Lucas’s Room Swap

So, Lucas’s room has definitely experienced some growing pains along the way, but I think we’re finally on the right track.  Hallelujah!!

When we last left off his room looked like this….

IMG_1628

If you remember from this post, I’ve had some difficulty keeping my valiant decorating attempts in his room intact.  First, half of the license plate wall went kaput, next the bicycle print over the bed went away, then his wall lamp was a goner.   The final straw came when I was forced to remove the curtains.  Every time Lucas climbed up the end of his bed to go to sleep (which happened an unfortunate number of times per bedtime) he’d tug on them. Or hide in them.  Or curl up in them.  Oh, no… they weren’t just curtains.  They were a fort.  Boys.  Give them anything and I guarantee they can find a way to build a fort with it.

One morning I walked into Lucas’s room and the curtain rod was hanging on by a thread.  I had horrifying visions of the metal rod plummeting down and konking my sweet baby boy on the head, so down it came.  Dunzo.

And every time I walked in there, his room proceeded to mock me with it’s strip-tease.  More and more naked it became despite my best efforts.

I searched for different window treatments that Lucas would be less likely to pull on, but came up empty-handed. His window was so close to the corner of the room that it eliminated many options, including the cool panel curtains at Ikea that I’ve desperately wanted to use somewhere. I didn’t think roman shades were right for his room.  And roller shades didn’t feel right either.

Then, I realized the solution was so simple (and free).  Duh.  Move the bed, smartie-pants.

So, we moved it to this orientation…..

IMG_2351

IMG_2357

SO MUCH BETTER.  

The curtains went back up (after being reinforced with heavy-duty anchors) and he hasn’t touched them since.  

I have to say, it absolutely amazes me when I’ve been at a decorating stand-still with a room and can’t quite determine a plan…. Then, one simple change opens a world of possibilities. Kind of like our sofa switcheroo.  Suddenly, I had a clear vision of the direction that the room needed to go.  Finally!! I think I just need to play with furniture layout more in general.  That seems to be the recurring theme here, huh? 

Also, pay no attention to the license plates. They’re left over from my previously failed attempt at a license plate headboard/wall.   I’ve actually acquired 20 more license plates since then (thanks to my glorious friend Sara) and have a plan for them, so the current arrangement that you see before you will be relocated and expanded upon at some point soon.

Anyhoo, next, I measured and realized that the chest of drawers in our room (we finally found a long, low dresser to replace it… Holla!!) would fit perfectly on his angled wall….

Here’s the before…

IMG_1622

And Now…

IMG_2362 IMG_2365

Hello again, dear bicycle print!!!  And note the cool car built by Pop!   This change now opens up this entire wall…

Which looked like his before…

IMG_1618

…for his toy chest, shelving for books and other playthings…

IMG_2392

A localized play-zone, if you will. which could never have happened with the previous layout.  I’m thinking shelves around his toy chest for sure. Maybe a little built in desk? Or an organizational unit of some sort?  Lucas is asking Santa for a race track that gets mounted to the wall.  If he remains on the Nice List and Santa brings the goods, maybe we can work that in somehow. Hmmm…. Possibilities. And excitement!!  No, excitement(squared)!! This is the part of decorating that I love the most. When it clicks.

But, now I have a small dilemma. The dresser is a dark walnut-toned wood.  Part of me really likes it that way up against the navy walls.  But another part is considering painting it a lighter color.  But it’s a really great dresser in perfect shape. The thought of painting good wood makes me feel green (with illness, not envy).  So, paint the dresser?  Leave it au naturel??  What’s your take on this subject?  Tell me.  I wanna know.

Advertisement

Leave a Reply

Fill in your details below or click an icon to log in:

WordPress.com Logo

You are commenting using your WordPress.com account. Log Out /  Change )

Twitter picture

You are commenting using your Twitter account. Log Out /  Change )

Facebook photo

You are commenting using your Facebook account. Log Out /  Change )

Connecting to %s