Who Wants To ROCK 'N ROLL All Night?!?!

Well I can tell you that Monkey sure enjoys it!!! =)

As soon as we started talking about a "Big Boy Room", before the adoption process even started...we talked about a rocker theme for our Lil Man.  As crazy as it sounds, this boy was kicking to the beat way back in my belly.  On the way home from the hospital, the only thing that soothed his whimpers was some R&B with a strong, steady beat.  I knew that an electric guitar and a drum set would be perfectly fitting for our little Monkey!  Check out the FUN!!!

BEFORE:

AFTER:

Once we submitted our adoption application I went on the lookout for the perfect bedding set for the room I had been envisioning for months.  Unfortunately, all that was turning up were black and white graphics with skulls and accents of red while I was picturing colorful hues of blue and orange with deep chocolate accents.  I did google searches every week hoping to stumble upon something that echoed my dreams...and one day it happened!  With Land of Nod clearance thank-you-very-much!!!  And I bought the LAST COMFORTER in all of the country!  SCORE!  {They turned the store upside down looking for it on my behalf - bless those sweet gals!!!}

I knew the rest of my vision had to be based off the hues in the bedding so this was when the fun really started!  Hub's parents gifted us the bunk beds my husband and his brother shared as children - we sanded, primed and painted them the perfect accent color!  Only problem was that there were a few pieces missing.  For now its just a twin bed...but hopefully someday we can rebuild the rest so that Monkey can have bunk beds in his room for sleepovers!

This was the point that we moved Lil Man into his new room - and he proved to be the ROCKSTAR we always knew he was!  He only woke up once during the night, and that was only because he had a cold and he was extremely stuffed up.  The next night he slept straight through the night as usual.  Best of all is that he has YET to get out of bed without permission!  As you can see by the pictures, we have a small board up to prevent him from falling out during the night {And promise not to judge me in those pictures!!!  Yes...that's me with no makeup and paint stains on the bottom of my feet - so what!}.  Although he can easily climb over to get both in and out...he has listened very well to us that he needs to stay in bed until we get him up.  {When he's upset about us putting him to bed he normally kicks the wall....which we are working on before his baby sister comes home.}

I still wasn't okay with sharing pictures of the room yet at this point because I knew how much work was yet to be done.  The basics were finished, but I hadn't had the opportunity to get creative yet - and we all know how much I love me some creative-ness!!!

My mom brought over a children's rocking chair that was mine as a kid - that got repainted as well and then staged with a baby blanket and colorful pillow!  It adds a GREAT pop of color in the corner of the room.

My print-out which was my inspiration!

I then planned an art piece inspired by this dinosaur design I saw in the Pottery Barn Kids catalog.  We used five pieces of "reclaimed wood" {Sidenote: I've always wanted to say that I'm all GREEN like that....they were old pieces of fencing that we recently replaced and were just sitting behind our house and I thought they would work perfectly for my vision!} for my "canvas" and painted them that awesome orange.  Instead of painting two thick coats like we had on both the bed frame and the rocking chair...I only painted a thin layer and then distressed it a bit with some sandpaper {but just a tiny bit because my husband isn't a big fan of the distressed look...and yet he still let's me do it...so I try not to get carried away}.  Then I found a graphic online of a drum set I liked and printed it out on like 10 pieces of paper to get it the size I wanted.  I taped it together, cut it out, and layed it on my art piece to figure out placement and penciled in a few markers to keep me on track with my design.  Then it was hand painted from there.  This is my FAVORITE thing about his room - partly because I'm proud of myself for the DAYS of work I put into just to save the $40 bucks it would have cost me to buy a drum set graphic off etsy!!! =)  My hand was sore, my arm was sore, my shoulders were sore, and I had a headache - but it was all worth it to be able to say that I created it just for him! =)

From that point on it was just deciding where to place things in his room and finish details like the closet doors and trim around his closet.  What a DIFFERENCE that made!!!  Moved his cute little shelf to a different wall at a better height - and the room is complete {for now}!

So I'm curious to get your feedback on Monkey's ROCK 'N ROLLER room!!!  True to Mimi-Style - nothing's ever finished!  I would love to display his name in the room somewhere, get some new and improved toy storage for under his art piece, and a bookshelf above his bed.  And of course a rug would just be UHMAZING....but seriously....I am LOVING it right now!  And so is HE and that's what counts =)