Townhouse Tour: Nautical Big Boy Bedroom

Our recent move seemed like a good time to upgrade Forrest from his toddler bedroom setup to a 'big boy' bedroom. It started out simple enough with a few practical ideas, and snowballed until we had an entire room makeover on our hands.

His itty bitty 3 drawer dresser has been bursting at the seams for years now, so maybe we ought to get a bigger dresser for him . . . and if we're going to be getting a bigger dresser, maybe I'd better get him a matching nightstand, too . . . and if he's going to have a full-sized dresser and nightstand, I suppose he ought to move up into a twin bed since his little toddler bed might look silly next to all that big furniture . . .

All of a sudden, we had an entire bedroom transformation on our hands. These projects always start out innocently, don't they? Classic 'if you give a mouse a cookie' situation.

I wanted it to be a room he could grow with--something that's perfectly fun for him now while he's little, but will be just as fitting for a 6- or 10- or 13-year old boy. I love how it came out.

 His bed started out as my brother's bed when he was little, then when he left for college, it moved into my room. So Forrest is now the 3rd person in the family to use this bed. I love the simple, timeless style, and I think it's a perfect fit in here.

I wondered if he'd have any issues with moving from a little toddler bed to something bigger--he's actually done really great. He loves his new bed and seems to think it's really cool and grown up to sleep in a big bed.

 The inspiration for the whole room began with the bedding. I toyed briefly with the idea of sewing a quilt. That lasted about 2 minutes. Right up until I realized that we were moving for Pete's sake and did I really want to add a giant sewing project onto my to-do list? NOPE.

I remembered looking at Beddy's months and months earlier, and revisited their site, where I fell hard for the Game On bedding set. It looked to me like the perfect bedding for a classic boys' room--it has personality and was a great jumping-off point for the rest of a traditional, nautical room design, but it's simple and classic enough to be a great fit for all sorts of bedrooms, so I'd have some freedom to change up the look of the room later on. But more on the bedding in a minute.

First, the dresser that started it all. As I mentioned earlier, Forrest has been using a 3-drawer dresser forever, and while it was a good fit for his baby clothes, it was just too small as he (and his clothes!) grew. So we went all-out with a big 9-drawer dresser, with the hope that I never have to buy him a larger dresser ever again. It's a pretty large piece of furniture, but this room is bigger than his room in our old house, so I think it actually works fine in here. Never could have made this work in his old room.

I bought it from a woman on facebook, who said she would refinish it however the buyer wanted. So I asked her to paint it navy blue with a stained top, and I think it came out nicely. The map above the dresser is a years-ago thrift store find, and I've always loved it. I've wondered if I should paint the frame, but it's one of those 'eh, whatever' projects that I always think I'll get around to someday, but never end up actually finishing.

I feel like Pinterest would want me to accessorize and style the top of the dresser. But real life tells me that this is a 4-year old boy's bedroom, and any styling will last approximately 45 seconds before he sweeps it off to use as a superhero fighting arena. So I didn't even bother. Just for the sake of these pictures, I tossed on a wood slice leftover from my sister's wedding decor, along with a wooden fish my brother brought back for me from Guatemala about 15 years ago, and Forrest's alarm clock that is only like 80% clock, and 20% little kid finger grime.

The woman who painted the dresser also refinished this little nightstand for the room, too. I worried about the style of this one, but I've decided that it's actually really functional. The drawers are fake (bummer), so having an extra shelf provides some of the storage I wish it had in the first place.

The little basket (toy storage) is from HomeGoods, the plant and planter are from Ikea, and the light-up letter is from Joann. The anchor art above the bed is also from HomeGoods.

I felt like a nautical bedroom wouldn't be complete without a red, white, and blue pennant banner. I made this super simple one in less than an hour (super simple in that I didn't bother making it reversible or finishing the cut edges or anything--it's going to hang, untouched, on a wall, so I don't see the point of making it all fancy). The fabrics are from Joann--1/4 yard each of 5 different prints, plus 2 spools of navy ribbon. I love the playful touch it adds.

One of my biggest annoyances in Forrest's room has always been that he won't (or can't) make his bed by himself. It's not that big of a deal for me to make it for him, really, but it's just another chore to do when I already have so many things to do around the house every day. I've tried teaching him how to make his bed, but even with a small toddler bed, he couldn't reach far enough to pull the blankets up, and he could never pull them straight, and he'd get frustrated and upset about it.

This is awesome--the Beddy's includes all the bedding you need in one piece. The fitted sheet and blanket are connected along the bottom, and the top blanket just needs to be zipped up along the side to make the bed. When you need to wash the bedding, you just pull it all off in one piece and toss it in the washer. And the top blanket? It's lined with minky. What I wouldn't give to sleep under a minky blanket each night.

He just unzips it at night and climbs inside (and a minky panel pulls out so that even when he's under the top blanket, there's some blanket hang-over on the sides so he won't get chilly). How obvious is it that he thought it was awfully silly to pretend to be sleeping for this picture?

And in the morning, he just pulls the blanket straight and zips up the side to make his bed.

I LOVE that he can make his bed completely on his own. He doesn't need my help, he doesn't get frustrated about it like he used to, and it only takes him a few seconds. The quality of the bedding is really wonderful, and the idea itself is genius. No more morning fights over making his bed.

For your viewing pleasure: a GIF of the bed-making in action. I hope this works. I have no idea what I'm doing.

Just an FYI: this post is not sponsored. But I wrote to Beddy's after falling in love with their bedding online and they graciously sent Forrest's bedding in exchange for mentioning them in this post. And I can recommend them 100% . . . awesome customer service, high-quality materials, and it makes our mornings go a little more smoothly.

What do you think of Forrest's bedroom? Do your kids struggle to get their beds made in the morning?