Vintage Car Big Boy Bedroom Reveal

I can’t wait any longer.  There are a few lingering details that need to be added, but oh well. I want to share this RIGHT NOW.  My little man’s room needed to be transformed from the once gender neutral nursery, to a place he could call his own.

We tried to create a space to fit his needs and my taste.  Hence VINTAGE (or at least retro) Cars.  Yes, He loves old stuff and I’m a car freak Or not!  He and his father both have a bit of grease monkey in their blood.  Something about a loud engine noise gets them gitty.  The makeover started last year (I like to pretend this project is like a good bottle of wine, that gets better with time) when we painted the walls and installed a barn board accent wall.  I wanted the room to grow with him so we kept to some basic masculine colors that were versatile: Grey-Blue, Deep Red, and Navy was the initial color palette we had selected. Here’s a look at the before version of this room.

The finer details helped bring this room together.  In fact the vintage car theme didn’t really happen until we attended a local car show and there were several vendors selling what I would call vintage car parts.  For me, going to a car show on a 90+ degree day is exciting as watching turds flush down the toilet, I can find 200 other things that I’d prefer to do.  Seeing that I was being nice, the vendors and their junk made this tolerable and now I have an excuse to go to another one.  If you’re looking for a few car accessories, that here I picked them up (all for about $10) and look how cool they make stuff look….

(blinker frame) License Plate Word Art

(Manual Window knobs) Hooks

(Door Handle) night stand hardware

(Emblems) Wall Art

(License Plate) Wall Art

All of these little things helped bring the room together. We happen to have a friend who owns a 1971 Pontiac Le Mans, who was kind enough to let me do a photography shoot to create some custom artwork for the room. There are 4 profile poster prints of the car (Rear profile,  Driver side emblem, Full profile, and the dashboard).  I also added a few of my husbands model cars that he put together as a kid.

Between my husband and I we created or repurposed nearly EVERYTHING.  The barn board accent wall was installed last winter break.

The dresser was the next project,

repurposed Craigslist dresser with a DIY chalk paint.  Apparently the day I revealed the dresser, I spent the next 3 days doing laundry with the looks of that hamper!  Either way, I managed to complete the clip on curtains,

and open concept book shelves. Then I had a baby, and seeing how there was nothing that would cause great bodily harm, this was where the room stalled for about 3 months.

I recovered a lamp shade to fit with the style of the room, and eventually made the rest of the lamp to match. Both set on top of a Anna White inspired night stand.

I turned a basic craft store crate into a wall locker by adding a few shelves and a layer of paint, which held some fun collectible materials and the new navy “C” which was reincarnated from his baby room.

The “hang out” sign combined the barn board with retro car paraphernalia to be a functional hook for towels mostly, but occasionally a jacket or sweatshirt.  I like to pretend that if I create cool hooks that my kids will actually hang something up.  Ha, a girl can dream, and make something neat along the way

Finally I created a padded drop cloth and nail head trimmed head-board.  Amazing what my husbands left over roofing nails can do.

The bedding was one of the few things I bought and left as is, thanks to Target.  I enjoy hanging out in little man’s room so much that usually I lay reading him books and snuggle with him.  Then I get all jealous that he has a cool room while mine is all frumpy and cluttered.

So what do you think.  Any tutorials you want first?

Linking to: The Creative Girl, Keeping it Simple, Sumo’s sweet stuff, Craft-O-Maniac, Not Just a Housewife, Home Stories A to Z, Salt Tree