The Boy’s Room (and the monogram)

i recently realized that i’ve never given you an official tour of our new house.  our move was such a whirlwind for me.  we moved back in January, when i was smack dab in the middle of hardcore HG…so it was all completely a blur!  i’m pretty sure i didn’t pack a single box myself, but had the most amazing friends and family do it all for me…and i mean ALL!

anyway, we are slowly making our way through our new house, finishing up projects.  there is still lots more to do (including a nursery!), and there aren’t many rooms that are 100% complete, but i’m pretty happy with the progress we’ve made in the Boy’s room, and since some of you requested more info on his monogram above his bed from my last post, i figured i’d go ahead and lump it all together and give you a tour of his room while giving you details of the monogram.

you might remember from our old place that our kiddos used to share a room.  so moving to our new house, it’s quite a treat that all of our kiddos are gonna have their own individual spaces.  long before we moved, i had envisioned how i would like to decorate Canaan’s room.  i wanted it to be boyish, but not too little-boyish, and wanted something that could also grow with him.  i knew i wanted to have thick navy and white striped bedding, so once that came together, everything else kinda fell into place.  i had planned to make his bedding from some fabric that i saw at IKEA, but saw this bedding at Target and it just happened to be exactly what i wanted!  so i was thrilled to not have to make it…or go get fabric from IKEA, which unfortunately is not close to where i live.

i wanted to throw in some touches of orange, so i found the orange fabric at Joann’s and made the pillow.  his lamp was from Target a few years back, and i used hot glue to attach some navy grosgrain ribbon as a trim to the top and the bottom of the lampshade.

his Ugly Doll monster was a gift when he was a baby, (we named him UD, because at the time i didn’t want to teach him the word “ugly”…that feels like an eternity ago!).  i still think its adorable, so he lets me put it on his bed every now and then :)

his one request for his new room was a desk.  my brother and sister in law were getting rid of theirs, and it fit in perfectly with the rest of his bedroom furniture (which, btw, was from KMart about 6 years ago.)  i found the desk lamp at a garage sale for a few bucks, and the map was one of his birthday gifts (i’ll give more details on the map in a minute.)

i picked up his desk chair at a garage sale a few years back, and threw on a coat of Annie Sloan “Old White” Chalk Paint (obsessed would not even begin to describe how i feel about ASCP!)  i recovered the seat with some funky, colorful chevron that i picked up at Joann’s as well.

we used to go through a basketball hoop every few months, until Santa brought this Basketball Hoop at Christmas, and its been amazing!!  super durable, and makes for hours of room basketball fun.  i’m contemplating making some cool shelves to hang above his dresser to display his trophies, but am still trying to figure out just how to do that, so for now, its kinda empty on that side of the room.  (any ideas??)  and do you notice all the missing knobs on the dresser?  i have no earthly idea how they get lost, or where they could be.  i’m gonna have to replace them, but i’m not sure with what yet, so for now, they just sit empty.  i thought about photoshopping them in, but opted instead to just keep it real. :)  (the globe was a GoodWill find, and i’m currently on the hunt for as many globes as i can find.  i love a shelf full of fun globes!)

the monogram was not planned, but just happened to come together, and i really like the way it turned out.  i bought the frame at a garage sale last fall, not knowing exactly what i would do with it, but knowing that i loved it and was sure that i could find a billion uses for it:

as i was unpacking boxes, i found the “C” that i used in Canaan’s old room long ago, and thought it would look great above his bed.  but when i put it up, it was just too small on its own.  so i covered the back of the frame in burlap, spray painted the “C” orange (it used to be red), and hot glued it to the burlap.  i then used some of the leftover navy grosgrain ribbon that i used as trim on his lamp shade, and hot glued it as a border to the burlap.

i did this all in about 10 minutes, as a clutch-time decision (which is why the ribbon is exactly straight!), as a houseful of guests were on their way over for a dinner party.  it is a super easy project to attempt.  all you need to find is a hefty frame (you can paint whatever color you desire…mine was already this distressed blue when i bought it, but it wouldn’t be hard to replicate), cover the back in burlap, and use whatever wooden letter you want.  the one i have is a 13 inch wooden letter from Pottery Barn years ago, that i don’t think they sell anymore, but this one is a very similar size:  14 Inch Wood Letter.  you can spray paint it easily in whatever color you need.  then just create your border with ribbon.  a customized, monogrammed piece for barely any $$$ or time:

as for the curtains:

i’m always looking for ways to save money, but still want to achieve the look i have in mind, so for the curtains, i started with just simple, inexpensive white panels from Target:

then i bought navy grosgrain ribbon to match the ribbon i used for the lampshade and the monogram, just in a wider size, and hot glued a border onto the curtain panels.  a super inexpensive way to make cheap curtains look custom:

Canaan has always expressed an interest in wanting a wall map, and put it on his birthday list.  so we found this dry erase wall map at Urban Outfitters:

and then my father in law built the frame for it.  he adhered the map to a piece of foam board from Hobby Lobby, and i picked out this simple but slightly detailed molding from Home Depot.

he mitered the edges and nailed it all together to create a custom frame for far cheaper than it would’ve cost us to find a frame that size.

and as a little tip…i have learned the hard way to never let any kind of marker, crayon, etc in my house that is not washable.  so i picked up these Washable Dry Erase Markers for the map, and i don’t have to worry about unwanted marker marks :)  they have been working great on the map, and come off very easily.

(if i am remembering correctly, i think i got the buckets at a garage sale a while back.  they used to be red, and i spray painted them orange.)

and last but not least, the wall color is Benjamin Moore “Gray Owl.”  we needed to paint both kids’ rooms and our master bath before moving in, and i was too sick at the time to look at paint swatches and try to figure it all out, so i used Gray Owl on all three.  i love it in this room and in our bathroom, but anticipate that i will repaint Bella’s room before too long!

Canaan’s pretty happy to have his own space, and momma’s pretty happy too!

Happy Mother’s Day to all you momma’s out there.  this is the first Mother’s Day that i’ve spent with my kiddos in 2 years.  Jake and I are usually in Haiti this week, but Baby Berkeley has prevented that trip from happening this year.  i’m pretty thankful to be spending the day with my family!

i’ll be back with more house projects soon,