Travel Themed Boy’s Bedroom Reveal

It was time to makeover my son’s bedroom. We went with a travel-themed boy’s bedroom this time because we wanted it to be a room that grows with him over the years. 

This will most likely be the last time I  share my son’s room on this blog, and I’m feeling pretty emotional about it if I’m honest. I started this blog when he was a toddler and now it feels like he’s all grown up . . .

People aren’t lying when they tell you time flies…. In particular the early parenting years. It truly does. One minute you’re  rocking them in your arms willing them to go to sleep, and the next minute they’re pushing you away when you go in for a hug because they’re ‘too big’ for those sort of things.

But I mean yeah, the older he gets the more I realise how important it is to keep certain aspects of his life private because of how public mine is. It gets tricky sometimes knowing what to share and what not to. Definitely, something I want to delve into deeper at a later date.

Now we’ve  decorated my son’s bedroom  in every rented property we’ve lived in, but this time felt a little more different because he was a lot more involved with the decorating process (His boy’s room design before). And that was interesting to say the least… I’m so used to do having complete free reign when it comes to decorating his house!

His bedroom makeover started in April , around the same time I tackled the kitchen. It was another really slow project because I  didn’t want to rush things and have to change or redo things. The budget was also an issue, I was really keen not to spend too much on this boy’s bedroom makeover and work with the furniture we already had.

I actually did a really basic mood board for his room … something I rarely do, but might do more of in the future as it really helped to streamline the design. It also gave me a chance to get my son’s opinion on things before I started the actual decorating

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All photographs credit: Kasia Fiszer

 

WALL COLOUR FOR A TRAVEL THEMED BOY’S BEDROOM

Boys’ bedroom colours can be tricky to decide on, especially when you’re trying to please a nine year old and wanting the colour to grow with them. In the end I went with steamed milk by Rustoleum (it’s the same brand of paint we used for my husband’s man cave office) . It’s like a really warm white or hinter grey depending on how the light shines on it. I also painted a green chalkboard (like I did for our chalkboard menu) on the wide side of the wall, but honestly, it doesn’t look that green at all! More like black… maybe it’ll change colour over time?

This is the chalkboard paint I used 

 

 

THE MAP MURAL WALL

The mural is the focal point of the room, and the colours from it helped to tie together things nicely…  lots of greens, browns, whites and beige. The mural is removable wallpaper from Etsy (Great Self-Adhesive Wallpaper Designs), and my husband and I both put it up together. We’ve done this a few times now together so we knew what to expect. Which thankfully meant we were less inclined to get irritated and snap at each other. You know what they say about couples who DIY together …

 

 

 

Ok, I don’t know what they say but all I know is, DIYing with your other half can truly test a marriage.

Anyway, once the mural was up I added a basket hall hoop that I got from here (but removed the backing).

 

 

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THE BED AREA

The bed and locker were gifted by Next Home for a previous collaboration. It’s a great little bed because it has two really deep drawers for storage. It doesn’t come with a headboard so I installed one using a cushion and a kitchen rail. Just above it is a magazine rack from Etsy.

 

 

 

A floor bedside table  would have been out of the question as it would block the drawers under the bed from being opened so we went with a flotating one from La Redoute.

The light is from B&Q and the hot air balloons MK interiors.

 

 

THE DESK AREA

We’ve had this desk for a while and my son absolutely loves it. It has one really large  drawer for storage and a good size surface for drawing/writing etc.

 

 

Most of the stuff in this space was eBay / charity finds like the paper drawer on his desk and the vintage Pepsi crate.

 

 

I got lucky with the String shelf system next to the desk. They are quite expensive if bought new, but I managed to find the brackets second-hand. I then bought the shelves using a £100 gift card from John Lewis! Its a timeless piece that I hope will be in our family for years to come!

And lastly the green metal tubs … I always get asked about them whenever I share them. They are from Staqbox.

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CLOTHES STORAGE FOR TRAVEL THEMED BOY’S BEDROOM

At the moment he keeps most of his clothes under his bed and the rest in this locker (another gifted item from Next Home) which seems to be working well for now. The bedroom is quite narrow so I don’t want to make it feel even smaller with bulky furniture.

 

 

 

My son loves how his travel boy’s bedroom theme turned out and so do I.  Sometimes when he’s at school I chill in there and pretend it’s my bedroom 😂.  Let me know what you think in the comments!