Wednesday, September 30, 2015

Gender neutral shared kids room

So here is my daughters bedroom... With the murals I spent four weeks on while pregnant with her, four years ago. 


We recently embarked on creating a shared space in this room for our four year old girl and two year old boy. When making the decision that our two oldest would share we wanted to completely remake the space so that it was a clean slate. We didn't want one child feeling like they were just sleeping in the siblings room. 

Now DIY is the cheapest way to go. I knew I wanted to create the artwork myself. I began by purchasing the cheapest 16x20 canvas from Hobby Lobby. I chose to do 6 in alternating colors. My colors were silver and blue. I had seen on Pinterest that you could use an empty towel roll to create a circle pattern. I started there. 

I used the silver canvas to put white circles on. I didn't want to do all six fearing it would be overkill. This would give a fun patterned background. I then selected some characters from my kids favorite stories, as well as, a fox image I found on etsy and added those on top. (https://www.etsy.com/listing/176020255/nursery-art-print-fox-illustration-print?utm_source=Pinterest&utm_medium=PageTools&utm_campaign=Share)

I also wanted to create an artwork holder for the kids school creations. I first went to Home Depot and selected a slab of wood, then allowed my daughter to paint it with the same colors used in the artwork. When she finished I added more toilet roll circles to tie it in. 
I purchased bear clamps from target and affixed them using large eye hooks. 
My husband hung it using two large screws, screwing into a stud. Stud finders are really cheap and I recommend purchasing one. 

Upon completing the room we used yellows and greens because scientists feel it relaxes children lol. So why not! Here are more images of my finished boy/girl shared room!

My daughter loves anything paint, so I framed two watercolors she created and also let her paint an initial for her and her brother.


My children are happy and neither feel like it is still my daughters room. I am going to miss her old space for sure but the transition has been a good one. I'll continue to add more to this room but it's finished for now! I'm ready to complete the nursery now and welcome our third baby!