At the end of this summer we transitioned our kids into boys and girls shared rooms. I waited until about two weeks before school started to make the transition so that we had plenty of time before school started but also took advantage of as many days as possible that our youngest was staying in her crib late into the morning.
Previously my three oldest were sharing a room and our youngest was in the nursery in her crib. We had purchased a set of bunk beds that could also be used as single beds. We made this transition with intentions that they would eventually be split up two and two. You can see how the three kid shared room was set up here.
The bunk beds worked out really well and though it sometimes got a little crazy in there, we have seen over and over the value a shared room can be for sibling relationships. I would say my only complaint was having to climb up to make the top bunk or to change the sheets. It is not fun and hard to do when you are short! I was counting down the days to finally be free of trying to keep bunk beds look neat and tidy!
So when the time came to change up the rooms, Brent took apart the bunk beds and got them set up as single beds. We got down our other twin bed out of the shed that we had when we had two in a shared room and reassembled that. Once we got the furniture all squared away, Brent took the kids out for a couple of hours so I could get to the decorating fun!
I knew that we would be keeping the decor mostly the same but it still took time to get it right in their new configurations. I felt like I was on a design show watching the clock! My goal was to have the rooms mostly finished by the time everyone got back home to give an official reveal. I was sweating and working like a crazy woman. But it was so fun and I was so happy with how it all turned out. The kids were ecstatic to see their new rooms making it even more special.
Here is the boys' room:
And the girls' room:
And these cuties were just as excited to get to share a room together for the first time!
We lived with the rooms for a couple of weeks. I was really excited about having just a girls room to decorate so I was surprised to find I actually liked how the boys' room looked and felt better. After analyzing and trying a few different things out, I realized that I liked the boys' room better because it felt more cozy. The girls' room felt too open. I didn't want to add anything to the room that would be unnecessary so I decided to try moving things around to make the room feel a little more warm.
I decided to let one of the beds fill the middle space and it ended up being just what I was looking for. They lost a little floor space but they still have plenty of room to play.
Here is the updated room:
The window in the corner has always been restrictive. I also found it didn't allow me to have a decorative focal point behind the bed. Moving the bed to the other wall opened up some different decorating opportunities and I am so pleased with how it came out.
I was also on the hunt for some art to hang in the boys' room. I settled on an old rocket print we had and this fun Be Strong and Courageous banner. I was also storing their wood tool bench in the closet for years, hoping to have the room to use it when we had a boy's room. It ended up fitting perfectly next to the book shelf and they love having it out to play with again.
Many of the decorations, bedding, and toys have all been collected over time. I love that items place us at certain times in our life or seasons of parenting or where we lived.
The thing I have learned with having boys and girls and lots of kids is that I have never regretted going with neutral statement pieces. The simple classic beds, the minimalist bookshelves, and the white, metal, or wicker bins. They have been able to be used interchangeably over the past ten years without looking outdated.
I rounded up as many sources as I could for their rooms which you can find here:
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