Luke’s Room
Everything takes longer than expected, a lesson I am ironically slow to learn. I finally (mostly) finished Luke’s room a few weeks ago.
When we moved into our current home we had two boys. Over the course of the next several years we added three more and began homeschooling for which we used one of the three bedrooms upstairs. (Some of these things weren’t quite in the plans when we built this house. ;)) So, this room has had many iterations. We’ve changed it back and forth as we had babies and big boys who needed their own rooms.
It started out as Lawrence’s nursery. I painted and taped every stripe while roughly 7 months pregnant. Ok, actually, I painted and taped about two-thirds and then Ryan came to my rescue and helped me finish.
Lawrence’s nursery (above) Locke’s nursery (below)
I wish I had some pics of the room when we moved Law out to the bunk room and let Landry have this room to himself, but much to my dismay, I couldn’t find any.
Lawrence’s nursery never felt truly finished to me. You can see that there was nothing below the chair rail. I intended to add some sort of molding, but after living with it bare for a while, I decided that I wanted texture instead. When Landry moved in, we added grasscloth. We intended to let Landry stay in this room for quite a while, and then…..SURPRISE, we found out we were having another baby. Landry moved back in the bunk room, (the bunk room is a big room upstairs with two sets of bunk beds), and we turned this room back into a nursery. A little while back, when Locke was ready to move to a big boy bed, we moved Landry into the former homeschool room, and we decided it was Luke’s turn to have his own room.
Ok, that was probably an entirely too long historical narrative of the room, but I felt it necessary to include all the different changes the room has seen to reiterate the point I’m trying to make. What exactly is my point you ask?? I actually have three. My Dad is a Baptist pastor, the genes I’ve inherited make it difficult to make only one.
First - It’s possible to create many different looks in the same space even when it has a fairly specific direction that you are starting with, like stripes. It would have been easy to feel like we had to paint the stripes, but I knew that we could make them work in a different context.
Second - It’s usually best to start with what you have as far as furniture and decor for the room, and then decide what you need to buy or add. Usually our first impulse is go out and buy, but you’d be surprised how often you may already have much of what you need. We used a bed that we had saved from when Landry and Luke were little. I also repurposed his old bedding and sheets. I repainted the desk in his favorite color, green. And besides a few fishing prints that I purchased on Etsy for about $35 dollars, we basically made due with what we had. Oh, yeah, I did also buy the book shelf on facebook marketplace for $35, and then we painted it. Quick sub point - if you buy things that have a classic aesthetic, instead of just things that are “on trend” you’ll keep them a lot longer and use them in lots of different ways.
Third - It really helps to hire someone if possible to help you have fresh eyes on your space. Even though you are spending money on hiring someone, it is possible that they will save you money with their ability to help you use what you have and reposition it new ways in the room. I know hiring a designer is a luxury that not everyone can afford, so if you don’t have that item in the budget try asking a friend who has a knack for rearranging to come help you. Also, there are so many places online to find out information and inspiration when it comes to decor.
Creating a beautiful home is not outside the reach of anyone, and my hope is always to offer inspiration in this direction. But ultimately the most beautiful thing about any home is the people who live there.
Amy
