When my son was born, his nursery was on the first floor of our house, the same as our master bedroom. We put his nursery in what could be described as a very small bedroom, or maybe a home office type of dealio. As the years passed, we converted his crib into a toddler bed. Soon it became clear that he was ready for a big-boy bed (and also a larger room to house his bounty of toys and Thomas trains).
Our house is about 118 years old. Upstairs are two bedrooms, a large area at the top of the stairs, and the attic. I repainted the one bedroom when we first moved in. For years, that was our guest bedroom, even though we seldom have guests. The other bedroom served as our hobby/craft room. Mostly, in recent years, it was a hoarders paradise. I didn’t repaint the walls because they were covered with wallpaper. Not just any wallpaper, but wallpaper with pink roses on it. Yuck. Not my style.
So, I got brave and decided I would remove the wallpaper and let my son pic the paint colors for his new room. The removal process wasn’t brutal, but it did take forever. And my overall thought while working on it was “why the heck didn’t I do this sooner!” The wallpaper was peeling anyway, and I really disliked it more than I realized. I got a crazy idea in my head one day to make it a “train” room. My son loves Thomas, but he would outgrow that too soon. So, I decided on a room based on real trains. I realized I had a whole bunch of items already that could be used to make a great “train station” room. I have included pictures below. Mind you, most of these ideas I got from randomly Googling, and usually the other people executed it better than I.
Before pic of the bedroom with wallpaper. Had to use this picture of my skinny puppy. She hasn’t been that thin in 10 years.
Wallpaper being removed. A peek at the walls being white.
I only chipped off the LOOSE paint!
Finished bedroom showing bench and train pics.
Finished bedroom with lanterns over twin-sized bed. I got those lanterns at a garage sale years ago.
Train arrival board. It is a black magnetic dry-erase board. All the letters and lines can be removed as he grows.
Railroad crossing sign coat rack. Really pulls the theme of the room together.
Clocks showing the different time zones. We already had the pay phone and rocking train.
The frames I got on clearance in the craft dept at Meijer and painted myself. The pictures are from calendars and magazines.
Cute child’s desk I got for $10 at a garage sale. I think of it as the station master’s desk.
I bought the electric lantern years ago. Almost got rid of it.
Made this a few years ago, but this toy box would fit into the room as well.
I also decided to repaint the stairway area as well. I have always HATED that pink-beige color that is all over our house (to cover up all the barn red that yet another previous resident loved). I have worried for the 11 years we lived here how hard it would be to paint over the stairs, where the ceiling is very high. It sucked, but I got it done. And yes, you might have noticed that I have a compulsion where I cannot paint a room all one color. Blame Punky Brewster 😉
The stairway before.
The stairway after.
Top of stairs before.
Top of stairs after. I couldn’t resist accentuating all the weird angles.
Attic hobbit door before.
Attic hobbit door after.
Also, I have always thought the wood paneling was hideous, but I believe it would be too costly to remove and replace with drywall. I’m pretty sure the paneling covers up crumbling plaster walls. And it goes without saying that I would like new carpet (low pile purple would be my dream), but I will just try to ignore the brown shag as much as possible.
This pic is from when we first moved in. Note the heinous brown carpeting on the shelf.
Painted. Carpet removed from shelf. Signs outside the bedroom keep the train theme, as well as a trunk that could be waiting to be loaded on a train. Trunk was from Family Dollar, under $20.
When I removed the carpeting, what was left was plywood covered in glue residue. I covered it with more paneling, so that now I can use the space for storage.
I started these projects in May. It took me until the end of July to fully complete them. But I wasn’t working on them every day, either.
Follow the romantic entanglements of The Riley Sisters in my books:
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