The Big Reveal Max's Before and After

Once upon a time, in what seems another lifetime there was a little boy and a little girl and they had to share a room. So, I cleverly decorated their room in green, white and blue so it felt a little girly and a little boyish. I loved that room, and then we moved and I recreated it almost exactly in the new house. And I loved it then too. But, then it grew boring, tiresome if you will. AND, the little girl got older and she needed to have a room of her own (or to at least share with her sister) and the boy needed to have a room of HIS own. When sister moved out, I wasn't sure what I was going to do in the little boys room. I had some thoughts flitter through, but nothing substantial. Then, one day whilst walking thru the mall with the Daddio, I saw a disply at Pottery Barn Kids. It was a GIANT map and what really caught my eye was a pillow with a bike on it. I instantly saw in my head where I was going to go with brothers room. It would be MAPS! And why did I go there? Because he had a super cute Gymboree shirt with a quality navy blue bike applique that he had stained up and couldn't wear anymore and I knew I could turn it into a pillow, or wall art. Thus, a vision was born.

Almost immediately I went out and bought a giant 3D letter M and I mod podged map paper all over it and I loved it. I also found the cutest globe at Steinmart, and I accidentally bought a map on amazon, so I modpodged that bad boy to a canvas as well. Things were starting to come together. I even got paint samples. I was ON this.

Ummm, that was back in August.

Ooopsy.

Well, life happens, you know how it goes. There was just never the right moment. And painting sucks, so there was that too.

Anywhodle, as is usually the case with me and my "inner decorator" one morning I woke up and I was ON IT, like white on rice. It was gonna get done that week or not at all.

I'm quite pleased to report that Maxs room came together rather quickly and nicely. I was very pleased  with the color I had long ago sampled. My darling friend Chris came and put up my board and batten in like 5 minutes. I painted it all in a day, without really moving furniture or covering a darn thing. That was nice. I found many things super discount and paid actually prices for a couple, but in the end, I'm pleased as punch with Maxs Map room. It's masculine, boyish, playful and clean. And the best part...I feel like he can grow with this for awhile. Well, actually, the BEST part was Maxs reaction to the map mural and the whole room. He walked in, gasped and said "I like EVERYTHING you put in here Mom."  WIN!!

So, I will try to appropriately show before and after pics. No guarantees, since I still hate this Mac and can't figure out how to find pics without A LOT of work.

BEFORE

 There she is, in all her green, blue and white splendor. I matched it to a blanket on Maxs little toddler bed. That stripe was a painstaking project, and Jere would have you note that he hung the curtain to match EXACTLY up with the top stripe. (He's a little OCD that way).
The room worked for two little kids, and it was bright.

 Then, they got the bunkbeds, when Max got big enough and there was gonna be a Mayzie. So, this is basically where we left off, BEFORE the redo.

Are you ready?

AFTER

  Well OK, first a shot of the board and batten going up. I have other pics of the process of painting, etc. But that's on my i phone. Sorry bout it.

First view from doorway. The paint color is color is called Provance by Behr. And the white is Swiss Coffee. I LOVE that sign telling Max to go into the WORLD and do good. My friend down the street made that.

Bedding I found at IKEA. I was so excited...it was $20.00 clearance for the duvet covers and the sheets were $12.99 a SET. I mean really, he's 5, he doesn't need the nicest sheets, lets me honest here.

 Here is the aforementioned T-shirt, turned pillow. Jere gets credit for telling me to tea dye it so it wasn't this strong white standing out against all the tans. I just LOVE that bike.

This pillow is an IKEA classic, and oh so perfect for the room.

 Found this sign at Burlington, and I couldn't pass it up, especially because it had the word adventurous in it. But really, I love anything that Max will read and internalize over the years that is admonishing such good quallities.

 This is my map letter. I just bought scrap book paper at JoAnns and cut and pasted accordingly. Really, it might be one of my favorite things in the room.

The ever famous book corner. I love doing a room redo just for the cleaning up aspect alone. I was able to pair down, throw out and clean up that corner.  I LOVE that mirror, which I found at Cost Plus. Two of the letters were from what I already had in their room, and the other two are just cheap wood letters from JoAnns. I painted the small one orange, because I wanted there to be small pops of orange in the room.

I absolutely love how the board and batten turned out. It's actually really cool on the wall behind the bed too, but you can't really see it. It's ok though...consistency is important.

 The map on the wall was my accidental $2.99 buy from Amazon. It makes me happy.

I ordered these acrylic letters from a place called craftcuts.com. I got to pick whatever color and letter style I wanted. Totally love it. The box on the shelf was from Home Goods, loved that it incorperated orange and travel themes. Globe is from Steinmart and the Eiffel Tower was brought back from France by Jeres dad when he was in the service there.

This fabulous old trunk was a steal. One of my good friends has a shop that she sells her stuff in. She let me come "shop" and gave me a screaming deal on it. It's huge, and I love the random blue stripe on it. It has toys and a smaller trunk full of fabric in it.

 I LOVE old keys, I don't know why, they just are cool. So, and old key AND a hook for his backpack? Yes please!

Love this sign. Found it on clearance at JoAnns. Really, anything that had anything to do with world, travel, life, I was grabbing. I also enjoy the small scale of this. Oh, if you look at the picture of the whole wall, that cool world clock is from IKEA.

And finally....the masterpiece. This is just white paint. I wish I could take full credit for this brilliance, but alas, I can not. I knew I wanted a big huge map of some kind. I looked at all kinds of vinyls and contemplated doing that and framing it in. But then, I went on pinterest which is a very rare occurance. I looked at everything map, world themed I could find. And one brilliant chick had done this, just projected the image up on the wall and traced it with a paint pen. I said....DONE!  I found a map online and traced it onto a sheet protector. Then, rather serendipitously, Maggie came home from school with, a world map outline. I liked its shape so much better than the one I'd done. So, I had Jere trace it onto another sheet protector. I borrowed an overhead projector and gave Jere the task of making this happen. If you know nothing...know this...he is a PERFECTIONIST and OCD, oh and also, quite secretly artistically talented. Anyway, first he traced it onto the wall with chalk and then when he tried to use the paint pen, it wouldn't work. So, we wiped the wall clean and he attempted the paint pen again. Apparently I got sucky paint pens. So, he found a SPONGE brush in my laundry room and snipped the sides and then just use paint and a brush and traced the picture onto the wall.  Let it be know, I would NEVER have been able to make such a perfect looking picture on the wall. It.is.awesome. I LOVE IT!  I asked him to add "oh the places you'll go." He did, free hand.  It just really makes me happy.

So, there you have it.  Maxs Map room in all it's splendor.
Hope you like it.

World maps and brain stimulation,

Allyson


LIST:
Paint - Provencal by Behr, Swiss Coffee by Behr
Go Into the World sign - Custom
World map - Amazon
Bedding - IKEA
Explore letters - craftcuts.com
Globe - Steinmart
Travel box - Home Goods
Subway sign - Burlington
Hook, small sign, Giant M - JoAnns
Mirror - Cost Plus World Market
Trunk - Old Brick House vintage market
Locker basket on dresser - Old Brick House vintage market
Laundry Hamper - Home Goods