Before and After: Big Boy Room

I mentioned that I wasn't ready to ditch the 'transportation' theme in Garrett's room, but I did want to 'big boy' it up a bit.

Here are the before pictures:

And here are the little changes that I made:

He's looking at the race car board.  I knew he'd love it.  The blue night stand was a weathered plant stand on our front porch that I spray painted.  Paul gave him the alarm clock because he uses him phone over the clock anyway.  And I got the lamp on clearance for $8.00 at World Market.  The lamp shade had a black and gold New York skyline on it, but a little fabric fixed that.  

I never got a picture of the magnet board without him in front of it.  But I just covered the frame in wrapping paper.  Cut some vinyl to make the roads and parking spaces.  And cut 'beep' 'honk' and 'zoom' with my cricut and glued magnets to the backs of the cars and he's got his own little race track that doesn't take up floor space!

 I also re-hung the book shelf that he pulled off the wall by hanging on it.

I bought the bed sheet at babies-r-us.  It has little cars and trucks on it.  I wanted a plain red one, but this was the best I could find.  I made the quilt by cutting squares of fabrics I had and sewing them together, then my mom tied it and sewed the binding.  I love how it turned out.  And I had enough left for a pillow case and a couple throw pillows.  This was my first time sewing a round pillow cover.  I think I wanted it to look like a tire or something.  Don't look too close...

 And we decided to wait a while on the toddler bed.  I'm just not ready!

I added a strip of car/truck paper to the picture of Paul and I in front of an old fashioned gas pump.  This was taken in Midway a couple weeks before Garrett was born.  And I made a couple pennant banners with fabric scraps.

I sanded the old paper off the GPW, then spray painted them all black and put new matchy paper on them.  (If you even plan to re-craft something that has paper glued on it, get it wet first, then sand it.  SO much easier.)

I took the 'BABY' blocks off his shelf, and replaced it with 'Beep!' (His favorite car related word.)  I also added a picture of him.  I painted a frame I already had and then put car/truck/train paper on it.

This is maybe my favorite new addition.  I was garage sale shopping one morning a couple of months ago and came across a house that was selling one of everything.  Including one, just ONE of EVERY hubcap ever made.  She must have had 200 and I promise you, no two were alike.  I found three that I thought had character and kind of matched. She wanted $5.00 each.  How she thinks she can sell that many unmatched hubcaps, I'll never know.  But by the dirt, spiders, and cob webs I endured during my hunt through them, I'm likely the first person to ever buy any.  I offered $5.00 for all three and she gladly accepted my offer.  A little warm water and a rag, then some spray paint, and this is the end result.  A stop light.  Garrett likes it.

 The changes really make it look like a new room.  And it was inexpensive, and easy.  Happy 2nd Birthday, Garrett!  Speaking of his birthday, that post will hopefully be up in the next few days.  Just waiting on some pictures from the party!