Boys’ room: details

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As you saw in the previous post, the boys’ room is finally done. Thank you so much for all the lovely comments. We are all finding an excuse to hang ‘round in the room to enjoy the newly renovated surrounds. The abomination that was previously their room… is now one of the nicest spaces in the Sow’s Ear.

And it couldn’t have happened without the vouchers Masters Home Improvements generously threw our way. There is no way we would’ve been able to complete the room this year given all the other work we’ve undertaken around here. Thank you Masters.

We are so pleased to have the room renovated and the boys are thrilled to have a bedroom to be proud of. This post will give you the details of some of the items we used to decorate the room (all the hyperlinks will take you to the Masters products we used).

Renovated boy's bedroom in a Queenslander house. 
We wanted a  cleaner more minimal look for this space using a white on white colour scheme for the walls, windows and ceiling.

The room was sanded to remove the very worst of the flaky paint. Jason replaced the window architraves so that they were consistent to the other rooms and he also removed the picture rail which was not original to the house. We replaced all the damaged window fittings too. He bought some reliable new safety goggles for the deconstruction phase, but I think he just wanted to complement his hi-vis uniform.

Beautiful ceiling rose has come up nicely. Vintage Danish glass pendant was purchased second-hand 

We spent a hefty portion of the room budget on paint and painting accessories which we purchased in-store at Masters. The room is painted in our signature Dulux Acrylic Wash n Wear Vivid i.e. straight outta the tin. It works for us and makes a great palette for a crisp looking interior - one coat of undercoat and two top coats on all the walls, doors and windows. 

Freshly painted white walls are a perfect match with framed art work

We framed some vintage Cuban movie posters we had using the Masters white timber picture frames. The frames come with a mat board already to go, making them an easy and cheerful option to display prints and photos.

One of the main problems with the room was the lack of hanging and shelf space. We would trip over school and library bags which were strewn across the doorway. Now the bags have a handy place to reside on a port rack near the door. We bought the black contemporary satin hook board to keep their bags off the floor. No excuses for bags to be anywhere else now!

The boys have a place to hang their bags when they enter the room

Some stylish floating shelves to display their treasures. Attractive baskets make for good sneaky toy storage under their beds.

For some reason, we have a penchant for floating shelves. We installed two for the boys to display their collected items, as they are into figurines and models. It is also handy for their books. 

Another big change we instituted was a brutal cull of the boys’ toys in their room. We’ve rationed them to a couple of square storage baskets for their special things. It’s attractive storage for under the bed. Their bigger toys are under the house now.

The boys have been using the room for nearly two weeks and so far they are keeping it tidy. Hooray! (It might be a different story when they are back at school and kindy though...!)

Gloss white doors make the built-in cupboards disappear in the room. 

The built-in cupboards were also repainted. From brown to white, it looks like a completely different room. Adding new door knobs improved the overall look too.

I also bought some new coat hangers for their built-in cupboards. They store all their shoes in the cupboards, as they already had shoe racks. A cull of their clothes and shoes occurred while we were renovating the room too.

Sleek door knobs bring a new edge to the doors. These knobs are my favourite and are similar to the Arne Jacobsen designed Vola knobs.

The architectural glass and decorative architraves need only the simplest of window treatments. The blinds are always up during the day.

We don’t have any window coverings in the Sow’s Ear but we thought it would be prudent to get some block-outs for this bedroom and the early rising occupants. The boys’ bedroom gets the morning sun! The white Roomaker Oscar roller blinds were by far my favourite, discreet and unobtrusive for the lovely coloured windows.

Neutral rug adds warmth to an all white room. It will also match any bedding we may end up choosing down the track.

I liked the range of affordable wool rugs Masters had online and thought it would be a good way to give warmth to the room. The rugs must be popular as most of them were sold out when I went to order it. The Jora rug comes in a fairly neutral tone blending well into whole scheme. A nice vibrant green rubbish bin is a practical way to inject some colour into the all white room.

Most of the decorator items were chosen and paid for online, which I then organised to pick up at the Masters Tingalpa store when it was ready. This was such a convenient way to organise a bulk purchase, as it meant that I could be in an out of the store when I had Son#3 with me. Quick and easy. And friendly!

Obviously we didn’t purchase every single thing from Masters to renovate the room, but we did try to use as much as possible to get bang for our buck. We had a lot of the timber and brass window hardware already and we made use of a lot of the furniture and soft furnishing items we had in other parts of the Sow’s Ear.(I love using the old Italian military blankets on their beds, with crisp white sheets and their favourite cushions. The blankets are also something they can keep when they are older.)

With vintage pieces, op-shop finds and Masters Home Improvement purchases, I think we’ve made a fairly attractive room which the boys just love.

And compared to the before and during pictures , it’s come a long way, Baby!

P.S

The winnner of our Masters $500 voucher giveaway JenJen QLD is planning to spruce up her home after it had been rented out when they were overseas. She said there was a bit of damage from the tenants, so the vouchers will be put to good use.

She is currently negotiating with her family the following options on which to splurge: a fancy chicken coop which the kids are vying for, a new rug or light fitting or some safety glass fence panels for the pool. So much to choose from!