Lewis' New Room

I thought I'd document the process of turning our guest room/office into Lewis' new big boy/big brother room. Our guest room is no more, and our office has been relocated to the basement (with a new desk after Kevin and I broke the original one). Thankfully things have come together pretty smoothly since that rough start. :)

Here are a couple of pictures of the guest room/office after we'd broken removed the desk. The pile of lumber on the floor is Lewis' new dresser, out of the boxes but not yet assembled or stained.

The desk sat on that wall, under the cork board and calendar.

One Sunday, we cleared out the room:

Dresser, assembled! (on the left)

His bed will go in the corner, under the map.

The (eventual) reading corner

I found that bamboo swivel chair at Goodwill for $20 (I think), and I've ordered a new cushion for it. It's really comfortable and will be a nice place to read. I'm going to get a rug for that area, too. 

We also cleared out my carefully-curated ecology resource books from the black cube shelves. They are in storage until I am ready to get back into it, and the shelves will be used for toy and book storage for Lewis. I found some milk crates at Home Depot that perfectly fit the Expedit shelves, so I went with those to hold his toys--they're a lot sturdier for ol' Lew than the usual fabric drawers.

Dresser in place, but not yet stained.

On another Sunday, we decided to paint the accent wall. We let Lewis have the honor of putting the first paint on the wall:

He was really into at first, but he lost interest after a few minutes and left the painting to Kevin and I.

He came back in the room later (after Kevin had rolled the whole wall and I was working on cutting in) and he said, 'Look at that BIG GREEN WALL!' It was much nicer to only have to start/finish one wall vs. an entire room. It seems like every time I start a painting project, I hate it a little more. This one was pretty easy, though, in comparison.

On Saturday, Kevin took Lewis to Touch-a-Truck while I stayed back and moved most of the rest of Lewis' stuff into his new room. I'd been slowly moving over clothing last week, so there was just some final organizing and dividing (between Lewis and baby) that needed to be done. We had him sleep in his old room on Saturday night because we had plans to go to Cincinnati Sunday-Monday, so last night was his first official night in his new room. We got back from Cincinnati at dinner time and moved the final piece--his bed!--in place, along with a rug we picked up at IKEA. 

He was a little unsure about it first, but I laid with him for 10-15 minutes and reassured him. [And bawled my eyes out...that's normal, right? ;)] He made it through the night, and, instead of coming in our room to snuggle, got right to work, playing with his road rug this morning. Hooray--I think he likes it!

Here are pictures of his almost finished room:

My new room!

His bed looks like a hot mess because it is. Between the bed rail and a body pillow and the bed skirt, everything is messy, but you get the point. :) 

 Here is the duvet cover that I found at IKEA and loved! I decided to paint the wall green because the white bedding got lost against the lighter walls. 

 We just put up the airplane (above his bed) and these wall decals this morning...he requested that the train and tractor be directly beside his head. :)

 The corner with the finished dresser

I will probably put something on the wall above it, but I'm not sure what, yet.

The reading chair with Lewis' pick of a new yellow cushion

 Which is also the playing corner--he immediately wanted to lay down his new rug last evening when we got home, and he started driving his cars and trucks around on it. That was where Kevin found him this morning, too. 

Still to do:

**I was thinking I'd do a collage of pictures above that low, black bookshelf, but maybe it would make more sense over the dresser (since it looks more blank). I'm waiting to hang anything until I have more pictures gathered--so far, I have bought (or made) a picture of a fire truck, tractor, race cars, and a train crossing.

**I have tie backs for his curtains, but I need to install them.

Our goal was to move him in by Labor Day, so I'm glad we were able to knock it out and get him in early! Now onto the nursery...it sure feels weird to walk by that currently-empty room and envision a new baby in there. Eeeks!