Thursday, August 21, 2008

The Blue Room

When we were walking through our house for the first time I thought it was charming that there were colored walls. Growing up my parents were firmly in the white wall camp and then once I was married we lived in rentals with boring white walls. I was so over white walls.

I failed to take into account that sometimes some colors are just not meant to be plastered all over a wall and that when you have to look at that color all day long it can get to be a bit too much. This is what happened to the "Yellow Room" (named by Evan). The yellow that was haphazardly slapped on the walls of the room burned the eyes if you spent more than a little time in it. So we changed it to blue.

My husband was at first put off by the intense blue but has since warmed to it. I think that the color is perfect for a little boy's Thomas the Train themed room. We kept the original yellow color on the trim to add a bit of pizazz to the room.

Here we are entering the room. The shorter set of curtains are from their room in California. I had been planning on sewing patches to the jean curtains that you see on the left, but I can't seem to find the Thomas fabric that I had been saving for a time when I desperately needed Thomas fabric. As you can see Evan is now on the floor like Harry was in Cali. We are looking for some bunk beds for the boys and hope to be able to put them in real beds before too long.

The wall art is a clock from the old room and a puzzle that I covered in Modge Podge and my husband made a quick wood frame for. On the ceiling you will notice a model of the solar system. That was a gift from my parents and the boys love being able to look at it. Once we scare up some rechargeable C batteries it will even light up and move. There was a hideous light fixture up there that we removed and replaced with something less dangley and ugly.

Here is a shot of the closet. You will also notice a potty that Evan loves to use (yeah potty training). The closets in the house are all very roomy and nice. I love that I can have plenty of room for both kid's clothing plus ample storage space. The dresser is one that was handed down to me. I believe that my father used it when he was a kid. On the wall you will see the moon. That was part of the solar system package and makes a great night light. It will cycle through the different phases of the lunar cycle and turn off after about a quarter of an hour.


Turning around we see the door. Note that there is another door in the room. That leads to the bathroom. It is like a hall way between the two rooms. I am not super fond of this setup because it means that if any guests need to use the bathroom they will have to enter into someone's bedroom to do so. Plus if we have someone crashing on our couches then that person would have to run the risk of waking someone up if they needed to use the bathroom in the middle of the night.


Harry chilling on his bed.

Evan chilling on his bed.
This is one of my all time favorite garage sale finds. The Thomas trash cans that are being sold now are cheap plastic and ugly. This one is a nice solid metal and has cute pictures all around it. Too bad the boys love to put things in it that are not actually supposed to be in it. It also makes a great drum.


A closeup of the solar system.

Just a friendly warning. When curtain shopping make sure that you buy both the same length. I just grabbed the last two jean panels and did not even think to check the sizes. Oh and make sure that the metal curtain rods that you put up are able to handle the weight of the jean curtains and won't bend and threaten to collapse onto the guests you have staying in there. We now have sturdy and thick wooden curtain rods.


Here is a closeup of the super cute vinyl wall stickers. There is a whole line of them along the wall above Harry's bed. The picture showing that ended up being blurry and the kids are asleep right this second so this is what you get. This wall is where the theoretical bunk beds will go.

16 comments:

Heather said...

Very cute. I want a moon. It sounds cool!

Gina said...

Very cute! I too looooove colored walls. Every room in my house has color.

I envy you that clean closet, for sure.

Karen said...

White walls. Blech. Like the blue. Very boy.

Aunt Kathy said...

I love the blue room. If I ever get a room for Adam to call his own, I'll have to consult with you for decorating ideas

Nancy Evans said...

Harry has more bruises on him than Evan does!
P.S. Colored walls were not "In" in the 90's!

Vicky said...

I like that blue very much, it's really bright and cheery and the yellow is a nice accent with it too. The boys look like they are happy in there!

I am jealous of your closets - we don't have much of that here which makes hanging clothes etc hard work. All the boys stuff is in plastic drawers, nothing is hung. Our stuff is limited to about two and a half feet of hanging space each, though I do pinch some of Seiju's space for me!

I too hate white! And for the same reasons as you - ten years in rented housing will do that to a person. The first thing we did when we got here was sort out the horrible bathroom and laundry area, and we papered it a bright orange with navy blue, ochre and aqua tiles. It was a bit of a joke ("When we get our house I'm going to paint everything .... ORANGE!!") that we then felt we should ceremonially follow up on! As it's merely a passing-through room the mad hot colours don't annoy and I still really like it five years later. (I am thinking about painting our front hallway white though....)

Summer said...

I love the blue room. I'm tired of white walls too, I'd love to slap some color on them.

spice2116 said...

simple yet unique so fun to paint cant wait to paint our own house :)

Elizabeth-W said...

I love the yellow trim!

chichimama said...

What a fabulous room!!!!!

Unknown said...

that room looks great, bummer on the curtain lengths though

Unknown said...

Thomas-obsessed Bode would DIE for that room. Sure he can't come visit? :-)

Anonymous said...

You can hem up the curtains when you add the patches so they are the same length!

Beautiful room!! I think bunk beds will be great in there!

Anonymous said...

We have a "green room" that is pretty blinding, especially in the middle of the day.

I don't like my DARK chocolate room, but I'm not sure what to do with the colors in our new house!

Zephra said...

I think if you just fold the hem down on that long one and sew it, it should work. Thanks for the tour. I used to have that color blue in my boys room.

CC said...

adorable room! good advice about the curtain length!