near the laundry, so much time would be saved!
I love your mood board. Actually, I kinda want it for my own bedroom (minus the airplanes. 😉 I think this will transition easily, then, into a toddler/kid bedroom without too many changes. Question, though- what are you going to do with those red curtains from IKEA? I’ve loved seeing how you’ve used them around your house and IKEA doesn’t sell them any more. (It’s a darn shame!) I really want/NEED! them. . .
Oh, and did you take any pictures of the room when you had it all snazzed out as a guest room? I’d love to see what you did there!
What did you do if one size tops fit but the bottoms were too big? And what did you do about shrinkage of clothing? Did you retag things?
xo – kb
I haven’t decided yet! I might use them in the basement 🙂
xo – kb
This might be a silly question, but why didn’t the Petersiks use the guest bedroom?
Good luck with the clothes! Why did you need a bed in there when the Petersiks came, if you have a guest room? I’m soo confused, haha.
Also, this is a random thing, but since you switched to one post per page I realized I’ve been missing posts since I only catch up on blogs 1-2 times a week. When I see your most recent most I scroll to the bottom and then it’s the end and I leave, but sometimes I realize that there’s a second new post on the next page. Just putting in a vote to go back to the “old” way 🙂
Love the mood board! I hear ya on the clothes fit-ups. I also dread them, cause those kids sure don’t want to try suff on for fun! I like to find a good fitting pair of pants and hold the other ones up to that – ditto on long sleves. Even still it takes a while and I only have 2 boys!
Where do you find you amazing oversized school maps? I NEED one for my boys’ playroom and oldest boy’s rooms, but can’t find one 🙁
Clara slept in there and we bunked all our boys together.
xo kb
They did but they have two kiddos 🙂
xo kb
I found one at an antique store and the other on eBay!
xo kb
I am not sure I follow what your saying. I guess you mean little guy wears a size 6 top and 4 pants? I have the same problem with my body. Lol. Well, reversed that is. What I do is label the outside of tubs with the size in it. Every so often we go “shopping” in the basement. The boys try on their clothing while I sit outside their closet, then they throw what is to small out of their closet and I put it in the appropriate tub. After I cleared out those clothes, off we go to the basement to try new clothes. They always seemed to enjoy this, well, not as much now as teenagers. They agree it is better than shopping at a store. Lol. I do not change the label because each of the boys wear a different shape and if I changed it then it would be wrong for the next kiddo. Sometimes I placed an item in a different box because it seemed bigger or smaller than the size labeled on the tag. As they got older the changes really narrowed down to Spring and Fall.
With the size difference in the top and bottom, I would just get whatever out of whichever box fit that child at the time.
Sorry, you asked about shrinkage. I would just put it in the box that the outfit most closely resembles in size. As it has been permanently altered, a tag change would make sense.
My two cents (we have 4 boys and a girl all within 5 years): I gave up of the bins by size and now just have a box labeled by the kid’s name (e.g., “clothes for Billy”). If it’s too small for one, it goes in the box for the next one. And when the younger one needs something or is growing out of most things, I look in his box. This way I don’t have empty boxes being stored for the current size, and I don’t have to worry about the size on the tag. It’s also nice for shoes. I used to keep a big box of shoes, but I didn’t like sorting through it each time I went to find shoes for one who needed new. This way I can also quickly grab something that will work ok when one runs out of something (no clean church pants when it starts in 30 minutes!). Of course, some things work to go straight from one boy to the next, so I just switch it to the new drawer (and try to remember where to put it on the next laundry day!) Anyway, I found this works much better for me, so I thought I’d share. 🙂
LOVE the moodboard!
Have you considered using one of your rooms as a “boys dressing room”? And just keeping all of the boy clothes in there organized permanently? That way it’s all accessible and no transitioning required 🙂 I would love to do that at my house (kids clothes are OVERWHELMING), but our house is tiny and we don’t have room for a space like that!
I love the idea of a family closet but honestly, it would be really hard to do right now with such small clothing (little onesies are easier to throw in a drawer). Maybe in the future though!
xo – kb
Btw. Thought you might like this. About 9-10 years old you can have them start washing their own laundry. It is great. They feel responsible and you no longer get their clothing mixed up in the laundry. I am learning to let go of my desire to have it done just right so they will know how to do things when they go off to college. Nothing seems to make them more confident then good old fashion know-how.
Thank you so much for responding, I’ll check Ebay out! Arizona isn’t too big on the antiquing 🙁
Katie,
What software do you use to make your mood board?
Photoshop.
xo – kb
soooo late to comment on this post, but it is linked in the new post! what dresser is that in your mood board?! we are currently doing a nursery, and I want a long dresser with lots of storage that can have a changing pad andddddd extra space on the top, but all the “nursery furniture” once seem to be relatively short (40ish inches)
this one looks perfect.
It’s the Hemnes dresser from Ikea!
xo – kb
I have been watching that rug for a while now! It is so pretty. I am looking forward to reading about it when you get it!
6 boys!!! Bless you momma! I have 3 boys and I can not handle the clothing transition. You really need 1 designated room just for that job alone!
Laura, these are great tips! Thanks for sharing!!! I have 3 boys and feel very overwhelmed by clothing. In general, I agree making sure I have less clothing for each boy works for us. They don’t need drawers stuffed of things they never wear. I shoot for 2 nice shirts, 4-5 nice pants and nice jeans, 5 everyday shirts that are casual/semi-nice (all those for school and church days) and then I have about 5-6 sets of play clothes because those get worn the most and get the dirtiest and about 7 sets of PJ’s. I usually do laundry once a week. Oh! And I keep the play clothes downstairs in bins in a cube storage – each boy has their own box. They are usually putting these clothes on after breakfast or after school to go outside and play. It doesn’t make sense to keep them upstairs.
Those are good tips too! Thanks! Do you do this even when for instance – my 1 year old is wearing 12-18 month. But then my 3 year old is now wearing 4T, so the growing stockpile for my youngest is all the 24 month, 2T and now 3T. I think would be overwhelmed going through all of that if the bin just had my youngest’s name on it.
Regarding shoes… I bought a few boxes of the XL ziplock bags. They are labeled and include 2 shoe sizes each. I can fit about 10-12 shoes in each bag, so it has been a good system for me. I just keep all of those zip lock bags in a bin big enough to fit them. It makes finding shoes much easier.
Katie Bower, I’m getting the sense that some of your biggest blog fans are other moms with lots of boys! We love you!