One Room Challenge: Week 8 - The Final Reveal!

Here we are at the end of this 8 week challenge! If you’re just finding me, for the past 8 weeks, I have been a guest participant in the One Room Challenge hosted by Better Homes & Gardens and The One Room Challenge. I had so much fun completing this room transformation and I hope you’ve had fun following along. If you missed the previous weeks of the challenge, you can check them out here: week 1, week 2, week 3, week 4, week 5, week 6, week 7.

To recap, I transformed my son Aaron’s nursery into a big kid room as he prepares to start Kindergarten in the fall. I knew there would be a lot of emotions to work through as I tore down the room Joe and I lovingly curated for our very first baby… but Aaron’s pride in his new “big boy room” has made it worth every tear. Now he welcomes (forces) everyone who visits our house to see his new room, and it warms my heart every time.

Here is a look at where the room started:

There were a lot of elements about this room that were still working great, so the plan was to keep the things that were working and modify the rest. The main pain points we needed to address were: the need for more storage, more light, and we wanted to inject more of Aaron’s personality through his favorite color, green. As a reminder, here is the mood board I created for the space:

Without further ado, here is the completed design!

I love how elevated the room feels now with the deep green (Ripe Olive by Sherwin Williams) carrying over from the walls onto the bed. It feels 10x brighter in this room too thanks to Polar Bear by Behr on the rest of the walls.

One of my goals was to create cozy little corners that will encourage him to cuddle up and read, play, or rest as he grows. We chose this Better Homes & Gardens loft bed from Walmart so he can build forts beneath it, and I added this floor pillow to make it extra cozy. These seagrass baskets have also been great for added storage (it’s pretty much super hero central down there and he pulls them out daily).

This set of sconces from Amazon has been a hit as well, and I’ve caught him sitting there “reading” comic books on multiple occasions since it was installed. I love that they’re on a dimmer and that they’re plug-in so I didn’t have to wire anything. I only used one of the two that comes in the set for his room, but I’m sure I’ll easily find somewhere for the second to live.

I think my favorite element has to be these faux leather pillows. I think the camel color against the green wall adds the perfect amount of warmth and sophistication. I’m also thrilled with how well his existing rug fits into the new space! If you’re going to layer an area rug over wall to wall carpet, I would recommend using a thicker rug than this. It looks great and I’m hoping it will extend the life of our carpet, but it’s a bit of a pain to vacuum since it sometimes gets sucked up.

To the right of his bed, I found these minimal peg hooks that I’m hoping will give him a home for his backpack when he gets home from school during the week and maybe for the occasional cape as well.

One of my proudest moments as a mom thus far has to be the moment Aaron requested his own plant to live in his new big kid room. I’m kidding… sort of… but I was more than happy to fulfill his request!

Let’s talk about the art: I’ve had my eye on a few versions of this batman print for a while. I love the simplicity of it, so I drew it up in Procreate and printed it on cotton canvas paper for some added texture. The HOVSTA frames from IKEA are a favorite of mine, so I popped it in one of those. The moth print is a gem from Juniper Print Shop and I’m obsessed.

We can’t forget this DIY lamp! Parenting hack: we use a Hue lightbulb in this lamp and turn it green when it’s time for Aaron to wake up in the morning. It gives him “permission” to get out of bed if he’s already awake, but doesn’t wake him up if he’s still sleeping.

Also… can we talk about this “family portrait” Aaron chose to paint for his big boy room? I don’t have the heart to tell him, but I find it terrifying. Anyone else? It’s the “horns” on the one to the right for me.

The absolute best part about this room transformation is the fact that this kid loves it. He’s so proud of what we’ve created together and he’s so comfortable in his space. This has been such a fun challenge and I can’t wait to see what the other designers reveal this week! Check out the One Room Challenge Blog for endless inspiration for your next project.