Raising a Little River: Room Re-do

Recently I had a friend ask about Liam's "new" toddler room. She was asking about costs of decorations, supplies, etc. When I told her I would estimate I spent less than $150 (with many new goodies to fill his new room) she was shocked.

So what better way to start my new blog than a very unprofessional and unorganized breakdown of my toddler's room re-do?

I had no inclinations that I would actually start blogging soon after re-doing Liam's room, so I don't have any "before" pictures of it. No one's grading this, right?

I'm always looking for good deals and ways to skip around spending an excess amount of money of things he will outgrow so soon. Without further ado, here is Liam's "new" room! I'll just go ahead and explain the re-do along with the pictures.

Here's his room as you walk in...

And here's a breakdown of the "new" things in Liam's room:

- The teepee

So this may or may not have taken me approximately 4+ hours to make because of my not so handy skills BUT it works, it was cheap and Liam loves it. And I think I wanted a teepee a little more than he did. I'd like to make a post about step by step instructions later on, but for now I'll explain that I used a few "DIY no sew teepee" tutorials from Google;

a 9x15" canvas drop cloth

five "sticks" from our yard (sanded and shellacked)

6 eyelets

leather twine

rope

and LOTS of hot glue

- The banner

This was my "look at me go, I'm a Pinterest mom" take on the overly trendy pendant banners. I used burlap I had left over from a previous project, old twine, colored paper, scissors and hot glue (obviously my favorite) to put together a simple take on a pendant banner. I don't care how trendy this is. I think it's adorable even if Jake keeps asking, "what is he celebrating?"...

Life. He's celebrating life!

I ended up adding one of our wraps (for baby wearing) as a more sophisticated "blanket" over his crib and re-used the animal paintings I made for him when I was pregnant. I contemplated getting rid of his rocking chair but my dad found that pretty beat up and re-did it to match his room!

Side view! I swear his closet door is not that skinny in real life.

- The bench/toy box

$40 KidCraft (like new) toy box in a frightening shade of orange from a B/S/T Facebook group + $3 can of spray paint and some sand paper = wa-lah! A new toy box for all those excessive Christmas toys.

- The picture string

Re-used! I bought this from Amazon for maybe $8 when we first moved in. Decided shortly after it was pretty "collegey" and took it down. Works great for a toddler to display family photos!

Last one...

- The "book" shelves

These are actually spice racks from Ikea. About $3 each and another can of spray paint! They were actually ridiculously annoying to put up (sorry Jake!) and didn't come with hardware but I think they're worth it!

Add another reused painting and a few cheap pillows and there you go. Liam's new room!