We did a Huge Kid’s Animal Themed Bedroom Makeover!!
Today I’m sharing with you a project that I’ve been working on just a little bit too long, but has been so much fun to see come to life!
This summer I decided I wanted to make over my daughter Emma’s bedroom while she was away at camp. Is there a more ultimate mom move than a kid’s extreme bedroom makeover? The initial plan for this was to makeover Emma’s room while she was away for a week at camp. Naturally, the week that we had this huge project planned Jonathan and I both got sick! In addition to that setback supply chain issues tied up items that should have taken about a month to arrive, for nearly six months! Now that it’s done though, I can say that while this took a little longer than anticipated I think it all worked out for the best.
We show the whole process in the video, so be sure to check it out!
A Few Resources I Mention in the Video:
- These great plastic storage bins from Sterilite
- Metal Storage Racks
- Home Decor Subscription Box Buy/Sell/Trade Facebook Group
- Subscription Boxes: Buy/Sell/Trade Facebook Group
- Decocrated Marketplace Facebook Group
The Preparation
In anticipation of this kid’s extreme bedroom makeover, I’ve been collecting items I thought would be perfect from local boutiques, home decor subscription boxes, and even foraging. After nearly a year I had quite a collection of things in our garage!
The most important thing to me was for Emma to feel like this room was totally customized for her and her interests! One of my favorite things from this process was doing a pre-decor interview with her (you’ll want to watch the video for that) to get some idea of what she would love in her ‘new’ room. We asked her questions about the theme she hoped for, colors she thought we’d use, and some things she really wanted to be included.
Emma loves all animals great and small. She went to entomology camp (a fancy way to say bug camp) and collected many items that we used as decor herself. She’s always bringing home rocks, skulls, and creatures and is definitely our nature girl! It was really important to me that her room celebrated her love of nature.
Some other items I added to the garage collection were antlers, dried plants, and things we foraged for on our own from exotic places like the Texas highway. My parents brought some palm branches up from their home on the Texas coast and we dried them.
Quick note: If your palm branches have mold, dry them out and just wipe them off! It comes off really easily!
The Planning
The inspiration board for the room included dried arrangements, a fun hideaway bed, and some zebra print.
Something I wanted to do was fully utilize the size of her room. Emma’s room is huge! It’s the size of most master bedrooms – but has very little storage. I wanted to find ways to add really practical storage options, and also cozy up her space a bit. Knowing that I wanted to create more storage for Emma, I sketched a plan for Jonathan to create built-ins from.
One of the first things I did when we moved into this house was to paint one wall of Emma’s room a light, glittery green. I’ve always loved it and was sad to paint over it, but I was told it was time for something more mature. Plus, what is a kid’s extreme bedroom makeover without an extreme paint switch? The Pink Envelope Community was even involved in this part of the planning process! I shared two paint swatches and asked for you all to vote, and there was a clear winner. The end result is so perfect!
Our budget for this project was $3,500 or less for everything – furniture, lighting, paint, decor, blinds for the windows, storage, all of it. Thanks to foraging, creativity, and some incredible sponsors, we were able to finish quite a bit below that amount! Keep reading for the full cost breakdown.
Bringing the Vision to Life
The fact that Jonathan is so handy made a big difference in the budget of our kid’s extreme bedroom makeover. With my sketches, he designed and built the perfect custom cabinets! The cabinets are made of birch plywood and finished with a simple coat of poly
Many people use a loft bed to add space to a room. The Emma’s room though a loft bed was a fantastic option to help break up the length of this giant room, and gave us an awesome spot to create a little hideaway. We found the perfect loft bed from Ikea! We bought it in white but knew we didn’t want to leave it that way. With some sanding, painting, sanding again, and painting it again, we transformed it from white to the perfect shade of green.
I looked high and low for a very specific curtain to create her under-the-bed hideaway and finally had to give in and make them on my own. With the perfect fabric from Joann’s and a nifty, flexible, hook system that Jonathan found I was able to create an easy no-sew curtain.
I’m sure it comes as no surprise that one of my favorite parts of this kid’s extreme bedroom makeover was the decor! With all our foraging, collecting, and creating it was so much fun to see it all come together!
Taking all the grasses that I’d collected from our Texas highways, as well as some eucalyptus and other greens from Costco and Trader Joe’s I started just making bundles. I wasn’t exactly sure what I was going to do until I was in the space and designing, but with Jonathan’s help and some patience, it all really took shape. Everything was a little bit of an experiment! Taking the bundles and holding them up we eventually found the right size and placement. Because this is a kid’s extreme bedroom makeover after all, and we don’t want anything at risk of falling on kids! In order to really secure the arrangement, we did drill directly into the wall to make sure it was all mounted super firmly!
We love all things Bookroo in this house, and owe them a giant thanks for sending us these gorgeous books for Emma’s room! I especially love how Bookroo collector’s edition books are works of art inside and out. The ones we used here are the Junior Chapter book club. They’re specialty printed and really become part of a room’s decor! These are modern stories that kids are reading right now, but with the beauty that we find in a lot of books from yesteryear.
When I was ten years old, fishing at Inks Lake with a string tied to my finger, I caught the Large Mouth Bass that is on the wall. It was so fun to be able to include it in this room!
Emma was excited to see her Lava lamp in a place of honor in her room. She had used her “card” to “buy” it from Mathnasium after working hard at math club.
No room in my house would be complete without items from White Home Woods, Just Deco, and Decocrated. I’d been setting aside items from boxes over the past year that I thought would be perfect in Emma’s room, and they really helped balance our foraged and found items like bugs and fish!
Another update we were really excited about with this room was Emma’s mattress situation. She had been using a hand-me-down mattress that I don’t honestly remember the origins of, and we are thrilled that she’s now got a luxurious new big girl mattress. Huge huge huge thanks to Five Little Monkeys who made upgrading her mattress so easy! The mattress is super comfy, comes with a waterproof mattress cover, a pillow that is the perfect size for a kid’s head, and the cutest little money that still lives on Emma’s bed!
The End Result
The most important thing to me was how Emma would feel about it, and if you watch the video you’ll see she was pretty thrilled with how it turned out! I think we were able to successfully pull out the concept that was hiding away in her little brain and bring it to life. It was plenty long and tricky at times, but so much fun and so rewarding! We find ourselves just hanging out in there now that it’s become such a fun space, and it has us inspired to continue with more rooms in the house!
Budget Breakdown
Money Out:
Wood Shades – by Bali from Home Depot – $676.13
Litfad Light – Sputnik Semi Flush Mount – $104.21
Ikea wreaths – $44.98
Succulent Pillows – $44.98
Target decor – $100.00
Hobby Lobby knobs + light – $65.00
Shadow Box – $21.64
Curtains (material + hooks + tracks system) – $135.00 + $25.00 + $24.00 = $184.00
Succulent pillows – $46.00
Used IKEA Loft Bed – $150.00
Animal Wall Rack – $34.99
Total Cost – $1,426.95
Custom Built-Ins:
Built-in cabinets – $600.00
Misc. Costs – $300.00
Total Cost – $900.00
Money In:
Sold Old Bed – $75.00
Sold Ruffled Curtains – $55.00
Total Cost Recouped – $130.00
Grand Total Spent – $2,326.95
An enormous thank you to our sponsors!
5 Little Monkeys Mattress
Bookroo Books
Use code PINK50 for 50% off your 1st box!
And Those are my Tips on How to Store Home Decor!
It feels sooo good to head into a new season with fresh decor and feeling organized! If you have any brilliant organization tips or tricks, you know I’d love to hear them!
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