Top Decoration

A quick recap of why this room was up for a makeover in the first place:

August 2007 - We move into this house and Will and Owen share a bedroom - just as they always have.

December 2008 - William turns 7 and begins asking for his own bedroom. Begging would probably be a more accurate description. (Keep in mind, we're a family of five living in a three bedroom house. There isn't a bedroom for him to move into.)

Summer 2009 - We remodel our rarely used (that's an understatement) Dining Room and it becomes the new Playroom for the kids and all of their toys.

Autumn 2009 - We begin to see the light (and are tiring from the 8 months of begging) - the benefits of William having his own room begin to outweigh the boys sharing a room any longer.

Over the course of a day, our Dining Room-turned-Playroom now becomes our homes 4th bedroom.


And that about sums it up.


Owen had a rough time sleeping alone in a bedroom without his big brother, so I did all that I could to show him how exciting it could be to have a place to call his own.

His very own.


For Christmas, the boys got to pick out new bedding that would serve as the jumping off point for the theme of their individual rooms. It was no surprise that Owen's choice was all about cars, planes, trucks and trains...


By sheer luck, the colors in the quilt perfectly matched the blues that I had painted on the walls two years prior. That saved me lots of time and money! I decided that we should use our energy elsewhere and build Owen a custom storage system in his closet that would house all of his...stuff.

Owen is a builder. A Do-er. An inventor.

As a result, he has lots of stuff...

Once his closet was done, I moved on to finishing the room.

I love how it turned out. I was able to re-use things that had previously been in the boys' room, but, to keep it exciting, switch it all up to look new and fresh for Owen.



Welcome to

Owen's "New" Room...

Owen's "fort bed", with peek holes so that he can spy and see who's coming.

One of these days I will get around to painting words in between the ladder steps that say:

What's

The Secret

Password?

Vintage airline magazine advertisements from the 1940's...

Another vintage magazine advertisement for Beech Aircraft...

My Dad's old school books...

Owen made a paper chain for Christmas that he couldn't bear to throw away...

It is the perfect decoration for inside his fort.

A spot for all of his art...

Will always tries to tell me "Function over form!"

But I disagree. I think I have managed to make Owen's room function perfectly for him, while still satisfying my need to have a nice, pretty (we won't tell Owen that I just said that!) organized and cozy bedroom.


Even though it's Owen's room, we all love to be in there.

We play board games together. We read books. Owen is always building a new track...or two.

I think that's the best compliment I could hope for...

watching my family enjoy the rooms that I create.

It makes all of the time and effort that it takes to make it happen, more than worth it!




P.S. I am posting this at:

Metamorphosis Monday, DIY Day, Make Your Monday, Make It For Monday,

Making The World Cuter Monday, Just Something I Whipped Up, Blue Monday,
Market Yourself Monday, Motivate Me Monday, Show And Tell Day,
Toot Your Horn Tuesday, Get Your Craft On, Make It Yours Day,
Talented Tuesday, Tackle It Tuesday, Strut Your Stuff Thursday,
Transformation Thursday, 100 Ideas Under $100, Show Off Your Stuff,
Thrifty Thursday, Make It Yours Day,

I have three words for those of you considering transforming a closet in your home into a bookcase...

GO FOR IT!!!

Now that the closet-turned-bookcase project is complete and Owen has been living with it for over a week, I can easily say that this is one of the best decisions we have made in making our home work for us.

The last photo I left you with in my previous post was this:

We were working on getting the shelves cut and installed and making sure that the whole thing was stable enough to hold all that we intended for it.

Once the shelves and supports were in place and secured...

the tops and bottoms of each shelf got a good, solid coat of paint. I painted it the same blue as I had painted the inside of the closet so that they would blend in...

Pine trim was cut to face each shelf. I painted it white to match the existing trim around the closet and throughout the room...

Once that was done, we were ready to get all of Owen's belongings out of our room (where they sat during this project) and put into place in a newly organized fashion.

Canvas bins were filled with marble tracks...

dragons...

costumes...

and all of his other multiple-piece possessions.

We stacked all of our family board games up high so that they would stay out of reach from little hands...

And his buildings from his train set were placed on top for display, but are easy enough for us to reach when he feels like building a new track...

A stool for Owen to stand on was all it took to complete his new bookcase...

Everything below the game shelf is easily accessible for Owen.
Easy to get out and, more importantly, easy to put away...

Owen is still getting used to sleeping in a room without his big brother, so I came up with an easy way to give him a nightlight.

A push light hung on a nail on the inside of his closet illuminates his train track buildings and let's him dream up new track designs before falling to sleep...

I thought it was a clever idea.

And Owen loves it!




So, once again, I say...

if you're considering doing this
(and I know many of you are based on your comments on my previous post)

GO FOR IT!

You won't regret it!

What was once a constantly messy, good-luck-trying-to-find-the-floor, little boy's room...

is now an organized, cozy space to be in. The boys are happy to play in there, setting up marble tracks, playing trains and competing in rousing games of Connect Four and Dominoes.

You won't find any regrets here!


