I made a promise a few weeks back to show you Aidan’s room and finally everything has came together (including the weather) so I could take some photos. Below is a few photos and a bit of a tour, if I haven’t covered something please feel free to ask any questions in the comments section. Without further ado, my take on the perfect room for a little dude…
As soon as you walk in the room you’re surrounded by light and colour, it’s one of my favourite places to be. The windows are tall and skinny so to make them look bigger I used a single white curtain panel to cover the window, used an extra long curtain rod and then had my mum sew up two blue silk panels for each window which hang at the ends and only cover the wall. The silk was expensive for me, just under $30 a metre and we used 4 metres all up but it’s been the best investment. The rug was from Aldi back in 2010, I haven’t seen it back in stock since but it’s the best. Nice and soft, still bright and easy to clean.
I hate the colour of this house, we rent and the mustard walls make me sick, by using bright colours and using blue tones it feels more balanced. I bought the tall bookcase from ebay back in 2007 and painted it white, a versatile piece that holds all his nappies, lotions, a few baby reference books and all his linen and extra blankets. I like to keep it separate as it makes it easier to find things which is usually late at night. You can see his shoe basket by the door, it’s his job to keep them all together (he can put them on and take them off on his own) the same goes for his toy shelves.
Oh how we all adore his new king single bed! It has a single bed trundle underneath for when his Aunty or Grandma come to visit. I bought all his new linen from My House, I love that place. Aidan’s a bit of a sheet snob like us. His are so soft and the most beautiful shade of blue, he snuggles down happily each night. Now we can comfortably lay in bed together, read stories and just hang out. The thing that keeps Aidan from falling out of bed is ugly so I use the bedspread to hide it. The stepping stool is from Ikea and the perfect height, when he doesn’t need it anymore it will move seamlessly into another part of the house.
The owners of the house installed ugly pine shelves that made the room look smaller so I took them out when we moved in several years ago, leaving holes in the wall. I got some wall decals recently to match the set I already had (which have be transferred to canvas) and Aidan helped me put them up, covering the holes in the process. He lays there quietly after being tucked into bed, from the hallway I can hearing him talking to them or making up stories it’s so sweet.
He also watches his glow-in-the-dark mobile counting the stars and looking at the moon. It’s not the most elaborate mobile and not the one I wanted but it’s simple and Aidan adores it. Steve and Aidan will sit in bed with his torch in the dark, shining light on it making it glow.
His torch lives on a little chair beside his bed and his drink bottle at night goes there too. He has a table which he has breakfast and lunch on and two chairs are in the lounge room, the other two in his room. The cloth bucket is from GoLo and the perfect size for all his highly rotated books. The sheepskin rug is from when he was a newborn, I loved mine growing up and it seems he does too.
It’s his very special hang out, sometimes he’ll just go in there on his own, drag his toy up onto his bed and play games. I think he enjoys the new perspective being high up off the ground. You might notice the quilt I made him as a baby. It used to live on the lounge room floor but then he got a little rough and some seams started to give way. It’s now been retired to the foot of his bed and it always makes me smile. I’m also working on more ways to incorporate his artwork into his room too but I’ll share that in a different post.
I picked up these awesome lanterns from Typo on sale, I couldn’t believe they were blue, white, red, orange and yellow striped an absolutely perfect match for his room. Even when they’re not lit up they add something a little extra. These are usually left on if he’s having a bit of trouble getting off to sleep, he can’t help but stare at them and doze off.
Here’s the other decals, they went on great but when I tried to remove them and put them up elsewhere they seemed to loose their stick, this may be because we use a vaporiser a lot. The decals were expensive and I still loved them so I glued them onto a plain white canvas, worked a treat! The CD player is from GoLo, I took it with me too the hospital when Aidan was born. He listens to Justin Hunter or Rainforrest Lullabies every night. The GrowBag Egg is awesome letting us know the temperature of his room and acts as a dull night light. Best of all is Aidan’s name blocks made by the very talented Rhi from Hummingbirds Song.
Everything has it’s place in his room. We culled a lot over the holidays, it was crazy! We were given many things and kept them in the vain hope that someday he would play with them, that they were too expensive to give away and I was too lazy to list them on ebay. Anything he didn’t play with or was too old for was donated, I think the op shop ladies eyes were going to pop out of their heads as I unloaded bag after bag. We have such generous friends but there was just so much excess that it left me feeling dirty. I’d rather a parent who can’t afford to splurge pick up a brilliant bargain for $2 and make a child’s day, plus all the proceeds from my op shop go to Camp Quality.
The bookcase was an old ugly varnished pine piece that Steve dragged into our relationship but I jazzed it up a few years ago with blue and white paint, at the time I had no idea it would fit in so perfectly with my little boys room. As you can see I have a slight addiction with children’s books but fortunately so does Aidan, we always manage to find new ones at the op shop. Some of them are from when I was little, we’ll lay in bed his head on my shoulder, his fingers twirling my hair and I’ll read the words my mother read to me. Aidan’s room isn’t filled with books… but with treasure.
My baseball glove from when I was a tween sits high above and Aidan’s ever growing hat collection hang along the side, I really need to buy more hooks. The precious books and pop up books are up the top just out of reach from little fingers. The typewriter, mailbox money box and wooden train are vintage op shop finds, the letter ‘A’ is from Typo. The brightly coloured wooden balls are actually a baby toy, they click and jumble around and was one of Aidan’s favourites when he was a baby. I’ll hold on to them forever.
He has a cross stitch sign on his door of a little boy flying a plane and towing a banner that says “AIDAN”, an original design that my Mum made it for him. The height chart is from the same wall decals collection, Aidan loves the monkeys and counting how many bananas each one is holding. Extra nappies are stored in a basket up the top and a few special figurines and toys are on display on the shelves. Aidan gets dressed in front of the mirror everyday, combs his hair and checks out his shirt. He’ll often sit on his bed and pull faces in the mirror when he thinks I’m not looking.
The wardrobe is a bit iffy, it can get a little damp despite my best efforts (damp rid etc), it’s just how the house is apparently. I’ve never stored clothes in there but desperately needed more storage space, turns out these cheap plastic tubs from Kmart fit perfectly. The bottom one is filled with soft toys, the other is filled with musical instruments and home corner items, the last is filled with cheap tiny plastic animals and trees. If we’re having a full day at home I’ll bring out one of the tubs and he’ll get so excited, then once we’re done it all has to go back in the box and then back in the cupboard. Aidan knows when I open these doors it’s going to be fun.
Besides the large plastic trunk (which was a gift and holds bulky toys) at the foot of his bed he has a toy box shelf which I got from Toys R Us in 2010 and matches a table and chair set which is set up in the lounge room. We use this to store all his “daily use” toys like cars and trains. He knows they all have to be packed away each night before his bath and the shelves make it easy for him to do it on his own. As soon as this starts to overflow I know it’s time to cull again. The toys hanging on the wall (on 3M hooks) are “springy things”, foam filled animals suspended from a long bouncy spring, both were gifts from friends when Aidan was born. My OiOi nappy bag still gets used as an overnight bag and still looks as good as when I first bought it. The backpack is for Steve when the boys go out on their adventures.
So there you go, his room in all it’s glory. It’s been so cool to look back on my blog and see how his room has developed from a simple dream, then into a nursery, changing again when he went into a toddler bed and finally as it is now. I wanted a room that could develop and grow with my child, also one which wouldn’t cost the earth. His room is a mix of bargain furniture, thrifted novelties, well loved books and loads of light and colour. I’m really happy with the result, I love it but most importantly… Aidan loves it.
