The Boys in the Big Blue Room

When we first moved into our house, Ashley and Everett were thrilled to share a room.  William had a quiet room all to himself, and everyone was happy.  

Everyone, except Mama and Papa.  Ashley and Everett were so excited about being in the same room that they would regularly stay up until 9:30 or 10:00 playing, messing around, and jumping off their beds.  The kids didn't even have toys in their room to tempt them.  No amount of consistent punishment, incentive, or yelling would get them to knock it off.  The punishment was worth the fun.

William just had his first birthday in March.  Joel and I tossed around the idea of putting the boys together and giving Ashley her own room.  I worried that William is too little, that Ashley would be scared by herself, and that the whole thing would be a miserable failure.

I had been talking about painting the room blue for quite some time.  I finally decided to do it.  So, one weekend while Joel was gone, the kids and I picked out paint and got busy.  I painted during William's naps and late at night while the kids slept in sleeping bags in the basement play room.

I didn't have very good before pictures, but I took these shortly after we moved in last December.

White walls, brown accent wall.  Not too shabby, but I wanted something a little more fun for the kids.

Of course, while they never complained about the (lack of) color on the walls, they were ecstatic that the room was going to be Everett's favorite color.

And here is the after!  I decided to go for stripes because they are fun but not just for preschoolers.  Joel wasn't a big fan of the idea, so I did a rough rendering of how it would look so he could okay it when he got home.  I had enough paint to paint over the stripes with no problem, but he said to go ahead and keep them and I finished them up.

I loved how the blue looked with the dark wood trim and luckily enough, our furniture matched it as well.  It is a little tricky to do a perfect line when your walls are textured (because the paint leaks under the tape no matter what), but I found a great way to do it.  If anyone wants to hear about it, let me know.

My original plan was to do all the stripes the same size, but I ended up liking it best with the darker stripes a little narrower.  They were even narrower when I put on the very first coat and I almost wish I had left them that way, but I figured 1/2 inch on either side wouldn't really make a difference.  I had to get the lines perfect.

Everett, who has been into Speed Racer lately, calls them his "racing stripes". 

Here is my little sickie-with-a-sore-throat, the north side of the room, and an unfinished dresser.

William's side of the room.  Even though I like to keep things simple, maybe we need some sort of fun wall decoration.  I haven't thought of anything yet.  Do you have any ideas?

Independent Miss Ashley was thrilled that the boys got to be together so she could have her own room.  I wondered how she would do by herself but so far she has not talked about being scared.  We let her have a few books in her bed so she can read herself to sleep.  It is nice that she wakes up refreshed every morning.

But they all like to play in here together.

So how is it going with William and Everett together?  I was pretty nervous to try it out.  William is a very light sleeper.  I can't even check on him when he is asleep because as soon as the door opens, up pops his little head and he is ready for fun.

BUT, it took one night with five or so minutes of fussing and confusion and one nap time to get William adjusted to his new room.  Now, a few days later, it doesn't even phase him when Everett pops in and out or when we come in at night to do this or that.  If William wakes up when this happens, he just rolls over and goes back to sleep.

And William wakes up each morning to a happy greeting from his buddy Everett.  They are very proud to have a boys' room.

Next up: Painting Ashley's room.  I'm thinking we'll do a nice, light, butter yellow.  And because eventually we will need to get her a big-girl bed, I might do a red bedspread and accessories (we are starting from scratch so we might as well choose something we like).  This way, if we need to switch kids around later, all the bedspreads will coordinate with the different rooms.  Do any of you have any other ideas?