Judah's big boy room reveal is finally here! His room was one of the first we completed in our new home, because we wanted to make sure it was done before Simon arrived. It was very bare bones to begin with, because we didn't have a bed for him! Before we moved into our house, he was still in his crib (yes, at 3 years old!) because we were temporarily renting a small townhome on the seminary's campus and didn't want to invest in a big boy bed until we moved.
Once we moved into our house, I didn't want Judah to get used to sleeping in a crib in his new room, so we immediately set up his crib in the other bedroom and had Judah sleep on our former guest room's queen size mattress that we placed on the floor. He looked so tiny on that huge mattress! But, it was only for a few days because Ben and our friend, Miles, built him a loft bed. A definite BIG BOY bed!
Here you can see some of the progress of the bed being built. Ben drew up the plans and the guys went to work. They did it very quickly! Judah was super excited, and he loved using his Nerf toys from up high!
We bought him a $99 twin mattress from Sam's Club and sheets from Bed, Bath and Beyond. This is a picture of his first night in the bed. Can you believe he went right from a baby crib to such a big boy bed??
After a few more days, Ben then painted the bed to match the train table.
Yes, Ben also built this train table... back when we lived in the townhomes. Cool, huh?
This is another angle of the room where you can see the quote we put up on the wall. "The more that you Read, the more things you will Know. The more that you Learn, the more places you'll Go!" -Dr. Seuss
The bookshelves are my favorite part of Judah's room. Ben built them!
A close up of one of the shelves.
Then I painted them orange, which took five coats to cover up all of the knots.
My second favorite part of the room is the reading chair. It's really the Anywhere Chair from Pottery Barn Kids, BUT I bought it from UglySofa.com who sells them much much cheaper (like, half the price!) and calls them Ugly-Where Chairs. 🙂 I was a little nervous about ordering from them, wondering if it would be the same quality as the ones at PB. There was nothing to be worried about, because the chairs are actually the exact same quality! The cover even comes with the PB tag on it!
Judah LOVES his chair. He sits and reads in it all the time. He'll also take naps in it, and drags it into our living room or upstairs to our bonus room to watch movies. It's super light-weight and has a tag on the top where he can easily pull it around himself. Don't believe me? Check out this video:
(Our living room no longer looks like that. We've now replaced the sofa, painted, and some other things you'll see on the blog in the future.) 🙂
Because I loved the colors on this chair, I based the entire room around it. That is why the bookshelves are orange, the bed is blue, the curtains are red, and the rug is green. After searching high and low for a more affordable quilt, I ended up splurging on the matching Pottery Barn Kids quilt and sham. But, to my defense, I did have a 10% off coupon and a gift card to use towards it. 😉 I'm so glad I did, though, because the quilt is such great quality and will last a very long time. And, it is a pattern that he will not grow out of any time soon.
As much as I didn't want to keep the toy storage we already had, I decided it was an area we needed to save money and I just revamped it a little. I bought chalkboard labels and a chalk marker, then had my mother-in-law write categories on the labels because she has a knack for artistic hand-writing. I love how it turned out.
Finally, here is the before and after shot. The previous owner of our house had this room for her young daughter, who had a HUGE bed and apparently no toys in the room? As you can see, the loft bed allows more play space and makes the room seem much bigger.
It's not an overly creative and amazing room, but I think simple is best especially when it comes to boys. What do you think?
Vendor Information:
Navy Madras Twin Quilt and Sham - Pottery Barn Kids
"Uglywhere" Chair - UglySofa.com (Same chair as this Pottery Barn Anywhere Chair, but half the price!)
Green Shag Rug - RugsUSA (wait for a sale and free shipping, they have them all the time)
Dr. Seuss Wall Decal - Stephen Edward Graphics
Chalkboard Vinyl Labels - Little Diddy
KidKraft Corner Red Kitchen - Amazon.com
genie says
Could I have the bed dimensions? 🙂 my son would love a bed like this. 🙂
Nikki Gladd says
Hi Genie! Our two boys share this room now so we took this loft bed down a few months ago and built new bunk beds. It fits a twin mattress, if that helps. The new bunk beds that Ben built consists of a twin on top and a full on bottom.
Cassie says
How much did it cost you to build a loft bed?
Nikki Gladd says
Hi Cassie,
It cost about $100 in materials. 🙂
Candice L. says
How is the ugly sofa chair holding up a few years down the road? I'm so tempted to buy one but have seen mixed reviews.
Nikki Gladd says
We still love it and actually ordered another recently for Simon! I posted a newer review in November with recent photos, including photos of Judah's chair 3 years later. 🙂
https://www.seededatthetable.com/2015/11/16/the-ugly-where-chair-review-the-pottery-barn-anywhere-chair-at-a-discount/
Nicki says
I love this idea for my son, he has such a small room and he needs more room and this would be so perfect. However I can't figure out how you attached it to the wall?
