Travel Themed Room for Kids
As we go through the house showing you all of the changes we’ve made since the house fire I wonder why I didn’t just do this stuff before. Why did it take a fire to get me to thoroughly clean out my closet or get rid of junk? It’s been so freeing to completely purge. It is probably the thing I am most grateful for from the fire. I highly encourage you to take a couple of weeks and get rid of anything you don’t use. Be brutal!
One thing we don’t need around here anymore are toys. Our youngest is 11 and he never really played with toys. He went straight to older kid interests, even as a baby. The next kid up is 15 and way past Imaginext and Playmobil. So right before the fire, I mean like a couple of weeks before, we had emptied all of the toys and junk from our youngest son’s room, painted it and gotten it all fixed up for him. Then it got ruined and we started all over.
I was so grateful that we did that before though, because it would have been really difficult if the room had been crammed with toys and all the junk that was in it before we cleaned it out that would have made the fire recovery even more difficult. So even though we had to redo all of the work, we also didn’t have to dig through anything in that room. Just clean it up and start again.
This is a really small room, but it’s for one little boy so it’s actually perfect. He loves old things and adventure and learning, so we went with a travel theme.
We got a daybed from Wayfare and the quilt was one that I already had and thankfully it wasn’t in the house when the fire happened. We found the old Ford tailgate at the flea market and knew it had to be the centerpiece of his room.
On the left of the bed I hung old maps in layers, some in frames and some just right on the wall.
It’s so easy for him to keep neat because the shelf along the wall has baskets and cubbies from him to just toss his treasures. My kids are all treasure keepers, so I have to make sure they have places to put them or it gets out of control.
We collected old globes and maps over the months we were waiting to move back into the house. Then we found the road signs at the flea market and he chose the ones he liked best. He was very sure of which ones he wanted. I never did figure out what drew him to these when there were hundreds to choose from.
We decided to put the word hello in several languages on the little letter board. And the US map is one I made with a Chalk Couture template and a piece of cardboard. I just used the box the template came in, waxed it and chalked on it. I love the ways it turned out!!! I’ll share more about that at the end if you want to try it!
The wall opposite the bed is the best though! We wanted to do a world map, but didn’t want to spend a thousand dollars on a giant map or wallpaper. So we made one with dots!
I’ll tell you how we did it in another post so this doesn’t get too long….but I am in love with it!
This is also a guest room so when we have company we bump another twin bed up to his and create a king sized bed!
The open door you see in the pic above leads to a tiny little room that we now use for a nursery for the grandbabies. It’s perfect for mom and dad to sleep in the travel room with king sized bed and the little ones are right there in the next room!
I hope you’ve enjoyed our little tour of the travel themed room. We had fun putting it together and making it the perfect space for my quirky little guy. He loves it!
For the adorable US map I used Chalk Couture and it was so easy! I used the US Map and white Chalk Paste. You also need to little Squeegee to make it! All I did was cut out a piece of cardboard and wax it (you can get furniture wax at Walmart or the hardware store). The wax helps the paste go on smoothly. First be sure to press your transfer against some cloth (I just used my shirt) a couple of times so it’s not super sticky. Then lay it on your cardboard and press it lightly. Then use your squeegee to wipe the paste on the template and scrape off as much as you can. Pull it off right away and let it dry. After it dried I added some stars and an airplane and things to mark places my son has been (the template comes with those!). Then just rinse off the stencils and you’re done! The whole thing took me about 15 minutes. I think I will use the template again for a pillow or some other décor!
Be sure you’re following me on Instagram where I show lots of behind the scenes in my stories!
Don’t miss our hipster daughter’s bedroom makeover or the Harry Potter room for our teens!