Where He Lays His Head

Dash's room is the darkest in the house. Although there's a big window, very little natural light filters in. That, combined with the fact that the previous owners had painted it brown, made it seem more like a dungeon than a welcoming place for Dash to call his own.

Because when we bought this house I was 85 months pregnant and thought we'd be moving Dash into the lovely blue room with the window seat & garden view (which unfortunately shares a wall with the living room and therefore makes it too loud and not private enough for a growing boy), I had originally chosen "vintage cowboy" as his bedroom's theme. (If I can offer no other advice to women who are planning on growing their families, let me offer this: don't create a nursery centered on a theme. They (and you) will outgrow it in fewer than three years & then you'll be good and fucked.)

Anyway, this weekend we finally got around to brightening things up & de-cowboy-fying the joint. Here are some before & afters:

Before. The bed skirt and coverlet (on the wall) were custom and cost a small fortune. The rug was not custom but also cost a small fortune. The "artwork" was scrapbook paper featuring vintage cowboy images. The curtain is a bandanna-patterned twin sheet hung up with curtain clips.

After. The walls are swiss coffee (essentially white). We switched out the curtain & sheet for the Dwell for Target Circles pattern. (When I went to the Target website for paint color ideas I noticed that the wall color in the staged room was exactly the color we already had on his walls which was less than helpful.)

The big picture on the right is this:

It's a WPA poster repro from here.

Here's Josh showing off his battle scars.

Dash has started to spill out of his book case in the living room, so we bought another for his room to house the overflow. The suitcases were $6.99, $5.99 & $4.99 at Ross.

The easel has a chalboard on the reverse side and cost, I think, like $20 at Ikea. That's Clark hanging on the horsie hooks.

The dresser was Josh's Grandma's.

The little hanging shelf houses a horseshoe stamped with Dash's name, two wooden cars that Josh & his dad carved when Josh was a boy, a bird whistle that when filled with water sounds EXACTLY like a birdie tweeting, an alphabet sampler and Dash's little toy guitar that he calls a banjo.

This is what hangs over Dash's changing table. They're Martha Stewart Crafts alphabet cards.

I ordered this vintage quilt top from Etsy, but I haven't made the quilt from it yet.