Nikki Gladd says
Hi Nicki,
It's anchored to the wall studs with lag bolts. Hope this helps!
Lynn says
Love the room !! This is similar as what I am doing with our little boys room right now. Love the chair also perfect for a big boy !!
Jen says
LOVE this room!!! My son has the same quilt and chair from PBK and I absolutely love it and your right it will last a long time we've had ours for 3 years already and no signs of wear on the bedding and it goes with everything to! (win-win) I just showed him this and he soooooo wants this bed. Such a great idea to free up so much more space in his room for his toys! THANKS!!!
Nikki says
Hi Nikki! I'm a Nikki, too 🙂 Just curious about the latch at the top of the ladder on the bed. How do you close it?
Nikki says
Hi Nikki! (Beautiful name! ha!)
So, there is a board that swivels around to close the opening at the top of the ladder. It's hanging on by a screw (or bolt, or something) and then attaches to the electrical thingy that you see is screwed into the wall. Can you tell I have no idea what the technical terms are for these pieces? haha! If Ben was here with me right now, I would have him type up this answer for me. 😉 We totally rigged this up in a weird way, in my opinion. When open, the board sets on another piece of hardware that I don't know the name of, that is screwed into the bottom of the stationary board and sticks out just enough to hold the swivel board.
That said, we want to re-do this part of the bed so that we don't have to use the swivel board and can just keep the opening open. Instead, we want to make the opening smaller by replacing the top stationary board altogether and adding one more vertical slat, so the opening at the top of the ladder is smaller with no need to close it up.
I hope this made sense! 🙂 Sorry that my terminology is lacking! ha! Feel free to ask more questions and maybe I can email you some closer up pics if you want.
Kelly says
Where did you get the toy storage shelves and bins? Looking for something new for our toy storage system. Love the colors and chalkboard paint idea. Can you please email me by chance and let me know? Thank you!
Nikki says
Hi Kelly,
I'll answer here just in case someone else has the same question, along with sending you an email. 🙂 The toy storage bins/shelves was sold as one unit from Target, I think. We've had it for 4 years, so I can't remember for sure, but I think it is Circo brand. Here is a link to a similar one, but girl colors and different brand: https://www.target.com/p/tot-tutors-pastel-toy-organizer/-/A-11177319#prodSlot=medium_4_6&term=toy+storage
The chalkboard labels are from an Etsy shop called Little Ditty. They included a chalk marker for writing on the labels. Linked here: https://www.etsy.com/shop/LittleDiddy?ref=seller_info
Julie winder says
Adorable. You are one talented girl! I would never want to leave this room. Love All the books. Thanks for the
Christina Hill says
I don't remember how I stumbled on your blog, but I love it! And I love this room! We currently live in a one bedroom apartment with our 13 month old and a curtain dividing his side of the room from ours 🙂 I can't wait til we can move and he can have his own room. I will definitely be bookmarking this post in hopes of building him a loft and bookshelves like y'all did! So cute!
Nikki says
Thanks, Christina! And, welcome! 🙂 Enjoy these times of living simply as you are gaining a ton of fun and wonderful memories to take with you! We've lived in many smaller places and have quite the stories from each one of them. 🙂
Courtney Hualpa Moreno says
I love the shelves you and your hubby built. May i please have the measurements for the shelves so i can have some built.
Nikki Gladd says
Hi Courtney! Unfortunately, this post is from almost 7 years ago and we have since upgraded his room and no longer have these shelves. So I do not have the measurements. Any measurements should work, though, based on your needs. 🙂
Karen says
Nikki - chasing a rabbit trail here, but Judah's books all look so new and um, unworn (although he is clearly reading them!). Maybe he can give some pointers to Alexa on how to take care of them??
On the other hand, all your "new" books might not be from the clothes closet 🙂
Krystal R. says
What an awesome big boy room!! I love how everything turned out, and I love that you bought an ugly chair! I was wondering about the quality of those, but we ended up with bean bags for the kiddos. I might have to sneak this purchase in for Elena's big girl room. hehe
Becky says
I love it! You and Ben did an awesome job!
Susan Gladd says
What a fun room for a fun son!
Amy @ Very Culinary says
Omg. I want that room for ME. Love. It.
Cookbook Queen says
So darling!!! Your husband is a talented guy 🙂
virginia says
Love the room! It looks like the perfect place to explore and imagine.
Stephanie @ The Good Stuff says
That looks like a very fun big boy room! The loft bed is so neat! Definitely frees up a lot of functional space.
Rachel @ Baked by Rachel says
Such an awesome room! Love it!!! I've been wanting to do shelves like that and now may have to push hubs to get it done lol 😉