Mountain Themed Boy Bedroom

I know some of you have been antsy to see the reveal of the second boy room at our house. Trust me, no one has been more anxious than me. When we left off last time, the floors were installed and it was a giant blank slate. Since then I have added the baseboards, painted the windows, built new beds, and decorated the whole space! I am so excited to finally share the full mountain themed boy room reveal! (Tutorials coming soon!)

Before we jump into the reveal, let’s walk down memory lane for a bit. Here is what it has looked like in the past.

BEFORE:

All four boys shared this big space for the past 11 years. We had bunk beds with a roll out trundle bed and then a twin bed on the other end of the room.

I loved the Bug’s Life inspired room so much that I was happy to have it so long. But we did get the the point that our older boys had outgrown it and the paint was starting to chip off the beds. It was time for a revamp!

When I revealed the first boy bedroom makeover last month, I explained why my oldest and third oldest were sharing a room and why my second oldest and youngest were going to be bunking together. One of the reasons was their shared interests. While my other two boys love music and wanted more of a modern feel, my other two boys are all about nature. I tease them that I have a couple of city mice and a couple of country mice.

These two can talk about survival, scouting, camping, and wildlife ALL DAY LONG. My second oldest even wants to be a forest ranger and live in the mountains full time when he grows up. He is currently up the mountain working as a counselor at a scout camp. I knew I needed to design a room that reflected their mutual love of the mountains.

Mountain Themed Boy Room

Everytime we go up the canyon or travel to places like Yellowstone, I take a lot of pictures. I had my boys help me pick some favorites and had them printed. I love that these photos are the first thing you see when you walk in the room.

The other room has a loveseat and these kids wanted to make sure they also got a cozy place to sit. I love these chairs!

You might recognize the fiddle leaf tree from the hallway makeover. I needed a tall plant for this room and since I haven’t found one that works yet, I stole this one from the hall. I’d really like a tall Norfolk Pine. The one I have is only 18 inches. I guess that means I get to do more plant shopping!

Across from the chairs, is their dresser. It is from IKEA and I painted it a custom navy color. I mixed some black into the Glidden True Navy paint that I used for the doors upstairs. I added some wood slice knobs that I made back when I wrote my book.

Now, let’s chat about the TV. I, up until this point, was VERY anti-TV in the bedroom. Especially a kid’s bedroom. We have been a one TV household forever. We don’t watch a lot of TV so it has worked well. So how did a TV end up in the design for this room you ask?

Well, we only have one family room and we don’t have a designated playroom. When they all shared one room, the toys were stored in the unfinished basement and they played with them everywhere. Now that the unfinished part of the basement is going to be our master bedroom, we can’t store toys there. The toys are now in their large closet (which I just realized I don’t have a picture of) and we decided since there are only two boys in this room instead of four, that this big bedroom would double as the playroom.

The older my kids have gotten the more their differences in age have affected how they spend their time. My oldest two don’t play with toys as often, their interests and what they watch on TV are now different from their younger brothers. There are a few things they all like to watch together, but it is getting harder to find things they all enjoy. This TV is only hooked up to a DVD player. We only use it when they want to watch different things or when I can’t have them upstairs (photoshoots, video shoots, or company is here).

So far, so good. We have only used it twice in the last month. It is nice that it is there, but most of the time it is forgotten. That is why I wanted to add a gallery wall around it so the TV was not the focus.

From a mountain inspired shelf to arrows, this wall has a very mountain man feel that is perfect for my boys. My second oldest loves making and collecting arrowheads. I used a shadow box type frame to showcase some of his favorites. The arrow is one he made. The pressed leaf is one that my youngest brought home from a family hike last year. The plant used to be up on the wall for the family room gallery wall but I thought it would be better down here.

Both boys love looking for animal tracks when we camp and hike. They like to try and figure out what animal made them. They are getting pretty good! I made a prints of the animals that are found around here to hang on the wall.

If there is a sitting area where the bunk beds use to be, where do they sleep? Well, I built an L shaped set of beds on the other end of the room!

When planning the room, I considered painting a wall mural of mountains. But then I realized that not only had that been done before, but it was ALL OVER Pinterest. I tend to shy away from doing what everyone else is doing so I wanted to come up with a different way to bring in some mountains.

I made cut outs for the railings!

*The tutorial for the beds is coming soon!

Each of them have their own reading light. They swing against the wall when not in use. There are plenty of pillows so it is nice and cozy like a daybed. My intention was to have lots of pillows so that they can sit on them and lay on them when there are more than 2 of them watching a show on the TV since there are only two chairs. They can also use them in their fort below the beds.

One of my favorite things in the room is this print. The Hymn How Great Thou Art was one of my dad’s favorites and it was sung at his funeral. It is also one my of favorites. The second verse in particular. My dad was the happiest when he was in the mountains. My second oldest is like a mini version of him and so I thought it was fitting to have this verse printed for their room.

When through the woods and forest glades I wander

and hear the birds sing sweetly in the trees

When I look down, from lofty mountain grandeur

and hear the brook and feel the gentle breeze

Then sings my soul, my Savior God to Thee

How great Thou art, how great Thou art

My boys’ favorite part is probably the fort they have underneath the bed. There is a bookshelf, some cubbies, a little table and chairs and plenty of room to sprawl out and hang out. Even my teenagers can sit under there comfortably.

I do need to rehang their door. That is the last little thing left to do. Other than that, I think we can safely say this room makeover is DONE! I will be posting the bed tutorial soon as well as a post with smaller projects and all the details of where everything is from.