an industrial take on a big boy’s room…surfer style
lil G’s room was the last room to get painted. i had the wall paper picked, but just wasn’t sure the direction i wanted to head. we’re a family of surfers, so that was definitely the theme.
note that we don’t yet have anything above the bed on either of the walls. when you live in California, you’ve got earthquakes to plan around….so one of husband’s very lightweight surfboards (without fins) will be mounted on the large wall flanking the bed. and a very cool world map will be hung above the bed.
upcycled metal strap from a tree planter provides an industrial way to hang surfing pix
we wanted a cool way to hang photos without spending a ton of money on printing to canvas or getting frames. we plan to change these photos out regularly, so i conceptualized a way to upcycle the metal taken from the wood planters that came with our new trees for the landscaping.
weathered cedar wood container with cool stencils and interesting metal straps
i didn’t expect the metal straps to give me as hassle as they did. i ended up punching a starter hole every 8 inches with a nail. then drilled all the way through so that the nails would work.
i wanted a way to quickly switch out pictures while keeping an industrial look. the metal strap works perfectly with magnets.
lots of running up and down the stairs to get materials while the boys were playing in the room.
but i persevered and won! check out how cool this works!
the magnets allow us to change out the pictures on a regular basis. very pragmatic for a fickle young boy!
Husband and his brothers are stoked that they’ve made the ‘wall of fame!’ we look forward to the day when lil G’s own surfing pix will be on display.
currently we’re showcasing uncles and daddy surfing pics
the Hanalei poster is another project i did before lil G was born. i bought a bunch of new posters from posters.com, mounted them to bead board with spray mount, brushed some stain on top, and sanded to distress and age. pretty nifty, given that these sell for $50+ in the surf shops around town.
we store the library books in the magazine rack so that we can keep track of them
an ikea magnetic board keeps a calendar, photos and reward sticker chart…
lil G gets a sticker for each task he accomplishes each day
why pay $700 when you can knock it off for $40?
these dressers were another pregnancy project. i love the anthropologie stenciled dressers but wasn’t about to drop $1500 for a pair. no thanks!
so i waddled to ikea, bought these dressers for $35 each, had the handyman saw some hand holds. then i stenciled in annie sloan’s napoleon blue, then stained with briwax grey water based, and finally brushed and hand-rubbed some annie sloan dark wax on top.
we had a scare one day when lil G went to get some socks and the whole dresser fell over. so we secured them to the walls for safety…again, we live in California!
lil G loves his room, and so do we. it’s so warm, has a very cool surfer vibe, is utilitarian, and brings in the restoration hardware industrial nuance that we love.
linking to:
featured on ikeahackers.net!!
About meesh
Love those dressers! The numbers caught my attention as my birthday is 8/18/88! I loveee Anthro knock off pieces and you did quite an amazing job on this one 🙂
thanks! it was such an easy Ikea hack! 🙂 thanks for reading. please subscribe as i’m doing a ton of furniture refinishing lately…mostly knocking off restoration hardware. 🙂
Can you explain how you did the cutouts and if they are holding up?
Thanks!
do you mean the cutouts on the dresser door fronts? if so, i had my handyman friend who’s skilled with the saw do it. they’re holding up perfectly and are the perfect height for the younger kids.
Thank you!! Yes I meant the fronts :). Sounds like this might be perfect for my two year olds