Nolan's Room: Bringing the Outdoors In, Part I

I've been holding out on y'all. I started working on little projects here and there in Nolan's room back in November, but I haven't shared the updates with you yet.

Back in the end of October, sitting in my office at work, an obsession to start working on Nolan's room rooted itself in my head, and I couldn't shake it. Spending time on the kids rooms didn't really seem like the best use of our time and resources. Aside from our kids (and myself cleaning), no one spends much time in their rooms, and our dollar bills could certainly be put towards areas with much more traffic. But when you're obsessed with design, you don't always follow the path of logic. I think the urgency stemmed from the fact that Nolan's room is the darkest in the house (and coldest, poor guy). Despite having two nice windows, it doesn't receive a lot of natural light, and the dark carpeting, dark ceiling, dark blinds and dark window trim, were killing any potential the room had. So I figured if I could tackle just a few things than it would be worth while.

Here's Nolan's room on our final walk through before receiving the keys.

His walls were the same yellowy peach color

as the main living floor of our house.

The ceiling is certainly my favorite feature of the space.

Here are the pictures I snapped as I was about to dive head first into the room. 

A little unpolished, you might say?

The bed that we have is too large for the space,

but it belonged to Jon's grandfather so we want to make it work.

That little nook with shelves holds so much potential (white planks please!), 

but I haven't been able to settle on just which direction I want to take it.

Oh you know, an old dresser, some dirty laundry and some paint samples. NBD.

(This photo makes it easy to see how yellowy peach 

those walls really were.)

The window trims had been painted a dark brown,

which actually proved itself to be a great opportunity.

Here are some of my favorite kids room that I was pulling inspiration from

when I set out to tackle Nolan's space.

Better Homes & Gardens

Sam Allen Interiors

Posh Tots

School House Electric

Nine+Sixteen 

I'd long been thinking of an outdoorsy/adventure/animal inspired room, with some industrial touches, and soon it consumed me. All I could think about was making his room look at the least a bit better. It's safe to say that this buffalo check duvet cover that I had spotted months prior over at Ikea for a totally affordable and kid-room friendly price of $39.99 was my initial inspiration for the space. I used it as my jumping off point.

Next, I spotted this print from Fox and Quill

and my inspiration was in full motion.

It incorporated earth tones, was playful, had a bit of whimsy, 

and featured the outdoors. 

Because this room will also serve as a guest bedroom when it's needed, I wanted to keep the space feeling youthful and fun, but designed for an adult to feel comfortable in.  I created a design board to manage my ideas, and this is what it evolved into:

First things first, I had to do something about the color on those walls. In November, I had several weeks off of work. In a haste, I grabbed a paint brush, an available can of the same creamy white paint that we picked for the main living floor and I started painting. At some point in our home journey I've learned that there will never be enough time to finish the projects I want to tackle. I have to make the time, find the time, and squeeze in moments whenever I can. I painted between nap times. Taped off the trims while the kids played. Stole moments when Jon was at home. And I finally finished it, weeks later (yes, it took me weeks, and this is a tiny room!). All by myself, I might add.

With a visit from Jon's mom just a week away, I had a good excuse to work on a few more touches in Nolan's space. Next week I'll share images of how the room is looking today. It's not done, but it's headed in the right direction. Here's a sneak peak: