Map Mural Big Boy Bedroom Makeover

This is a bright and fun boy's room makeover!

This is a sponsored post written on behalf of HomeRight. As always, all opinions and ideas are my own.

A supply list can be found at the bottom of this post.

Do you ever have a project in mind that, in your head it is going to look AMAZING when it's finished, but it's so daunting to undertake that you just put it off?? For years???

This is the case with my youngest son's bedroom. His room has always been the "nursery" in our home. When my oldest was born, it was his room and we painted it a neutral yellow and had a jungle theme going on. When I got pregnant with my youngest, we made over the spare bedroom and moved my oldest in there. The nursery remained the same since it was once again begin used as a nursery. And it stayed that way for 10 years. (insert gasp here!)

My youngest in now 7 years old, and I think we're ALL over the "nursery yellow" color. It's time for a makeover! And thanks to HomeRight's "Refresh Your Walls Today" contest, I had the perfect excuse to FINALLY get it done!

As well as a new coat of paint, the room also needed a good going through. There were still "baby" items hanging around! So before any painting could be done, the room really needed to be cleaned out.

That little red kitchen set? We've had it for an amazing 8 years (it's seriously the best), but my boys have outgrown it and it's time to bring in some different furniture.

You can see more "baby"-themed items decorating the shelf above the closet. PS. A shelf above the closet is a great out-of-the-way spot to show off special toys, treasures, and keepsakes.

And the rest of this space is obviously just a disaster. Too many toys, not enough storage.

And this wall. Oh my. It was a big blank eyesore. You can see we were in the midst of testing out new paint colors.

Enter the inspiration!! I have actually had this map mural in my possession for longer than I care to admit. With full intent for it to go on the giant blank wall in the my son's room.

We grabbed a bunch of paint swatches to help decide on colors and match them up to the colors on the map. We narrowed it down to 3 to get paint samples of and tried them out. The color we ended up with is Deep Turquoise by Behr which is a little bright and doesn't match the map exactly, but my 7 year old picked it out and I was determined to go with it. It is such a fun color! And he wanted a fun, bright room.

And, of course, the item that got this entire project underway, the PaintStick EZ-Twist from Homeright! This roller pulls your paint up into the tube which is the handle so you're not constantly stopping to refill your roller. It's brilliant!

You can see the roller in action here. Do you see the paint in the tube? I've already used ¾ of it and it's still going strong. When you feel like the roller is getting low on paint, you simply twist the handle to push out more. It also has a handy and simple attachment for getting the paint into the tube. No messes!

I feel like I really saved my back, not to mention minimized the risk of possible messes, from constantly bending over to refill the roller the old fashioned way. It made quick work of painting without all those little breaks. And it only took a few minutes to fill up the tube with paint when needed.

I was able to do 2 coats of paint on all 3 walls with a single gallon of paint and the PaintStick EZ-Twist.

Once all of the paint was dry it was time to move on to the map mural. It fits a 8'8" x 13' wall. My wall is 9'x11' so I painted a couple of inches around the baseboard figuring it won't be noticeable around the floor, especially with the bed taking up much of the wall.

The mural comes in 8 pieces and applies like wallpaper. It was definitely a process, and could possibly be done easier with 2 people, but with a traveling hubby it was up to me to get it done. I can't say I'd do another one in my house, at least not by myself, but I am obsessed with how it turned out!

Since my wall was 2' shorter in length than the mural you can see we lost some of Russia, Japan, and Australia. But still. SO COOL!!!

Even though the paint color isn't an exact match, I think it's still so fun and you really feel like you're in the Caribbean with that fun turquoise shade.

Along with the map theme, we incorporated my son's love of dinosaurs. He already had several posters and accessories that we used to decorate with, thanks to a dinosaur-themed birthday party when he turned 3.

The only new items we added to the room, other than paint and the mural, were the new shelf over his bed, new curtains (no more baby jungle curtains!), and a new trash can and hamper that match the walls.

I also sewed up a simple bed skirt that matches the bed frame. We used risers, think dorm room bed risers, to raise his bed ~10 inches for extra storage. Now that's all hidden!

I reorganized the furniture in the room to be a little more functional and make it feel more spacious.

And no more "baby" keepsakes above the closet!

The play kitchen is gone, it served us well. Now we have more space for toys that were already in the room and a new-to-us desk given to us by my grandparents.

This is SUCH a fun space for a little boy now! And the map is definitely something that will grow with him. I think it's safe to say we won't need to change this room anytime soon. It also kind of makes me wish my bedroom was this color.

Supplies:
PaintStick EZ-Twist (also available at Lowe's)
Map Mural
Paint color: Deep Turquoise by Behr
Curtains

 

>> See where I party! <<