Once upon a time, I was obsessed with John Lennon as my nursery motif. I didn’t know if we were expecting a girl or boy.
My mom and husband painted a mural on our wall based on a sketch she drew from a onesie hang tag. I scored the bedding second-hand from Berkeley Parents Network then I made a big deal of searching for the perfect rug. You can see the edge of the rug at the base of the crib. Within two months, I thought that rug (on a room of wall-to-wall carpet) was stupid. We bought a matching lamp new at a monstrous Babies R Us. And my mom pulled apart the crib bumper to make a custom window shade.
Thanks mom!
Here you can see how the room morphed into a room for two little guys (and see the window shade). Baby Milo (left) was born when Holden was 21 months old. I kept them in two cribs for as long as I could. Nothing wrong with a three year old in a crib as long as he doesn’t climb out, right?
The mural lasted until my boys were five and three years old. You can also see that lamp and our hand-me-down glider. The lamp is still going strong. My kids just got too big to sit in my lap for reading in the glider, but we still have it.
As the next transition to “Big Boy Room,” we received this hand-me-down toddler bed and situated it where Holden’s crib had been across the room (in the picture above).
When I started to really think about them growing into the room, I felt strongly that we needed to let go of the wall mural. As much as I loved the animals, it felt too babyish to me. We opted for blue walls — light with a dark accent — and decided to get some decals from Blik so we could mix it up over time as their interests change. For starters, robots!
The final step was to find a good solid set of bunk beds from Craig’s List and to add cubbies and toy storage across the room. For safety reasons, only big brother is allowed on the top bunk.
Have you made the transition from baby room to big kid room? What did you do?
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