But I have to say, I think the key to keeping this bookcase easy and do-able for Owen was not placing any hard rules on where things belong. The canvas bins fit on two of the shelves and his lego bins fit neatly under the first shelf. The shelf above his lego's has been kept open and he is free to arrange it as he sees fit. His canvas bins can be filled any way that he likes. I thought about labeling them, but decided against it. Easy for Owen is the main objective. As long as there is room for everything to fit, I don't mind where he puts it on the shelves.

And, luckily, it has been working!


Along with a closet overhaul, Owen also got a fresh take on his decor...

I am happy to say that Owen's room is finished!

I'll show you how it all turned out in my next post.

So what are we working on now?

It's William's turn for his room to get a whole new look.

And we're loving the results!

Pictures to come...





P.S. I am posting this at:

Make Your Monday at Twice Remembered
Metamorphosis Monday at Between Naps On The Porch
Make It For Monday at Cottage Instincts
DIY Day at A Soft Place To Land
Today's Creative Blog for Get Your Craft On
Blue Cricket Design for Show And Tell
Transformation Thursday at The Shabby Chic Cottage
Mustard Seed Creations for Furniture Feature Friday

We've spent the first week of the New Year with our hands in a project.

Owen's closet is getting a major overhaul!

I couldn't be more thrilled, and honestly...

I'm still pretty shocked that I convinced Will to go along with the idea.

Why?

Because we're taking a standard home builder closet with bi-fold doors and wire shelving and turning it into one big doorless, bookcase.

I know. I'm sure some of you are thinking "why?"

That's what Will had said too.

Well, there are a couple things you must know about Owen to grasp the reasoning behind this project.

1. Owen doesn't care about clothes.
He's the kid that would be more than happy to wear sweats and a ratty, old, too small T-shirt every day of the week, if I would let him. He wears a uniform to school and that alone keeps his wardrobe pretty limited. The need for a large, open closet for hanging clothing is a complete waste in Owen's room.

2. Owen's prized possessions are made up of many, many, many pieces.
He loves his marble tracks (all 3 of them), his race tracks (two of those), his train set, his two big bins of legos, his remote control helicopters and all of his books. Unfortunately for me, this makes for one big messy bedroom.

Here's a little Owen logic that he gave to me a few weeks ago during a conversation we were having in his bedroom:

Me: Owen...why do you keep your room so messy?
(said in a pleading tone)

Owen: Because.

Me: Because why??

Owen: I just...like it this way.

Me: Why would you possibly like to have it a mess all of the time?
Can't you just put your toys away at night before you go to bed?

Owen: (he looks up at me from the floor with big, convincing eyes)

Mom...this way I just don't have to get them all out again.

Me: (as a smile slowly spreads over my face)

Well, you have a point.


You've got to love the way a 6 year old brain thinks!


Now here's some of my logic...

Since toys are the main focus in Owen's life right now at the ripe old age of 6, and clothing falls waaaaay down on the list below...well, almost everything else, I've decided that it would be much easier to accommodate Owen's needs (and mine) and make his room much more toy storage friendly.

Think this:

and this...

or even this...

Nice!

(Except for the thousand dollar price tag!)


It is my dream to give Owen's room the ability to be that organized!

(Notice that I said the "ability". I am not delusional enough to believe it will look that organized all of the time. BUT, at least it will be able to!)


So, as soon as the boys left for school, we got to work.

We cleared out his closet, which up until Tuesday, looked like a bomb had gone off in it. It held his dresser, two hanging cubby storage systems, sleeping bags, extra shoes, an assortment of random items and all of our families board games. The way it was set up was a terrible waste of space and did not function well at all.

So we took everything out, including the wire shelving that the builder had installed.

We patched the holes, tested the color that the closet would become and made marks on the wall to get a feel for where the new shelves would go.

Ellison wanted to help paint...

Luckily, she was content to pretend with a dry brush.


After a coat of my favorite color

(Benjamin Moore - Wedgewood Gray)...

we tacked up the laser level and drew out the lines for our shelves.

Will installed the first piece of ripped down MDF that would serve as the back bracket for our shelves...

Once all of the brackets were installed along the back and sides, I painted them to blend in with the wall. Will cut the shelves to size and the new bookcase closet started to take shape...

The closet is 6' wide and 2' deep, so it's a good size and will be able to hold all of Owen's prized posessions.

We're still working out a few minor details before I can start painting it all the same blue. Then the pine trim will be added to the fronts of all of the shelves, and that will get painted the same white as the trim around the closet.

I cannot wait to get all of Owen's things put back in!

Not only do I think it is going to look great, but I know that the new found organization will be a huge asset in this room.


And I must say...I'm a bit jealous.

How great would this be for a bedroom closet turned craft room?

Maybe someday!




P.S. I am posting this at:

Funky Junk Interiors for Saturday Nite Special
Finding Fabulous for Frugalicious Friday
Between Naps On The Porch for Metamorphosis Monday
Make It For Monday at Cottage Instincts
Make Your Monday at Twice Remembered
DIY Day at A Soft Place To Land
Show And Tell at Blue Cricket Designs