Little Boy to Big Boy Conversion: Decorating a Bedroom Industrial Style

Hey, guess what? 

We are going Industrial Style in our home. Well, part of it anyway. Okay, just one room but it is going to be one really, incredibly, fun room. I mean, it has to be right? Any time you are dumpster diving or trash tipping to get your design components you know it is going to be FABULOUS!

Oh, my goodness. I am BURSTING at the seams to get this room redesign done. I am SO excited for our little-big Nate boy to have his "Preteen Bigger Boy Totally Rad Room. {yeah, that choice of words probably dated me.} He is almost 10 years old and has had the little boy, toddler style, monkey, palm tree bedroom design for 8 years.... EIGHT YEARS! Oh dear, how the time flies. {On the good side it shows my obsession with re-painting rooms every six months has subsided}  He has quite clearly made it known to us on several occasions that he is "Almost a man now". Okay, okay we get the hint... time to man-up his bedroom.

It's funny how the mind works. In many ways it seems like just yesterday we were greatly anticipating bringing our precious boy home from the Philippines. After three years of no phone ringing with "the call"  we thought our time was up, as many steps in the adoption process had been expiring. All of a sudden we got the call and we only had a matter of weeks until we would be departing to pick up our Son. We quickly began slopping paint, hanging budget homemade burlap curtains over our semi closet, lighting up the room with a monkey in a jeep night light, all lightening quick.  It was finally time, after years of preparation, to make this international adoption final. Wringing our hands and calming our hearts we were eagerly anticipating the day our born in our hearts boy would walk through the doors of our home, to live with his forever family. 

and here he is a 2 years old...

{when he gets older I hope he will look back at this photo and laugh - right now he is uber irritated I am adding it to my post. How could I miss this golden opportunity though?}

Okay, he is wearing a wig in that photo. Funny how even at two he was bringing us all to giggles with his charm and wit. 

Here is the sweet boy after being home for 3 months. Isn't he just the cutest? Such a little love muffin. His little face filled out, his sores and scars were gone and his hair was already getting quite healthy. We were all surprised how quickly he was speaking English at 2 years old, for not having heard it where he lived prior. 

Look at the BIG BOY now...

Okay, back to the room. See how easily sidetracked I get? Get me on the topic of adoption or my children and I am off on a whole other loop for what could be a few days. The point I was trying to make earlier is the boy has indeed grown a rulers length, or more, in the last 8 years. His bigger than life personality has ballooned. It is time for a re-do of his room, for sure!

After digging around for our Redneck Hootenanny Family Party  pieces & decor in October, we had spotted some pretty ingenious DIY projects just waiting for our time & attention. In other words, our inspiration for Nate's room began brewing from trash cans and industrial waste. Nice, eh? That won't require any counseling later will it? Hmmm, let's see how it rolls of the tongue of a child. "Yeah, so my Dad and Mom were digging through trash and they thought of me. They decided to use the trash to decorate my room." Well, here is to hoping he looks back at this blog and remembers just how awesome we were at finding treasure in trash. Let's call it resourceful, decorating on a dime, design on a budget, repurposing, upcycling, reclaimed or recycling. Those all have a much nicer sound, don't they?

So here we are... digging around the dump grounds a few days ago.

With our diddley-hopping and diving we already have quite a few projects underway. 

Nate picked turquoise for his room color. As much as we think he would have loved a ceiling to floor turquoise room, we couldn't fathom more than a month or two of such brightness that brings blindness. So we painted the walls gray and will pop some bright color on the large pieces in the room. 

The lockers are now stripped of all stickers, they are painted turquoise & installed in two locations in his room: a set of two and an individual. The pallet is trimmed and installed with chain, just waiting for his cozy mattress to top it off. 

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We left the pre-existing shelving and trim the original dark brown for now because we don't want to dole out the dollars for a new blind at this time. To help transition the brown shelving to the light gray walls we filled in under the overhead shelf room border with a charcoal gray stripe. This filled in between the shelving brackets and created a more solid looking unit. We have a few more modifications to do on the shelving to industrialize them. Don't you worry, this is just the first few steps of our conversion. Prepare to be inspired.

Keep checking back - my next post will be on the "How-to" of the DIY hanging pallet crate bed. 

Nate is already pretty "stoked" about his room. He is really enjoying being a part of the process and seeing the reward of his hard work paying off in complete AWESOMENESS! {as he would say}

Pretty cute!

-Simply Sublime