It’s January. And we’re in that let’s-tackle-ALL-the-home-projects mode. I think Casey likes it. Actually I know he does. He always wants to “do stuff”. He’s ready to start sawing away on wood trim, or chopping down dead trees in our backyard. He likes to get things done. And I do too. But…I’m usually the one dragging my feet to get back into home projects, when I’m in the middle of a sewing project, or fabric design, or quilt patterns, etc. Do you find it hard to shift creative gears too? That could be a whole other blog post.

So. The current project is to update Owen’s bedroom.
But first, let me show you the girl’s room makeover! The one that I promised to show you after we finished all the Board + Batten. That was a fun project (since Casey did all the work. Haah.)

Maybe I should retitle this post:
Casey does fun things to our house,  one room at a time.

Okay. Enough rambling.
Let’s see pretty pictures!
I love how the girl’s room turned out. The wallpaper really gives it some personality (based on my favorite fabric print in the BLUSH collection….which I used in the First Day Dress video. You can find that pattern here)

And here you go!
The BEFORE and AFTER.

The room is still pretty simple. We could definitely do more with it (I totally need one more pink blanket on that other bed). But I really love it. I’m a bit minimalist (which is code for “I’m tired of decorating this room and want to be done with it”) So I love how the woodwork and wallpaper are really the stars of the show here.

BOARD AND BATTEN WOOD TRIM
If you want to add wood features to your walls, I highly recommend it! I’m not an expert, and before we tackled this room I looked at tons of ideas and info on Pinterest. But here’s my detailed post about our process:
HOW TO INSTALL BOARD + BATTEN

WALLPAPER
I wanted to use one of my own designs, and I wanted the wallpaper to be simple to install—different from the wallpaper in our dining room which  required sanding off wall texture, and a professional to hang it. So I tried out Spoonflower, which was overall good. It’s cool that you can mock up your designs and see how it would look on a virtual wall (see the pics below). And I love that you can purchase samples. I got about 6 samples of my various designs in different colors and shades. Ultimately, I ordered the “Removable Woven Wallpaper” (you can see my exact design here) which is like a giant decal/sticker. You just peel off the paper on the back, and then stick it or reposition it as needed. For this one wall, we ordered 6 rolls.

Technically according to the Spoonflower site, you are supposed to remove any texture from the walls….which we didn’t do because we just wanted to get started! And our texture is minimal (orange peel) so I figured we’d just go for it. I hung the paper, while Casey cut around the tricky spots.

(3rd alternate title for this blog post: Can your marriage survive hanging wallpaper?
Thankfully yes).

(Real life scenes from the room—bad lighting mixed with all the cluttery stuff that my kids keep in dresser drawers).

And the next morning, we loved it!

Until….disaster happened.
Can you see the wallpaper? UGH.
We went on a 3 week long trip in the summer (of 2018) and came home to Lucy yelling from upstairs, “Mom! I think there’s a problem with the wallpaper”!

Haah. No kidding! It all peeled off while we were gone. I was so bummed. And I was worried that it was totally ruined. But surprisingly Casey and I were able to peel it off itself and smooth it back up on the wall. I was amazed that it wasn’t creased or torn. I added double-sided tape to the top of the wall to give it extra support.
But then….when we went on another weekend trip that month, it fell down AGAIN!
What. Is. Happening?
Make a fool of me twice, that’s on me.

Yes, it may have been the texture that we left on the walls. But I think it was actually the temperature we left our house at, while on a trip. We kept leaving the thermostat at 85 (in the summer) so our A/C wouldn’t come on as frequently. And I think that was affecting the wallpaper. Since then we’ve read that it’s not good for your walls/house to do that, so we’ve left it at a more reasonable temp.
And to really SECURE THE PAPER IN PLACE, I got 3M mounting tape and placed pieces at the top of the wall behind the wallpaper. It’s been fine ever since! For 2 1/2 years.

LIGHTING
We added gold touches to the room with lights and a round mirror (all from Target).  I thought it would look cute to have sconce reading lamps above their beds, and would have preferred wall-wired lights here (so you wouldn’t see the cords). But it just wasn’t working out, so I found these adorable plug in, mid-century lights on Target.com. They were out of stock for 5 months and I thought it was a lost cause, and then one day they had them back! Yay! Looks like they no longer carry them. Boo. But they’re technically called the Glass Globe Sconce Wall Light Brass by Project 62.

I put dim 25W bulbs inside so they give a calm glow when we’re reading together at night.

Here’s another BEFORE and AFTER.
We added some new dressers from Living Spaces. That place is awesome. The Alton Dresser (and night stand) were half the price of the West Elm version.

The Bunk Beds are just from Amazon. Our exact one is not listed anymore, but something similar to these.

Also from Target, we found this gorgeous hanging lamp with chain. It looks cool the light looks at night, sparkling through the little holes:

And for anyone who thrives on symmetry….yep. This archway is not centered on the wall. And it bugs me. There’s more room on the left side of the room, than the right!….which drives Clara crazy because she doesn’t have room for a night stand. Big problems here.

BEDDING
A great design combo is floral + stripes, but I was having the hardest time finding just the right striped bedding online. I was about to make my own striped quilts (which inspired my new Stripey Quilt Pattern) But then I spotted these duvet covers on H&M (they also come in blue!) DONE.

And though it might not be “proper” for twin size bedding, I made King size pillow shams because it’s SO much more cozy to read a book next to someone when you’re sharing a King size pillow! The duvet set came with a twin size pillowcase, but since that wasn’t big enough, I bought an extra duvet set and used that as fabric for my pillow shams. I’ll have to share a separate tutorial for that.

And that’s a room tour!
2 years after the fact…which is why this little girl had an exciting idea last weekend for the room….

“Let’s put the beds back together as bunk beds! Lucy and Owen got to sleep in bunk beds and I never got to!” So we set them back up. And Lucy can barely fit on the bottom bunk without hitting her head.
Sooooo, now Lucy’s moving to the guest room and the house projects continue!