A Big Boy Bedroom With Orange & Navy

This time last year we had just wrapped up our first book tour stop in Cincinnati, where we learned how much fun it was to put faces to some of the names that we knew from comments and the blogosphere at large. And now, we’re actually able to put a room makeover to one of those faces & names, so check out Sarah’s redesign of her son Carson’s room, both of whom we crossed paths with back in Ohio last October.

Hi the studio! I don’t know if you remember me, but we met at your first book signing here in Cincinnati, and my boys were the ones who scribbled all over your signing book (which I still feel really bad about). Anyways, I just finished redesigning my youngest son Carson’s (aka the scribbler’s) room after taking him out of his crib last year. This room has come a long way since we took out the crib (gulp) last year:

When I started planning Carson’s room, he asked for a Cincinnati Reds/Dino room. After some unsuccessful persuasion to steer him in another direction, I decided to embrace his requests and just go for it. After all, it’s his room, right?! And everyone (even 3 1/2 year olds) deserve a space that reflects them and that they enjoy spending time in. So my goal was to incorporate baseball and dinosaurs…

Since the bed is so low to the ground and there was such a large space on the wall to fill, I knew I wanted something oversized to hang up there, but I was terrified that Carson would pull it down and get hurt. I made the chalkboard by painting a square with chalkboard paint right onto the wall and then attaching 1×4″ planks of pine (also right into the wall) to create the frame. Now I have a blank canvas and the “art” can change as quickly as Carson changes his mind (which is quite often)!

On the other side of the bed, I used a small $7 Ikea shelf to make a floating nightstand and turned a $10 wire basket from Home Goods into a rolling book cart.

Some invisible floating book shelves (by Umbra) fit perfectly in between the two windows and hold all of Carson’s favorite books. I made the roman blinds myself using Premier Prints ZigZag Twill Storm fabric from fabric.com. The design with the grommets on the bottom happened as I accidentally cut the fabric too short for the blinds and had to come up with a solution to lengthen them. Best mistake I ever made! I LOVE how they turned out!

My absolute favorite part of Carson’s room has to be his gallery wall. The red cabinet from Ikea was my inspiration for the red ceiling and is great for storing (aka hiding) all his toys. I knew I wanted to keep the walls neutral and the furnishings sleek and simple, so the red ceiling was the perfect solution to bring in some bold color without overwhelming the space.

I had so much fun doing this and I’m thrilled that Carson loves his room! – Sarah

First things first – Carson may have been the first to scribble in our book tour book, but he certainly wasn’t the last. And we loved every “child masterpiece” that we were left with. I mean, how can you not look at this and smile?

But more importantly, how much fun is Carson’s room? Thanks so much for sharing, Sarah! I feel like dinosaur + baseball is the type of curveball we’ll get from the kid as time goes on (wait until you hear what she wants to be for Halloween) so I love that she ran with it. And Sarah has a lot more photos and helpful links to all of her sources and DIY projects over on her blog. But first, what’s your favorite part? the studio is obsessed with those happy-accident grommets at the bottom of the blinds along with the red ceiling and I’m all about that clever can’t-fall-down art over the bed along with the rolling wire book bin.