So, I began planning the makeover about a month ago. Since it was going to be a surprise and he is there on the weekends, everything needed to be able to be accomplished in 5 days or less. After talking it over with my boyfriend, we decided on a budget of $200. We didn't need to replace the bed or dresser, so most of the money is being used for aesthetic improvements and storage.
I started by searching for a bedspread/comforter. It is actually quite hard to find something for boys in the bedding area. Most bedding labeled for boys has star wars, sports or camo. Anything that is not themed for children is 90% girlie - like pink, flowers, you get the idea. After searching through most of the local stores and finding nothing I liked, I started searching online. I found a really cool quilt that was white with blue and green circles on Overstock.com. The price was really good at around $50 for a set, which included a pillow sham. I wanted to show it to my boyfriend before purchasing it. So we looked at it that evening and then when I went back the next day to buy it, it was sold out. Strangely it wasn't even listed as low on stock when we were looking at it. I was really bummed about that because I had to start over from scratch. I ended up going into Bed Bath and Beyond to scour the store for anything that might work. What I ended up with was actually better than the one I had originally picked out. With a 20% off coupon, I was able to get a pretty good price, although it was a little more than the one on Overstock. Here's a picture from their website:
Of course, now the price is even less than I paid with my coupon, but the twin size I needed is now sold out - so I guess it was good to go ahead and purchase it. The base of the quilt is navy blue with circles in grey, light blue and tan. This was my jumping off point for the rest of the room.
I decided to paint the walls a nice blue grey color. Originally I was going to go with the same blue grey that is used in the quilt, but it looked a little dark for the room.
In addition to bedding, I needed shelving for toy and book storage. I was looking at a cube shelf from Ikea. Unfortunately, we don't have an Ikea here and getting it from out of town would involve renting a van or truck and driving for hours. I looked into getting it shipped, but a shelf that costs $89 at Ikea ended up being nearly $400 with shipping and taxes, which is just ridiculous. Instead, I was able to find a similar unit at Target, made by Closetmaid. It was a little smaller than I hoped when I saw it in person, so I decided to use two of these units.
The closetmaid system at target has a lot of different pieces that all work together. They also sell little storage bins/drawers that fit the cubes perfectly and come in a whole array of colors. I decided on dark blue and light blue for my bins, which will be used to hold lots of toys.
Then came the things I had not accounted for in my budget. My boyfriend wanted a new lamp for the room. I decided he needed an area rug for playing on the floor. And without all the crayon marks and kiddie drawings hanging on the walls - we were going to need some decorations to make the walls a little less bare.
Unfortunately, this boy does not like much of anything except Legos. It's hard to create a design based on legos alone. Any kind of inexpensinve artwork, like posters, are primarily sports themed or girlie. While I was walking through work one day, I saw a large metal letter from an old lit sign. I thought, that would work great, if only they had a G for his name. There was no G. So I started looking for the same thing online. I found the exact letter I needed on eBay for around $35. I was watching the item trying to decide if it was worth such a chunk of my disappearing budget. I went for a walk through my work again and someone had brought in not one, but two Gs just that day and they were only $15 each. To make it even more perfect, the outside was a nice blue color which should look great against the paint.
Along the same theme, I decided to create a custom piece of artwork for the largest wall. I wanted to get pictures of Gs in large signs and make a collage. I was able to find several hundred pictures of Gs online. Amazingly some people take photos specifically of letters as a collection - so it wasn't as hard as you might think. I was able to get a large size frame on sale and I got the photos printed at the local drug store. The custom art piece ended up costing about $20 total, which is pretty cheap. The impact should be huge.
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