Footy inspired boy’s bedroom makeover
Sometimes it’s the most awkward rooms that give you the brightest ideas!
When I met my youngest client, 7 year old Oscar and his Mum Natalie, that was certainly the case. Oscar had been sharing a bedroom and bunk beds with his younger brother Lennox, and he was chomping at the bit to move into his own room. He had his eyes on the adjacent sunroom and his heart set on a room with full-on footy style. That was the easy part…
When I stepped into the sunroom with it’s 3 walls of windows, two doors and not a single plain wall, I admit, I was stumped.
But through a design challenge often comes design gold! And this room ended up a winner. My starting point was the windows and everything else in my design jumped off from there.
Scroll to the bottom for a VIDEO TOUR of this room!
I started with the windows because they were the most dominant feature of the room. I wanted sheers to allow light in, but also needed colour for practicality. This is a little boy’s room after all! The solution was to wrap the room in dip-dyed sheers from Leuvia in a bold slate colour. Hanging the curtains almost at the roof line made the 2.1 metre ceiling height appear loftier. The slate gray base made for the perfect backdrop for all of the furniture items placed in front of them.
With curtains, you have the option of pooling or puddling the fabric at the floor (a look I love), but for a rough-and-tumble kid’s room, I always recommend hemming your curtains at the floor. These sheers are stunning quality and at $146.30 per 262 cm wide drop, they helped my budget stretch from the get go!
PROJECT 1: CABINET UPCYCLE
Oscar wanted a room to sleep in, but also to hang out in with his little brother Lennox, so the TV had to stay. I loved the locker-style cabinet that was existing in the sunroom, all it needed was a punch of colour! Using White Knight’s Squirts in Gloss Lemon Yellow, I simply sprayed the cabinet back to life. Squirts comes in a great range of colours and has a primer built into the can, so you don’t need to do too much prep or too many coats!
I repositioned the TV unit where mum Natalie’s desk once stood. This is now the gaming zone for Oscar and Lennox. Where’s his desk I hear you ask? Well, Oscar and Lennox do their homework together in the kitchen daily, so this room is a sleep and fun zone only!
PROJECT 1: PALLET BED
I loved making this simple and inexpensive bed base for Oscar! He was moving from a bunk and bringing only his mattress with him, so I needed a base and headboard solution that wouldn’t cost a bomb. I’m not the first person to throw a mattress on top of pallets (you’ll see projects just like this all over pinterest) but I love this design with the whitewashed colour and built-in headboard.
To make a pallet bed like this you’ll need:
- 3 x recycled pallets (I picked mine up from a pallet supplier)
- Wood screws or fixings
- Palm sander
- Taubmans 3 in 1 Prep
- Taubmans Endure Exterior Matt paint in ‘Crisp White’
- Circular saw
- First, sand your pallets thoroughly. You don’t want splinters when you’re getting in and out of bed.
- Then, paint your pallets by brush or spray gun. You’ll need to give them 1 coat of primer and 2-3 coats of paint.
- Fix two of your pallets together to make the base.
- Cut the third pallet down just below the half way mark, removing one of the discarded slats to trim the top of the headboard.
- Fix the headboard to the base using wood screws and top with the slat you removed earlier to cap off the top.
- Lay your mattress on top and jump right in!
PROJECT 1: SHOP FITTING CLOSET
One of the big challenges with this room was that there was so little wall space. So getting a traditional closet to fit was simply too hard. Instead, I found a really cool shop fitting display system called ‘Peggie’ from Shop For Shops. I love the plywood paneling and simple black fixtures that make this system look so architectural. You can use Peggie to hang clothes and display your favourite things, like I have here, or even use it as a shelving system in a living room, kitchen or office.
I love the way this room looks! It’s fun, practical and didn’t cost a bomb. And Oscar can grow with this look into his teens, which makes mum Natalie very happy!
