Oh, this room. At times Im convinced it will kill me. But then I get excited at the challenge. You see, it started out looking like this…

A basic beige box with a small angled wall (which you can kind of see behind his easel). We decided not to do anything with it until Lucas transitioned to a big boy bed. So, when that day came, we got going. We wanted him to have a room he could grow with, so we wanted to choose a more grown-up paint color and basic bedding that would easily be acceptable as he grows older. We decided on an antique automotive-esque theme, but with other elements as well so it wasn’t overly themey. My dad has an orange hot rod and I wanted to create some art using pictures of it (haven’t gotten there yet), so I thought navy walls with bold orange, white and grey accents would be cool. For a little while, the room looked like this….

The navy blue paint was a mis-tint that we got from Ace Hardware for 6 bucks. The plaid quilt and matching sham are from Pottery Barn Kids. The orange sham and bed skirt are actually the bedding that was on this bed when it was in the spare room. I just laid the quilt under the mattress so that it grazed the floor on the front and then folded it under on the backside so there wasn’t a huge amount of excess material on the back. I would love to do some kind of no-sew, velcro bedskirt someday, but I haven’t gotten there yet. The grey euro shams were hand-me-downs. We already owned the bicycle print. And the license plates were handed down from Joey’s parents. The bedside table was leftover from our previous guest room and, in my opinion, is too dark so I have plans to either paint it, or sell it/replace it.

Then, my dad gave us 28 more license plates that he had in his garage. So, I basically wallpapered a headboard out of license plates from the pillows all the way to the ceiling (sorry, no pic).  The next day (hence, no pic), while Lucas was SUPPOSED to be napping, he came out of his room shouting “Mommy, I broke my sign!”. I went in there and realized that he had ripped every license plate within reach off the wall and neatly piled them on his pillow. He had half-torn the lamp off the wall, had swung the bike print back and forth, scraping the paint off the wall in the process and had tugged on the curtains, pulling the curtain rod (and bracket) all askew.

It was a sad, sad day.

And I have to say, this is VERY unlike our little boy. I mean, just look at this face…

He’s usually very well-behaved, and up to this point, had never done anything like this. Which is why I decorated it the way that I did. The possibility of him tearing apart his room never occurred to me. But, he IS two years old. So, it probably should have.

I will warn with these pics:  I am not a natural photographer and have not mastered how to make colors appear true.  The wall color is a bit off in these pics and almost looks mottled.   It’s consistent in person.  Not sure how to fix this issue since “auto” isn’t doing it for me.  🙂

Anyways, now his room looks like this….

I had to take down the bicycle print because this kept happening…

The wall lamp had to go too….

So, we are now having to rethink our original plans to make it a bit more indestructible. At this point, we are planning to find a cheap, solid wood headboard in need of love on either Craigslist or a thrift store and paint it a light or bright color. (OR maybe install wainscotting?) Something two-year-old proof. For sure. Then, the license plates will extend to the ceiling above that and wrap around the corner onto the adjoining wall.

On this wall…

We want to get a chest of drawers that’s taller and narrower to create more floor space, and then maybe the bicycle print will be hung above that. (??) (By the way… The giraffe and sock monkey were crocheted by my sister-in-law. )

Behind his door….

… we currently have some awesome art created by my talented mother-in-law. Below that I wanna hang some hooks for Lucas’s jackets and backpack. Kind of a little drop-zone for him.   Then there’s this issue…

Layout FAIL.  We cant open both his bedroom door and closet door at the same time without a traffic jam.   We were thinking of maybe removing the closet doors and replacing them with a curtain.  Or nixing the curtain and reconfiguring the closet with more shelving and adding boxes and baskets for an open (yet concealed) storage nook.

And while I like what we have going on so far on this wall…

…we need more stuff around/above the wall art (maybe some white floating shelves? ). The mirror and shelf look a little lost on the 9-foot-tall wall. P.s. The car puzzle and toy chest were both handmade by my father-in-law. Did I marry into a crazy talented family, or what??

So, that’s Lucas’s room so far. Definitely a ways to go from being finished, but it’ll get there eventually. And I’m sure I’ll learn more decorating-for-2-year-old lessons as we go.