Michael's and Caleb's Room

I'm finally posting pictures of Michael's and Caleb's room.  A lot of the work on their room, like painting and refinishing dressers, happened last December.  I just keep waiting till it's "perfect" to post pictures.  At this point, I call it "perfect enough".  I still have a few finishing touches I want to add, but that will probably take me another 9 months, so I'll just post now.

So first, the before pictures.

Yes, for a couple months Michael was sleeping on a mattress.  I can't even remember how we got to this point.  Nathan and Michael had a bunk bed that broke.  And at that time, they weren't getting along in the same room.  So we put Michael in Caleb's room.  But now my memory is fuzzy because I thought Michael was in Caleb's room long before then.  Hmm, I don't even remember.  This is what happens when you wait forever to make a blog post.  All I know is he slept on a mattress with no bed for a couple months while we redid things.  Eventually they ended up with Nathan's bunk beds, set up as separate beds.  And Nathan got a new bed.  This was the only time I have "before" pictures of their room.  Oh and this was when Caleb was still in a crib.  He slept in a crib till he was like 3.5 because he never tried to climb out (he's such a good, compliant little boy!) and I believe in the principle of "why mess with something that's working?"

So, anyway BEFORE:

Note the ugly pink and white dresser.  It's a good dresser, solid wood, just hideous colors.  It (sorta) worked when it was used in Elizabeth's room.  It really didn't work in Michael's and Caleb's room.

And for my sister, note the red quilt you made Michael that he LOVES.  Looking back at these pictures, I'm amazed that I let my house look like this.  I think I was so busy with little kids that I just didn't notice all the UGLY!!  (Not saying Michael's quilt is ugly Amy.)  Just look at the PILLOW CASE with the QUILT.  Next to the pink dresser!  Lol!   Aaah!  And the plants and dolls on the dresser from when Elizabeth used this room, even though Caleb and Michael had it for years after and I never changed anything.  

Crazy!  Horrible!   Embarrassing!

 

Another old dresser, but good solid wood.

We went through the process of trying to find something that Michael and I both liked.  He likes blue and wanted aqua blue.  As in he wanted EVERYTHING to be aqua blue, so I found this quilt:

He wanted his walls the same color as the quilt.  I just couldn't do it, so I took it back and went back to more persuading.  I wanted Michael to have a say since it's his room.  But come on, a whole ROOM that's completely aqua blue?  No.  Just no.  I told him he could not live in a fish tank.  This was a long process of going back and forth (like seriously 6 months).  Teenagers have lots of opinions.

Finally we decided on a good blue color for the walls, which I ended up LOVING.  I want to live in their room.  The blue is so relaxing and peaceful, especially with all the white.  So then I went to work on the dressers.  We had good quality dressers and that it would be too expensive to buy something of that quality.  So I decided to try to refinish them.  I thought it would be fun to learn how.  Haha!  Remind me about the "fun" part the next time I try to refinish a dresser.   It took foreeever!  But I love how they turned out and I'm proud that I did them all by myself!

Now for AFTER:

The pink dresser, the one that took me forever.  It still has a chip in one of the drawers that I couldn't fix.  I could have had Blake cut me another drawer front, but I didn't want to take the time to find the same thickness of wood.  So I just left that part.  But I think it looks so much better!  I added new drawer pulls.  Here it is, all done!  

 And closer detail.  Look at that smooth finish.  A whole lotta sanding going on there.

I was so proud of my handiwork!  So we went to put the finished dressers and Nathan's beds in... and discovered that the dresser didn't fit with the beds!  Devastation!!  I measured before, but I measured the tops of the beds and didn't account for the width of the baseboards.  So they were about 1.5-2" too wide.  I was so sad!  All of that work and planning and it wasn't going to fit like I had planned.  We thought of putting the beds back together as a bunk bed, but Michael didn't want bunk beds (and neither did I).  So I scoured Craigslist for weeks and finally found a really nice white dresser, which is narrower but taller, and which fit perfectly.  I got it for $40.  Ugh.  All that work and I could have just bought one for $40???  Never again! 

I also refinished the other dresser that was already white, but it needed help too.  Since I knew it fit and we already had it, I thought it was worth the work.  

Now for the whole room.  First as you walk in, Caleb's bed.  (I took these pictures at different times of the day, waiting for good light.  You'll probably notice a few of Caleb's favorite bears change places during that day.  lol.)

A view of Caleb's bed (minus his favorite bears) from the other side of the room (near the closet):

Looking at Michael's bed from the door:

A view of Michael's bed from the closet:

Both beds (hard to get a good picture with so much light from the window):

Just for fun, a close up of their favorite bears.  My boys got their love of bears and stuffed animals from their mommy.  They refuse to put them away.  Happy mommy!  From left to right: Caleb's new blue bear he got for this 5th birthday, Flames.  Michael's favorite bear of all time that he's had since he was 3, Razz.  Brown bear named Ghost, and Life Guard bear (the white one that has a swim suit and sunglasses) to commemorate Michael's job as a life guard this summer, named Phantom.  The 2 on Caleb's bed that keep disappearing and reappearing are Blue (his all time favorite bear that he's had since he was 3 as well), and Root Bear.  (Yes, pun is intended.  Caleb loved how root beer sounds like root bear so he wanted a brown bear to name Root.  Silly kid.  I love his sense of humor and how much he loves and understands word play.)

The closet, taken as a view from Caleb's bed:

The tall dresser I refinished:

 A close up:

And a few details I want to point out.  Michael made these sharks.  I had in mind that I would frame them with a white frame and leave the blue from the walls showing through.  I still haven't found the frame I want.  Someday.

This is a music box from when I was a kid.  Caleb loves bears like I did/do.

Michael found these shells on the beach in Delaware (Rehoboth Beach) when we went on our vacation to VA/Washington D.C./DE.  We brought them home with us, cleaned them, and I framed them in a shadow box.  I really love this particular wall decoration because it has so many memories and so much meaning attached to it.  I want to frame a picture of him at that beach and put it on the dresser below.  Someday.

I have a few other things that I want to add to their shelves.  I'll post pics as I get those done.  Someday.  ;)

And just to compare side by side, the dressers before and after.