Today I’m going to give you all a little tour of our boys’ bedroom! It’s been years since I last posted pictures of this room (You can see that post from July of 2009 here) and I’ve been meaning to share the changes we’ve made for over a year now. (The 7 Posts in 7 days challenge at Conversion Diary has been just what I’ve been needing to get back in the habit of blogging each day! Thanks Jen!) The first thing I did was rearrange the beds (again) and then, back in March of last year (while my husband was away for training) I added a new bookcase, had their dresser (a hand-me-down from my parents) painted black, had new closet doors installed, and painted the walls! We haven’t made any major changes this past year, though Sean did hang a few more shelves on the walls over the weekend and I purchased one more organizer for the boys’ closet.
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| In the process of painting and redecorating… |
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| The Boys Bedroom – March 2012 |
The bunks are old and rustic, but I just love them! They were actually my brothers’ beds when they were younger (complete with most of their names carved in the wood!) and my parents gave them to us when our boys were little. At first we only had one of of the bunks set up, but when we moved everyone around we set up the second bunk bed for once Snuggles was ready for it. (He now sleeps on the bottom of the bunk.) I had been having such a hard time finding a way that I liked them in the room, since no matter how I arranged them one always stuck into the window, and one day I realized that they could probably be stacked again, creating a triple (or more)! With the vaulted ceiling, there was plenty of room and sure enough it worked!
My brothers did have a triple bunk that my Dad had built when we were all crammed into a tiny mobile home while my parents built our home (and actually so did my dad and his brothers when they were little), but when they replaced it with these log style bunk beds my parents never considered (or even needed since they then had plenty space) triple stacking them.
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| Boys’ Triple Bunk – July 2013 |
Captain has the top bunk, Rascal the middle, and Snuggles is on the bottom. The only trouble we have is during these hot summer months when it is just too hot on the top. So from around July-September, and anytime he isn’t feeling well, Captain opts for the other bed under the window.
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| It’s been overcast and was difficult to get decent pictures… |
Originally my plan was to be able to have four boys in this room “if we ever had another.” Now that we have Bud, and the boys outnumber the girls, we’re just not sure about moving him in once he’s old enough. Ideally we’d like to move Snuggles and Bud into a room together, but that means either moving all three girls into a room together or giving up our schoolroom… Anyways, I’ll post more about all those thoughts and decisions soon. Back to the boys’ room!
Years ago I installed ClosetMaid Organizers in the closet and each of the (three) boys has their section for hanging clothing. On the left side of the closet the boys hang all their belts and we have a CapRack on the back of their bedroom door for all their baseball caps.
The older boys just use the shelf/floor below their clothing for their shoes, and Snuggles keeps his shoes on a shoe shelf. Various sets of toys are in the wicker baskets and additional toys (matchbox cars, army men, playmobil, etc) are stored in the drawers under the single bed.
Around Mother’s Day we purchased a couple new bookshelves for the school room and I passed on my 3-Drawer Organizers to the boys for their legos! They LOVE them and we just purchased one more.
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| Black Bookcase from Target (purchased on sale and during a”buy-one-get-one 50% off” promotion!) |
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| Baskets from Target for Dress Up, NHL Quilts, Lego Architecture Sets, and Sopwith Camel |
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| Soldiers Boat, Viking Longboat, Royal Ship of Egypt, and Warrior’s Ship |
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| Still need to get additional knobs for the dresser… |
My boys are really good about taking care of their bedroom and belongings. Yes, they make messes and often you will see battle scenes, lego creations, or one of their favorite board games all over the floor, and empty paper towel holders stashed in the corner, but when I ask them to clean their room they do an excellent job! (The girls are a different story… They still need lots of help from mom every so often.)
Oh, and one last thing… I took it down for the pictures, but usually there is a baby gate blocking the door to their bedroom. It is how we keep the legos out of the reach of a particular little toddler who finds them very intriguing!
We are off to the pool for our third day of swimming lessons followed by four back-to-back appointments with the orthodontist. It’s going to be another busy day!
LOVE IT! the rustic beds look great with the decor. i love the holy artwork. I can't wait to configure a boys bedroom so that it's actually functional.
LOVE all the LEGO pics!!!!!! Thank you!!! And of course the Sopwith Camel!!!! 🙂
I am a sucker for posts like this, I absolutely love seeing how other people live. I'm loving the bedroom, especially the denim quilt. WANT!
Funnily enough my 9 year old son keeps his room immaculate and my 6 year old daughter lives in squalor and needs me to go in and clean/organise every day. I am hoping it is related to her age and not just her personality!
