In my past few posts, I’ve sorda hinted that I’ve been doing a TON of purging and cleaning up, but little to show for it.
In all honestly, I’ve started so many unfinished things, the weather has been dictating what I continue with next. When it’s nice, I’m cranking up the curb appeal with pruning, pressure washing, weeding flower beds, and painting trim.
But since it started raining on Saturday, I head once again for my son’s bedroom.
Last I wrote about this room was in 2012. Egads… and nothing had changed. Nothing. Except it got messier and messier.
Years of school paperwork accumulated. The junk in the room spread beyond the bins. Because of the nice sized 2 room bedroom, it became a dumping ground for DIY things, the vacuum, things that no longer had a home… it was BAD.
So bad, I refused to take a before / before picture of it. So I’m afraid all I have to show are before / mid after takes.
But that’s ok… because when it’s purged, you can see the room again. I mean, there is not even one thing under that bed. I was relentless.
So… this all started with me plunking myself on the floor about a week ago. I wanted to sell the route 66 cabinet, but it was heaped full of papers and office supplies. EVERYTHING got dumped, and the sorting began.
And then things just snowballed from there. There was no stopping this time.
And I’m SO GLAD I didn’t plan what came next, otherwise I would have booked a vacation instead! I’ve been on this room a solid week now, purging and selling toys that aren’t keepers, (many still are), and just attempting to get this bedroom back to the land of the living, not dumping.
This round, it’s full speed ahead. The room is getting fresh new paint, bedding, oh, and actually FINISHED this time!
Remember my post, “Finish the house?” I’m happy to report, it’s sticking.
I even gutted and sorted my linen closet. BAGS came out of here.
See those two empty bins up on top? That in itself is a miracle.
While we didn’t make a killing on the toy sales, we loosened up much needed space for game systems and such.
TEEN stuff. Or, stuff we’d keep anyway.
Ok, I admit, there are still some kid toys. That entire bin of Hot Wheels… well, that’s just a classic that can be handed down. Same with the hidden Thomas the Train stuff. Some stuff just has to kick around a little longer.
Baby steps here… 🙂
This TV is on its way to the recycling depot this week, which will free up the space to build a really nice desk / craft table from reclaimed wood and pipes. Finally!
I think the chalkboard wall will stay, but will be repainted in regular black house paint and possibly diminished a little.
Here’s the other side of the room. And I cannot WAIT to get rid of the blue.
Hmm… I forgot to go through the closet. That’s next I suppose!
Something else I did to really ramp up the refresh in this room was to wash every blanket, quilt and pillow. EVERYTHING. And some things even got thrown out.
Instead, some new bedding came into play. This lovely, reversible grey / stripped bedding is from Ikea. It’s classic, clean, and grown up! But can easily be downplayed with cool stuff too.
Here’s the basic look we’re going for. Super clean black, grey, white, with wood accents, and a splash of green. This look will carry through the remaining teen years, also serving as a pretty nice guest bedroom and craft room.
And as soon as I was finished taking these pictures…
… the painting started seconds later.
And so it continues…
Any tips and tricks on how you managed to scale down a toy room, or teen revamping?
See the entire BOY’S ROOM story HERE
Donna that is such a cool room, even if it is a mess. Love that blue couch. I also love the vision you have for it. I’m excited to see how you are going to develop this. The bedding is really nice and very versatile. Now that I think of it I need to do the same with my two girls rooms, they have been collecting/hoarding toys for years and they are almost adults… yikes.
It really is a cool room! Or will be. 🙂
Yes, understand the toy hoarding. At least if they are in bins, they are easy to store, keep clean or manage. But they too do eat up space. I don’t know what I’d do without that wall unit. Hopefully I can morph it more into regular stuff storage and diminish some of those bins.
I think in this case, a parent is needed to help determine the keepers and the get rid-ders. Good luck! 🙂
The couch is really comfy, but WHY did we choose blue again?! LOL Glad it was a cheap thrift store find. They may get it back in lieu of a grey one or… something!
I kept a lot of my daughter’s stuff. Boxes of books, stuffed animals, etc. Now she’s using some of that for her own kids. I’ve gradually carried a box here and a box there to her for examination. The kids think it’s Christmas! Anything she doesn’t want she can sell in a garage sale. But I get it out of my home/garage/attic. Some of the stuffed animals go to the police/fire depts for children exposed to traumatic situations.
My parents did the same for me! Kept my fav toys, then once I moved out, I got them all back. Yay? LOL
I plan to do the same, while keeping some at my place for potential grandkids or kids that visit, so they have something to do.
Some things are just too valuable and timeless to let go of!
My daughter had 4 children ages 14, 11, 9, and 2, we’ve been working with the older girls on organizing and decluttering and it’s no easy task for sure. I bow to the inventor of the plastic bin! No easy task. Forge on!
Love the bedding and colors you chose and I can’t wait to see the finished room!
Oh my goodness… I think if this is done yearly, it wouldn’t be so bad. But who actually does that?! 🙂
Nice of you to help them!
