This room makes me happy. I loved working on it and felt so much joy once it came together. It was bittersweet as well because it meant that our baby was officially turning into a big boy and a big brother, which is a pretty tall order when you're only 21 months old! 

I started working on this room in June 2014 with the new baby coming in late September. Talk about giving yourself a deadline! I talked to Will's pediatrician about when to move him into his new room and she recommended about 3 months before baby came in order to make sure that he was settled in and that there was no confusion about the crib being for baby and the big bed being for him. 

I had received advice from a number of friends that also had multiple kids close in age (Will and John are 23 months apart) and everyone's recommendation to me was to simply buy another crib, which is something we decided we didn't want to do.

It seems weird looking back because that is only 3 months older than John is right now and I can't imagine preparing to move John into a new room and sleeping in anything other than his crib. 

So without further ado, here are the glorious before photos of Will's big boy room.

That wallpaper border was in a few of the upstairs rooms and it was U-G-L-Y. There was dark brown carpet, which was in surprisingly good condition and cleaned up quite nicely when Erik used his carpet cleaner/oxy clean combination on it. The blinds were really cheap vinyl with these huge ugly boxes at the top. There were random speakers and shelving installed throughout the room. Below is just another view of the wallpaper border and the closet.

When it came time to update this room we had our work cut out for us. We ripped down the wallpaper border and gave it a fresh coat of neutral paint. Other than that, this room was used as our "office" for quite a while before we converted it into a guest space for family.

Yes, this is what we considered an office. Don't judge us. There's a desk in there after all. You just have to look beyond the piles of crap and you'll see it hiding under all that paperwork.

We had transitioned it to a guest room/office but I have zero pictures of it from that stage. We did use it for a number of out of town guests so I can assure you (or maybe this is just to assure myself) that it was somewhat cleaned up and in suitable condition between the years of 2011 and 2014. Or maybe it wasn't and that's why I did not find any photos of it during that time...

Anywho, fast forward to 2014. I'm pregnant with John, Will needs a room. (Sorry, I tend to get sort of off track in my writing which is very similar to having a conversation with me in real life.) So, we ripped up the carpet because, even though it was in good shape, the color was really outdated for the house and we wanted to refresh it for the space. We ordered the same style and color that we used in the nursery (both from Home Depot) and have been really happy with it. But, before we get there, here is the room ready for carpet & paint.

At first, Erik didn't want me to paint it. I think he was both worried about me painting while pregnant and also thought the neutral color would be just fine. I can't say I disagreed with him on either point but I had given in to that idea when we did the nursery and I wanted to update his room with a fresh coat of paint this time around.

After the painting was complete, Home Depot came to install the carpet.



Finally, we were able to start pulling the room together! We used Erik's old bed and dresser from when he was a kid. At first I wanted to paint it or restain it but I can honestly say that I love the look of the wood in the room. There's a desk that goes with the set that is still in storage and we hope to eventually have the boys share a room and utilize the bed as bunk beds.



I made the duvet and pillow covers all by myself. I apparently have a strong desire to sew when pregnant and thought that making a quilt would be a lot cheaper than buying a Madras version from Pottery Barn. While it was cheaper, in the end it was still quite an expensive project. I love how it turned out and am very proud of it.

We slowly started adding items into the room and letting Will play in it while I was finishing up the details. As you can see from the picture below, he seemed to love it!


I used Pinterest a lot to get ideas for what I wanted to put into the room and DIYed quite a few items to put into the space. I knew I wanted to do a red/blue theme but we didn't want to choose a certain theme for him and wanted the room to evolve over time to meet his tastes. I know, that sounds really strange to say about a not even 2 year old but I didn't want to decorate his room in all trucks or all Elmo and then have him not like those things in a year or 2. I think we made the right decision and love how all of the items came together. Its very "boy" without too much of a theme and, in my opinion, is really cute.


We have a mix of Brewers, Packers, airplanes and lots of toys, stuffed animals and books.



I bought the letters for his name at Hobby Lobby and painted them red.




The little fire truck had flowers from Erik's parents in it and we got it the day he was born. The wooden helicopter is actually a bank that Erik had as a kid.




The little reading nook gets used all the time. I made the bean bag and the book sling bookshelves. The map is from Amazon and we plan to start marking the places we visit. Donald Duck is from Erik's childhood as well - its really fun being able to use things that have meaning to us in Will's room, whether its something from his past or something that I took the time to make.



I bought that shelf from Goodwill ages ago, painted it blue and added the hook so that Will has somewhere to hang his hats, pj's and bathrobe. The blocks on top of it were a gift from some very good friends of ours when Will was born and have his name, initial, birthday and birth weight on them. The puppy plays music and was a gift from Nana & Papa (Erik's parents).



The pictures are the birth announcement that Nana made and another birth announcement we received from another set of very good friends after Will was born. I love walking down the hallway and seeing these as the first thing before I go into his room.

When I was taking the pictures of Will's room he wanted to make sure that I took a picture of him with his best friends, Bear and Catnap. How could I refuse his request, he's just too cute to say no to, but only some of the time. Ha!