Monday, November 5, 2012

Boy's Baseball Room: Navy/Red/Gray


I think I'm ready to declare Ryan's new navy/red/gray baseball "big boy" room just about complete! My goal was to have a more "grown-up" room that wasn't too themed, so a few changes to some decoration accents could make it less of a "baseball room" and more just a boy's room. We also kept in mind that once Ryan is older, we'll probably move him to the larger bedroom in the basement (being less than 3 when we first moved him downstairs, we didn't want him so far away from the stairs, so we put him in the closest room) so we wanted this room to be versatile enough to change to a guest room if needed.

Here is a tour along with links to many of the things used in this room. I do this as a reminder to myself in case we ever need replacement/similar items and also to help out anyone who many stumble across this looking for, say, the perfect shade of paint to match the bedspread, etc. This is a very small room (only one reason why the pictures are so terrible) , so we tried to make the most of storage space, plus, being in the basement near the toy room means he doesn't need a lot of room to store/play toys in his room.

View from the door.
  • The Northwestern College banner is one that Adam got from his alma mater's bookstore several years ago and since Ryan is a big Red Raider's fan, we thought this would be a great place to hang it.
  • The rug is a rag-rug hand-made from various red/blue/white materials that was Adam's "nap rug" when he was a kid. I kind of like the pop of color it brings to otherwise plain carpeting. Nika, our beagle, lays on it every night while I read Ryan books.
  • The wooden milk stool was picked up from a second-hand store in Sibley and is necessary for Ryan to be able to climb into his tall bed.
  • The furniture: Standard Twin Captain Bed with bookshelf headboard, Standard City Park 5-Drawer Chest, and matching nightstand are all from Nebraska Furniture Mart. So far, they've worked great (after we got them down the stairs, of course).
Corner of room
  • The bedding set (comforter, sheets, pillow case, pillow sham) is the Mainstays Striped Bed-in-a-Bag from Walmart. I haven't washed the comforter yet and will be sure to use a Color-Catcher when I do, since I've read it can run, but so far, it's been fine. It's not super-warm, but Ryan gets really hot when he sleeps and we added a red Room Essentials Blanket from Target for the winter.
  • Two walls are painted Valspar's Stone Mason Gray and two are painted Valspar's Blue Coal. We bought both from Lowe's. Since the walls started white, we painted the whole room gray first, then did another coat of gray on 2 walls and did 2-3 coats (I can't remember)  of navy on the other 2 walls. The colors match the bedding very well and we picked the darkest navy color we could find so that it wouldn't turn out looking "bright blue" with the lights on.
  • The blue  Jumping Beans® Play Ball "Baseball" Decorative Pillow as well as the white baseball pillow came from Kohl's, but I can't find the white one on their website anymore, but it's similar to the one sold here.
  • His headboard is filled with a few Minnesota twins figures, a picture of Daddy, and some of his favorite (red and blue) books, including the A Treasury of Curious George, The New Adventures of Curious George, and The Boy, The Kite, and the Wind (read about how the net profits of the sales of this book are donated here.)
  • The art above his bed are pictures of Ryan's great-grandfathers' baseball teams from the 1940's along with a great motivational quote from Clingspiration that reads "Be Strong when you are weak, Brave when you are Scared, and Humble when you are Victorious." See my previous post for a full run-down on this Baseball Picture Project.
Other corner of the room
  • The curtains are navy Room Essentials Thermal Window Panel Pair from Target and this window already had a wooden-looking roll-up shade and curtain rod installed from the previous owner. I like the heavy curtains because the block a lot of light, help block any sort of cold draft, and they have a slight vertical stripe in the design that matches the stripey theme we have going on with his bed.
Alcove next to Closet
  • Besides a picture frame and a fake trophy Ryan won in an "egg race" his dresser holds a Minnesota Twins baseball cap and baseball signed by Alexi Casilla that I won for being selected as the "Designated Driver of the Game" at a Twins game.
  • He loves dropping coins into his Circo Sports baseball Piggy Bank from Target.
  • The "R" initial was the black one I got on clearance at Kohl's several years ago. It hung in his nursery and I just repainted it to match his new room.
Short wall between closet and door


  • The canvas of the Minnesota Twins' Target Field was purchased at Target.
  • The bookshelf is Target's ClosetMaid Cubeicals 9 Cube Organizer Alder with the Cubeicals Fabric Drawers in Blue and Red.  The drawers are nice for storing his CD's as well as small toys. P.S. The books never look like this--they are always strewn about is room or at best, laying in stacks inside the cubes.
  • I used leftover navy paint to paint some cardboard to use as mats for the red picture frames that hold pictures of Ryan's cousins.
Ryan loves his baseball room and is always proud to show it off (even if you've seen it before). The transition to his basement "big boy room" has gone amazingly smooth...now if only I would get started on the nursery. Oh well, we have 6 weeks yet, right?!?

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