Oh Donna, I enjoyed the whole post. You’ve made huge progress. Now, I am prompted to get myself in gear. I have a whole week off from work!! Are you going to sell the Route 66 cabinet? Wish I wasn’t so far away, I’d buy it in a heartbeat. The floor in the room is beautiful. Did you lay it? You’ve probably said so in a past post but I don’t recall. If you ever want to take pictures of the finished craft/wood desk built with pipes, I would love to see and drool over it! Excuse my excitement! It’s the little things in life! Thanks so much for sharing and have a wonderful day!
Oh boy Joanne, a whole week off is fab for purging, because you can keep going! So glad to inspire… but I know without a doubt you’d be booking 2 weeks off so you could do more IF I had included a true before mess shot or 3. It was so bad!
I was debating selling the route 66 cabinet, but once the room was purged, I could vision it working. I’ll see how it goes.
The floors were layed down when we did the whole house reno. They are the same floors throughout the entire upstairs. The install is documented on my first reno blog before Funky Junk was born. You can see it at:
http://ourextremehomemakeoverexperience.blogspot.ca/
And you can BET I will blog about what I ultimately add to this room. It won’t be just for the teen… the crafting part is going to be cool and functional for me too! Coming right up…
Donna I cleaned out a cabinet in the bathroom and I took out 3 huge bags of GARBAGE. I still have to do more closets and some bureaus but I am waiting for the cold weather to come when I can’t go outside. You give me inspiration.
Good for you Patty! It’s so surprising how much we have accumulated that we don’t use. The bags are proof.
This cleanup entailed BAGS upon bags of either garbage, stuff for sale or the thrift.
Oh… and I gutted the garage too, which entailed 2 full truckloads! Feeling very accomplished here.
Isn’t it great to get our spaces back again?!
Donna I can’t wait to see this completed, and that bedding is so beautiful, it is exactly what I have been looking for to put in our guest room.
I love how you think up what you want and just do it and if something doesn’t work you either make it work or change a little something and it works, that takes talent skill and bit of stubbornness perhaps haha, but seriously I love what you do and the way you go about it.
I’m thinking you have solved a problem I have in the guest room, so I’m really looking forward to seeing the completion.
Awesome! I don’t generally go to ikea for bedding, but I liked this one. Glad it’s avail for you too if desired!
And I’ll let you in on a little secret about my personal method of decorating. I have a lot of vision and rustic funk coming up for this room, but as things progress, I actually try and surprise myself. My vision is so laid out, it feels like I’ve already done it, which makes me want to toss the project and move on. If I change as I move along, it keeps the motivation much higher to push through it. Is that weird? 😀
Not weird at all!!
Did you take down a wall to enlarge the bedroom? And what are your plans to finish that out?
Yes! The two bedrooms were super tiny, it felt like a closet when you were in one, so since my son had both rooms, one as a bedroom and one as a playroom, the wall removal in our case made sense. It wasn’t a load bearing wall, so that made it ok. Plus everything is intact, so a new owner can close up the wall easily if desired again.
I plan a funky wall treatment on the middle wall with reclaimed wood, then will somehow frame out the opening. I’ll just make sure it’s easy all easy to remove.
You can find those stories at this link:
https://www.funkyjunkinteriors.net/tag/boys-room-2011
I chuckled when you mentioned the Thomas the Tank Engine pieces. My son is 21 now and I have managed to purge out or sell off all the toys, but he insists on keeping the Thomas stuff. So there are six to seven bins of Thomas in my basement on shelves. He says if he ever gets married and has kids, he wants to pass those down. But in the meantime, they are taking up space. I have to admit that I still have a couple boxes of stuff at my Mom’s house (300 miles away) so I guess I can’t complain about his “toys”! LOL
Sharon, I don’t DARE count the Thomas bins we have. Scary. But boy what a great toy that was back in the day. We had so many tracks, we were able to go from room to room with them.
Guess I just spilled the beans on how many bins we may have… haha
Donna, here in Texas I’m pretty sure there is a law that says you MUST use the space underneath beds for storage. Boxes full of seasonal and/or (outgrown) collectible toys are perfectly hidden there until needed, and removing visual clutter is very soothing. The key for me is to first purge what isn’t truly useful, and then LABEL EVERYTHING. If it is neatly organized and has a label, it’s not hoarding, right??!!!
Haha, great point!
But I will admit, sometimes I just look under the bed for fun because I can now. LOL
This is your son’s room, right? How is he involved in the decisions? Is he helping with the revamp? I’d be interested to know how he is feeling about the whole process. Have fun…
Fonda, my son is more interested in his social life than what his room looks like. Hence, the devastation it turned into. LOL
I’m just taking care of the basics. He can personalize it from there if he so choses. That said, I know what he’s after, and I’ll make sure he loves it. 🙂
I am SO glad you posted the fabric! I’m in the midst of an upcycle myself, and you’ve just inspired me to try Ikea for fabric!
How do we post pics here?
Love your blog!
Robin
Glad to see you inspired Robin! You can’t post pictures in blog comments, but you are welcome to share a link if they are online somewhere we can visit, or on my Facebook page. 🙂 https://www.facebook.com/FunkyJunkInteriors/
SOMETHING must be in the air? Fall cleaning? I’ve heard others say they are tearing it up at home. Boy, it feels good:) Laura ?