A coastal boys room is getting a patriotic revamp

I teased out the other day that my little Beau is getting his room redecorated- and he is!  His coastal boys room is getting a patriotic revamp.

Let me show you some before pics.  But before I do, I need to tell you that I didn’t stage the room, style it, or whatever.  Or clean or even make the bed.  There are some real issues with this room that we need to address, and I’m taking you along for the ride with them.

Coastal boys room- the before pics

Beau has a slight pillow addiction. He collects them from all over the house and they end up piled up on his bed.

Please don’t send me hate mail about the huge television in his room- someone literally just gave that to him- he used to have a tiny one in there.  And I have plans for integrating it into the design of the room so it works.  Whew!  Had to get that off my chest ’cause I could see it coming 🙂

Some stuff to know about Beau- he picked out the design of this room as it is now, and he is also choosing pretty much every design element of his new room going forward.  He has some pretty strong feelings about design, believe it or not, and I intend to honor them.

So what’s not working with this coastal boys room right now?

1-storage and organization

This has been an ongoing issue.  Beau is getting to the age that he has both toys he likes to play with and toys and memorabilia he wants to display.  I need to find a way to make both work.

2-comfortable bedding and seating

Beau has friends over a lot, and although the room is large, it isn’t functional for entertaining

3-workspace

Beau needs a space to do artwork and homework

4-design

Beau is growing up (he’ll be 9 next week!), nearly 3 years older than when we first designed this room, and since the feel of his space is so important to him, I want to make it comfortable for him.  As someone who is the same way, I completely understand how important this is!

Okay, here is a very rough mock up of what we are planning.  I repeat, very rough.  It’s more so you can get an idea of where we are headed:

Okay, so here are the plans

Beau is the most patriotic kid ever.  For years now, as long as I can remember, he has planned on serving this country by joining the military.  He LOVES America.  And he’s asked for his room to have a military/USA theme.

I just couldn’t be more proud of him 🙂

This is Beau a couple of years ago, in a military cap he made. My dad served in Vietnam, and he made this after seeing his picture.

Anyway, it’s not reflected well on this design board, but there will be a definite red, white, and blue theme, with a touch of camouflage.

The thing is though, if you look on Pinterest for patriotic kids rooms, there are lots of ideas there, but a lot of them are very “theme-y”.  And kind of young.  And designer-y.  Beau wasn’t a fan.  He wanted his room to look like something a soldier would like.  But not too camouflage-y.  Does that make sense?

The trick with this room, then, will be to walk the line between making this room very patriotic and army themed without being over the top.

The most complicated design element will be the built in loft bed, which will span the entire back wall.  Beau wants the finish to be just like the one in the design board, although we’ll add some element for privacy- maybe an American flag?  And see the tent?  That will be at one end. A fun little hide out.

Under the loft will be seating for a reading/hangout  nook, and we’ll repurpose his cubes for display there.  Probably paint them as well.

On the wall on the right side, which currently is the TV wall, we’ll have a huge American flag.  It will take up almost the entire wall.  And I think either his desk or a toy chest will also go there.  Not much else, because the flag will be the main design element.

The wall that has the cubes on it now will have a smaller dresser for clothing storage, and we’ll mount the TV above.  Since the TV will be further away from the bed and the seating area, it will make more sense for the space.

The wall color?  Not entirely sure yet!  Either white…or navy.  The window coverings?  Pretty sure I’m going to repurpose what we have- but also really considering new shades from Blinds.com.

The lighting in that room is a total fail.  He has a ceiling fan that provides very dim lighting and is ugly.  I really want to change it to that fabulous fixture…but I’m having to working really hard to convince Michael about that 🙂

Can you tell that there’s definitely some elements of the design still up in the air?

Let me know what you think!

How you all have a great weekend!