Ethan's big boy room

09:15

Planning Ethan's big boy bedroom and the actual reality of it has taken huge compromise on my part. I have had to reconcile my clean colour coordinated clutter free imagined room with S' input and the fact that I am a 'boy mumma' with a full blown BOY toddler who loves nothing more than trucks (diggers preferably), dinosaurs and all other manner of boy things. I had a win on the colour scheme and that's about it.

I had envisaged a simple white bed and was all set to buy the Ikea Brimnes bed, patting myself on the back for its multipurpose use as a double bed AND with storage underneath. This would be paired with Ethan's existing cube shelving for his books and toys, a blue patchwork quilt and toning soft furnishings, his navy leather glider chair and maybe some framed prints or wall decals. Perfect!

Enter Scott on holidays and it was there my vision went to boy toddler heaven/mumma hell.

With time to spare, Scott decided we should go bed shopping for E. Wait up one second, didn't you listen when I told you the bed we were getting for E? Nope, clearly not ... so I let myself be dragged around to 6, yes, 6! bed shops inspecting various single beds of varying quality and with the toddler himself in attendance. One key thing quickly became clear.... all the singles I liked (with trundles, drawers underneath etc) were way too high for my titchy little guy to climb in and out of unassisted.

Now this is a deal breaker because I want him to be safe and secure in his room with the ability to get in and out of his bed. His room has minimal furniture for this exact reason with everything selected for its safety - nothing he can easily climb on, get caught in or pull down on himself - I've heard far too many a horror story of toddlers and furniture.

Unfortunately every low bed was either a toddler bed (which we were hoping to bypass) or just too girly looking. I was ready to give up when Scott told me he had one more store for us to check and this should have rung the alarm bells... Beds 4 Kids. We walked in and E instantly squealed and made a mad beeline for one bed in particular and then it dawned on me... I'd been played ... just like I usually play Scott.

There were a few regular bed frames, some loft style ones we loved but age inappropriate and the rest? They were unashamedly 'kids beds' ... you know, the themed ones of racing cars, princess carriages ('Princess Kate Carriage\' anyone?) and fire trucks. And there was my little boy sitting up on the fire truck bed with a smile of pure delight turning the steering wheel telling me 'toot toot.' I shook my head at Scott and he knew he had won.

Early on he advocated for a themed bed and I quickly shut down the notion as wasteful, impractical, cheap and nasty looking... you name it. But when I looked at E's joy and actually, the practicality of it, I wavered. It had a lot of great selling points including being low to the ground, surprisingly well made and not at all cheap looking in person, enclosed with side rails negating the need for big plastic bed rails and fun! So Scott and I discussed it at length, did some research and came up with:

  • Ethan loved it - so it could help with the transition to his own room
  • Safe in height and enclosed
  • We can expect to get about 5 years out of it before it is too babyish but it has good resale 
  • E is only going to be little for such a short time and it can't hurt to indulge that
So that is how my big boy room got hijacked and E now has his very own fire truck on order.


E's big boy room

With this in mind, I have gone for a masculine tri-colours colour scheme and am putting together the rest of the look to complement the bed. I bought a traditional patchwork quilt from Pottery Barn Kids (on sale now) which I considered far more practical for my little 'hot bod' and our climates than a doona - I have to say, its gorgeous and so well made and I will definitely be looking at more PBK in the future. I am now on the search for some navy block out blinds to go over the pull down window covering and some prints to frame for the wall which I am trying to narrow down on Etsy.

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4 comments

  1. I always wanted a themed bed when I was little, my kids have a bunk bed though and I have to keep the ladder turned in to the wall so Hugo can't get up when I'm not there. Bunk bed: definitely not my idea!

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    1. I had bunks too as a kid ... I remember a lot of fun times with those!

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  2. Sounds great! Will have to check out pottery barn...
    Look forward to seeing finished product

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    Replies
    1. PBK has some gorgeous boys stuff which is nice because no one else seems too. Prices are on par with everywhere else too I found (Adairs Kids etc). X

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