Bunk beds!

We've had bunk beds, loft beds, trundle beds, day beds & toddler beds for our kids (mostly my boys just choose to sleep in our King bed!) But last week I got another set of bunk beds for the boys room (even after swearing a couple of years ago I would NEVER get bunks again!) So why now the change of heart?

We are fortunate in our home to have spacious bedrooms, so the three elder boys share a room. Typically Mr 7 & Mr 9 have had a single & Mr 12 who is only here every other weekend has a trundle that pushes away... Said trundle was getting to be a pain! Which Iv particularly noticed while he has been here for a lengthier stay over the holidays.. For 1, he is in the middle of the room on a trundle, which makes for interesting navigating in the dark.. For 2 on the trundle he slept alongside Mr 7 & Mr 12 snores which makes Mr 7 freak out & 3. Getting the trundle in & out every night & asking a preteen to 'neatly' put it away each morning just isn't happening..

So yes, I resorted to a bunk bed in hopes that Mr 12 will get a better nights sleep & the room will function better with a more organised approach. A fan of Facebook Garage Sales I was able to pick up an IKEA Tromso Bunk bed in VGC (surprisingly it was! Like new!) for $100 & installed it where Mr 9's single bed was. Yay? Not so.. Mr 7 wasn't impressed... "Why don't I get a bunk bed?" "Where's my bunk bed" "I want to sleep on a bunk" "It's not fair.." etc etc & every other variation of the afore mentioned whine x 1000.

Enter... Compromise! Mummy put on her thinking cap & decided that if Mr 7 can learn to go to bed by himself in the evenings (after story time of course! I cant go cold turkey!) without me sitting at the end of his bed each night we will buy him bunks too :) lucky IKEA still stocks the same bunks! And although he will have to start on the bottom bunk he can still work his way to the top bunk.. That seemed to make Mr 7 very happy & the tears stopped instantaneously! Win/win.

So we're taking baby steps at the moment.. Iv gone from laying in his bed, to sitting on the end, to sitting on a chair.. I don't know how I'll go when I no longer have to be there when he dozes off, it's become such a part of our nighttime routine.. I will probably miss it more than he does :) Isn't that always the way?

New Space for the Boys.. Ideas!

2 years ago Indigo & Nicholas started sharing a room they are 19 months apart in age difference so we thought the combination of the two of them sharing the same room worked well as they had many of the same interests, toys etc. 2 years on at 7 & 9 they are still great roommates but their room is in need of an update. About 12 months ago my eldest stepson, now 12 also moved in with them, we are fortunate to have HUGE rooms in our house which easily accomodate 3 beds (I think even 4 could fit if Hayley was a boy, but no such luck, so no seperate toy room!) But Im in the middle of moving Tyler who is 12 soon to start highschool next year into his own room again..

 

Last time I decorated the boys room with a space theme, aliens and the like. I found a quilt I loved by Hiccups and worked the rest around it, finding great coordinates at the time at K-Mart for a great price!

 

Stock photo from Hiccups. Ill see if I can find a photo of the way our room is set up shortly..

 

 

However, the look is a little 'young' and I'd really like to explore something different, so this time iv decided to go with a beachy/surfy theme! Excited!

I always tend to start with the bed linen when decorating a room, so I went online to look for a doona cover but didn't have much luck. I was either going to go with a surf like print or a basic stripe that would last a little longer age-wise.

I'm drawing inspiration from the gorgeous beach house we stayed at in 2010 on Stradbroke Island, the beds in each of the kids rooms over there had striped quilt covers and they felt so relaxed and inviting! Vibrant & peaceful all at the same time :)

I found the following quilt covers at Pillow Talk, I'm a big fan of Hiccups linen, the boys old doona covers were Hiccups brand and they have most certainly stood the test of time but im unsure if this one is a little young, for the record I absolutely LOVE the KOMBI cushion and im trying to hunt that down, but have so far had no luck..

 





I really liked this next one, simple but still bright and effective with the surfboards at the end of the doona. But since the boys beds have bed ends, im not too sure if alot of the design will be 'lost'... The curtains they currently have in their room are green, so either of these 2 quilt covers will still allow me to keep the original curtains, which is a god send because the windows are HUGE.

The next two quilts are striped quilts which I dont mind and will still have a beachy feel..

I think I like the 1st quilt better than the second one..

 



 



At the moment the boys have a few corkboards in the room and they used to have a canvas with each of their names in chunky white letters, I will now put those letters onto the wall behind their beds, iv asked Hubby to install a large cork panel behind their beds for art work and such (as they get older i'd imagine a poster or two) and as far as canvas prints go, the funny space alien creatures might have to go for things more like;

 

I saw these prints in Loot and it was love at first sight!

 

 

Aside from that im going to be adding an expedit where there low line bookcase is in black/brown which will store some of their toys, books and keepsake/ornaments that are in the room.  We already have some funky red shelving on the wall, so ill give that a dust off and a redecorate and I think the room will feel so much more 7/9 year old :)

 

Ill be starting to do up the room later this week. I had a massive cleanout over the weekend to rid the room of some of it's clutter so im all ready to start ill put up some before/after progress pictures as I go.. so stay tuned :)