hour25

{Updating My Boy's Room}

My oldest child is an 11 and a half year old boy. His name is Alistair and he is very particular (classic first-born).... For many years, he would not even consider letting me change the paint colour in his room. He likes what he likes and it takes a lot to change his mind. When we moved just over 2 years ago, we took possession of this house very quickly and painted his room a very non-offensive blue and he was okay with that until recently.

He loves to collect old bottles ~ mostly pop like Coke and 7-Up. He has other vintage-y types of things and some little cars and boxes as well. It had become a challenge for him to organize all of these treasures in a way that looked good so I started on a hunt for a display cabinet of sorts. We had inherited double bedroom set that was in perfect condition. It is from the 50s/60s with a great mid-century feel. I wanted whatever piece that I found to have that feeling as well. The bed frame is walnut and as I said, in near perfect condition so I did not want to paint it. After a few weeks of searching, I found this!

It was of a similar vintage and offered a perfect setting for his little collectables. Although it looks good in the photo, it was in need of refinishing ~ especially along the sides. Something had been spilled and a repair was made, but it did not look good. I would have had a hard time painting this if it was in good condition!

Alistair has always LOVED orange. I did talk him out of painting his room orange, but agreed to paint this cabinet a version of his favourite colour. He made me promise NOT to distress it as he finds that idea horrifying.

This is what I did for him.

I left the legs original, but painted the main part of the hutch Harvest Moon by Benjamin Moore with the new Advance paint. This is a lovely paint to replace the classic oil-based melamine paint. It is available in any colour and dries really smooth and hard. I wanted the inside to be a contrast to the orange so I painted it Balboa Mist (a creamy pale grey) in the same type of paint. I used the same hardware and sprayed them a nice bright red.

I made a template from some stick-on vinyl and used a spray-on glass froster for his initials on the glass sliders. Very subtle, but he likes that they are there...

The pictures look a little dark as his room does not have good natural light, but overall, I think it turned out pretty well.

I repainted his walls a darker blue and decided to add a few stripes.

My initial plan was to go all the way down the wall around the closet, but he loved it at this point and asked me to stop. He is fairly conservative and I think this was a bit of a stretch already for him. I used FrogTape to paint the stripes and I will never use anything else to block off paint again. It is easy-peasy lemon squeezy and it the lines are SHARP! No touch ups required!

I have yet to find bedding that I like and I have a little bookshelf to paint so I won't show the rest of the room yet. Today I picked up some shelves at Ikea to give him a spot for his books and other things as well. 

I love that I can do something unique for my kid that makes him happy.