Thank goodness for those cathedral ceilings!! So neat and tidy…I know what a huge accomplishment that is b/c I have 5 boys too (But our girls add to the mess too — ha:) Legos everywhere!!! We have a gate just like that for our 17month old……he tries to climb it when I have the bar on the out side though. He finds the Legos intriguing too 🙂
All this bedroom rearranging is hard work — especially for the boys and girls rooms. I hope you are relaxing at the pool during lessons.
It is amazing how creative Moms can be when they have to make space for all their children
Awesome organization! Great idea with legos separated by color in those drawers!
So tomorrow, the girls' room? Or your 2 littlest ones? 🙂
I love seeing how other moms decorate/organize kids' rooms. It always inspires! I especially like seeing how big families do it, because even when we don't have a lot of stuff, when we have many children, well, it equals a lot anyway!
I am a mom of 10 and I can't tell you how many times we have rearranged bedrooms and roommates over the years. It seems to be a yearly occurence 🙂
Love it! My boys have the same teddy bear sheets! Shelving makes all the difference! Im a big basket person. Lately, my boys have lost interest in Lego…not sure why..
Im happy youve been posting more lately – missed you last week. The peek into your life is always an inspiration! God bless!
Wow, looks great! I'm so glad you posted these pics. I love those bunk beds, how neat that you get to use them with your boys too. My boys (7 & 5) are really getting into Legos and it has taken over their room. I need to offer them more storage and display options, but it hasn't come together yet. Thanks for the inspiration, you definitely have set me brainstorming!
Thank you so much for this. My husband and I want to have many kids too (we have two little girls right now). I grew up as one of two children, so in my mind, it's hard to imagine how to have space for everyone and how it would logistically work. It really helps to know that other people do it and it doesn't have to be insurmountable! I love your blog. Thanks for being a great example 🙂
Great job on the boys room! Where did you find the lovely artwork for the boys room? God bless you and your family!
Let's see… The boys each have an icon of their patron saint – our oldest's was given to him by his godmother, I purchased one from the same store in VA for our 2nd, and Snuggles' was baptismal gift and handpainted by a friend! The image of the Sacred Heart was also a gift from Captain's godfather. The Flag Raising on Iwo Jima and Washington Crossing the Delaware posters were from Allposters.com and given to the boys for Christmas (2010). I picked up frames for them at Michaels. By the door is a couple framed pictures of the older boys serving Mass when they were younger, given to them by a friend of ours, and their Holy Water Font. 🙂
Thank you Katie! I've missed you all too! 🙂
We just added shelving to our daughters' room over the past two days — shelving for trophies, shelving for American Girl dolls, shelving to act as a night stand next to bunks….Tomorrow I get in the closets to help that area get better organized! We have sliding doors on closet like you which never allows us to open the whole closet…so I decided to just dispose of the doors and put a curtain rod with curtains hanging off of rings as the new "door" .
Like the icons…we do the same and mark the back with the dates of all their sacraments.
Thanks for sharing. My two boys are now fussing a little about wanting shelves. I'll have to do the lego organizer for them as they get older.
This gives me so much inspiration for my kids' rooms! Thanks for sharing! And I'm so delighted to see you joining in the 7×7 challenge — just because I love reading your posts. 🙂
Love the room! Love the lego organizer, we might have to do that too, as Our oldest likes to organize by color and they are all in separate bags now. I love the bunks, but that closet, I love how organized it is. I have been thinking about our son's room and how it needs to be re-organized this summer.
Thanks for the tour!
Thanks for the tour! We just bought bunk beds for our girls' and boys' bedrooms, but nobody uses the top bunks yet since the two younger ones are still in cribs. I am nervous just looking at them and thinking to myself, 'How in the world will I change sheets on the top bunks?" So, Jessica, how do you do it? I was thinking maybe a step ladder? I'm not just exclaiming when I say 'How do you do it?' I really need to know how it is done! Can you please explain?
Thanks!
Katie
P.S. I have really been enjoying your 'a post everyday for a week' challenge! All your readers will be spoiled now!
Actually, Katie, the boys change their own sheets nearly all the time. And they change the bottom bunk, for their younger brother, too. The ladders are taken off to make it easier and the boys do one corner at a time, while on the bed. When I help I stand on either the end, the side, or the top of the dresser. A step ladder would probably make it much easier, but that requires extra work! 😉 We will have to see how it goes with the girls… I might be changing sheets more frequently for awhile.
I should have guessed that they change their own sheets. That's really nice of them to do it for their little brother too. Thanks for the info…I guess crawling around on the bed is really the only way.
We're working on deciding how to work out having 3 kids in a 8×10 room and we're pretty set on having a triple bunk bed. I have some questions of you don't mind? First, how much space is between the top of the mattress and the next bed? Do the kids bump their heads a lot? We are custom building ours so is there anything you wish you had or couldn't live without? Thanks 🙂