Friday 13 January 2012

(Re)decorating the kids' rooms: Mason's Room


Like Avery's room, Mason's is also a work in progress.  I (sadly) agreed to buy a toddler bed for him to transition him from his crib to a regular bed (my little boy is growing up) near the end of November and that precipitated a number changes to his room.

As I'm writing this post and reviewing the pictures, I seem to have missed a couple shots that would create a more complete picture of what's in his room.  Oh well!  The missing elements are his reading area (complete with comfy chair, floor lamp, side table and bookshelf), air plane propeller ceiling fan, growth chart and play table.

This dining room hutch (now used as a dresser) has been passed down through my grandfather's side of the family for four generations.  It desperately needs to be professionally refinished, but it's one of the few things I own that has a history and I have lovingly brought it with me each of the eight times I've moved in the last 10 years. 
 
I'm sure you'll recognize the felt wall art I originally made for above Mason's crib.  I've split it up on opposite walls now.  The shelf is from Ikea and the MASON letters are from Kitchen Stuff Plus.  The duck on the far left side of the shelf is incredibly special to me.  It's a hunting decoy that my dad gave to me and it has his name chiseled into the bottom.  It will be passed down to Mason, who is the only grandchild my dad had a chance to meet, and I hope that he will cherish it as much as I do.


Sorry for the weird angle, I was trying to avoid the glare the sunlight was creating on the glass.  This train wall art was created by another super-creative friend (have I mentioned that I'm surrounded!).  She bought vintage train set pieces and then somehow mounted them within the frame.  I love how they appear to float in there.


See the forest green carpet?!  Yeah, every inch of this room was that colour when we moved in.  The plan is to redo all the floors with hardwood some time this year.


I picked up the fire truck bed and the side tables on Craigslist.  The lights are from Homesense as is the fireman's helmet and the aluminum air plane on the shelves of the bedside tables.  I picked up the globe hanging from the ceiling at Goodwill and turned it so that Australia is facing out (DH is Australian) and then made the rest of the wall art.
The Dr. Seuss quote itself is something I came across on Pinterest and based on a comment that was left on one of my previous posts by kismehow about how you could use contact paper (shelf liner) and do it yourself.... well, I did just that! I printed letters from MS Word and cut them out. Then glued them on in reverse (backwards) on the back of the white contact paper. Then I cut them out one by one. It was time consuming and the contact paper acted up a little at times but with a little patience and perseverance, I couldn't be happier with how it turned out. I still need to add 'Dr. Seuss' underneath, and when I do I'll create a tutorial in case my explanation wasn't clear!

The idea for the M initial with the cars came from this project on Mason's Roost that I found on Pinterest.  I found the particle board letter at Your Dollar Store with More for $2 and then painted it a dark grey.  The frame is Ikea and then chose vehicles out of Mason's collection.  I hot glued the M directly to the brown particle board frame backing because I liked the colour & texture.  Then, I hot glued the cars to the letter.  It was really easy to do and I love the way it turned out.

On the opposite wall is this frame:


I bought a set of wood letters on Ebay.   I liked that they were slightly rustic and had primary colours mixed in with letters that weren't painted, but I had no idea which letters were included in the bunch.  When they arrived, I went searching through to see what I could piece together.  I wanted it to look random at first glance but then have meaningful words and letter combinations if you stopped to really look.   Like a secret message written for my son.  I used the same white Ikea frame that the W is in to create a sense of symmetry and balance.  I also used the same dark grey paint, this time on the particle board backing.  Then, I hot glued the letters in place.  I hope that both framed pieces will be able to grow with him and will transition well into the next version of his room.

Have a great weekend!

- Jacs

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