Decorating for the boys- Take 2

Back before we moved, I was thinking about redoing the boys rooms in an effort to make us all happier with the house. I didn't follow through on any of it since we ended up deciding to move right after that post.

I haven't done much more than make the bedrooms in the new house functional. We decorated the walls of the kids rooms with lots of their own artwork so at least it isn't totally utilitarian, but it's not great. Add to this the fact that both kids hit a growth spurt and they are ready for a real twin bed way earlier than I expected. Time for me to get to work!

I picked up twin mattresses this weekend but that's probably the only thing I'll be able to get locally. The catch is to make the rooms different enough that each boy feels special, but similar enough to keep my youngest from wanting everything his older brother has. Right now, my thought is to keep the big pieces similar and just change up details and colors. That way there will be enough similarities to keep the little guy happy, but not too many to make my big guy feel slighted. Ahh, the joys of navigating sibling rivalry. 

There are a few caveats:

1) No painting. Our whole house is a lovely shade of builder's beige. Very blah. However it's a rental, so the colors stays. 

2) Details can reflect their character obsessions, but no major pieces of the room. They have been through too many phases this year (Star Wars, Power Rangers, Dinosaurs, Star Wars again and Ninjago!) I want to keep it easy to replace when Ninjago is no longer the big thing. 

3) No bunk beds. I've already taken one kid to the ER this year, and that is officially my limit. 

Now on to the pretty stuff! I've been scouring Pinterest for inspiration and here are some of the pictures I'm loving. 

  The colors in this picture are perfect for my oldest. He wants blue and green in his room and I love the pop of color of that dresser. We have an old Ikea dresser that is just dying for an update too. And those curtains? Darling. 

Wouldn't a variation on this DIY from Fussy Monkey Business make a great night table? I would leave the top flat so we could put books or a bedside lamp there. It might help us corral the lego craziness around the rest of the house too. 

Lauren Leiss of Pure Style Home designs beautiful rooms, so it's no surprise that I love the room she designed for her two boys. The simple furnishings and bright pops of color is exactly what I'm going for. 

I love the gray and orange colors in this room for my youngest. And again with the big stripes...that tent is so cool. I like to think they wouldn't destroy it...

Last but not least, I have loved this room since I saw it years ago on the blog of Isabella and Max Rooms. The colors are just what Daniel requested, and a lot of the pieces came from Ikea which will make my budget happy. Too bad we can't recreate those walls. Sigh.

First order of business is getting the beds into each room. The boys know we have them, and so I will continue to get bugged about it until I come up with a solution. That might mean getting a basic frame to get things moving until I can DIY a headboard or find something more permanent. 

Thank goodness for online shopping and a new Target that just opened up 45 minutes away. (Yes, I know that's fairly insane but until now we have been driving 1 1/2 hours to a Target.)

All of these pictures and more are on my Pinterest boards. I'll update on the blog when it's finally done but I won't take too much time away from the food-promise! I'm trying to get better about using Instagram, so that will be a good place to see some in-progress shots :)