This past fall was filled with projects. The kids’ rooms haven’t been done since they were babies and it was really time to move away from the monkeys and elephants, particularly since all three boys are now in a room together, and the girls each have their own spaces.

I’ve long planned on doing a nautical themed room for the boys. Henry and James are the only two of my children for whom I actually made their quilts, the rest are all in limbo.

I still have to make Peter’s quilt, it’s on my list. We went with 2 bunk beds nestled together in the corner. We need 3 and having a fourth seemed prudent given the very real possibility of having guests.

I picked up the nautical pillows a few years ago at Ikea, in preparation of someday. The book ledges were repurposed from other projects that I just repainted to match quilts. The letters I ordered on Etsy and just painted them.

The walls were a mess from all the thumbtacks used to hang things and I refused to deal with that again…oh the hours of hammering, spackling, sanding….it was a nightmare. We used command strips this time.

We went with Behr’s Shipyard for the walls, aptly named.

Even Peter has his little spot…now if only he’d STAY in his FREAKIN’ bed. We’ve been trying this for the past 4 months…and we’re not getting any closer. He sleeps in the bed, he’s up wandering the halls or climbing in the beds of everyone else. He’s the worst. If he climbs in our bed, he smacks us in the face and tells us to sk-u-tch over.

I didn’t want a bookcase that was going to take up floor space, there really isn’t that much space in a room once you put in a wardrobe, a dresser, a chair, and 4 beds.

The ledges were simple enough to make and we managed to fit 4 of them on the wall behind the door. Illustrators put so much energy and beauty into book covers, that it’s an absolute shame to just hide them.

The lamp I got at a thrift shop and painted it to match the ledges. I felt like the turned wood really lent itself to the nautical theme….it reminded me of a ships wheel, captain at the helm.

A lot of the pieces we managed to steal from storage at Matt’s parents or picked up at thrift shops and yard sales. I think a lot of people want to do nautical themes, but very quickly outgrow them.

My friend Katie did the vinyl letters for around the anchor, which turned out perfectly! The anchor was through etsy.

The curtains are actually shower curtains that I bought from Amazon and added a thermal drape to the back of, then clipped with some curtain rings. I still need to make curtain rods for them; why ARE curtain rods so expensive?!

After I got them up I realized that they were maps of Cape Cod, they even have the bay that Matthew’s college (Mass Maritime) was on, Buzzards Bay.

We didn’t do anything with the floors. They desperately either need to be repainted, refinished, or replaced, but none of that was in the budget for any of the rooms.

Overall, I’m pretty pleased with how it turned out. There’s still some work that needs to be done, some pictures that need to be hung, but I like it!