the *NEW* kid's room

With baby 3 on the way, and as my kids + style change, I thought it was time for a quick nursery re-do. Most everything in our kid's room was a DIY, bought secondhand, gifted, thrifted, or free, so I felt like spending a bit of money to freshen things up was alright. And thanks to IKEA a little goes a long way!

I'm a big fan of kid's rooms being free from too much of a theme. That's why I love neutral or white walls and furniture - you can do so much with it and change it whenever! To me, themes pass quickly and I get bored of the same thing everywhere, plus it's hard to incorporate more toys/things into a room once you have a theme because it's often hard to find the perfect match. So free from any major theme, I wanted to bring the room together a bit with colours and patters. The kid's room started out as very white/grey and then slowly tons of colours (mostly pastels.... how did that happen!?) and patterns were added and eventually it all felt messy to me, even when clean. Just cluttered and too busy. So I wanted to stick with a few patterns and colours - bold grey, turquoise, and yellow, but mainly grey.

I LOVE the end result!!

I went to IKEA the other day in search of a few things to transform the kid's room - blackout curtains and blinds (hoping to also transform their recent late bedtime and early waketime!), official bedding for Lily (she has a plain duvet before), and future bedding for Oli that matched but wasn't identical (we're getting a trundle bed for under Lily's instead of bunk beds since they're both still so young). I love the combination of the two duvet cover sets I got for the kids! Lily's is slightly more feminine but neither of overly "boy-ish" or "girlie". Just like my kiddos :)
The window coverings were another big change. I used to have a DIY "black out" curtain in orange and then the door window was covered by a beige checkered piece of fabric. Both did the job, but I wasn't crazy about the colour combo, the fabrics, or the amount of black out they offered. I replaced the beige fabric with another piece I had lying around - one that was more spunky and bold (and bonus: it is upholstery fabric whereas the other one was cotton, so it lets in less light). While at IKEA I lucked out to find a single panel of black out curtains, in dark grey, for $10! I knew right away that I'd put off on the blackout blindes and see how this worked. Very happy with the coverage and price!

Just so we're clear, it wasn't actually night (probably obvious) in the second picture. Just what I hope will feel like night during Oli's morning nap and the kid's 7pm bedtime as the days get longer :)

Next up was final touches! I took down the hoop-la on the wall of Lily's bed for two reasons: firstly, Lily likes to climb on the toy chest and take them off at night (which is easy because they're so light), and secondly, because I wanted to streamline the fabric and colours in the space. I kept my two favourites which seemed perfect for a co-ed bedroom (the mustache and the red/pink ikat). To fill the wall and replace the hoops I bought these three prints. Aren't they adorable!? $15 for the group of them, and then a $6 frame for each. This part of my decorating was definitely the most costly, but I love how the art can grow with them (it's not too childish) and how it fits in with our family's style and our actual interests. At age 1.5 and 2.5 the kiddies have already been to 2/3 of the locations in the prints! And I love that the art focuses on cities - our heart beats for cities and I love displaying reminders of that around our home.

I also added a fun pillow (which matches our living room rug!) to the crib and replaced two mis-matched pillow cases with matching grey ones. I already owned the pillows, just bought the cases. I'll be putting up a felt ball garland on the wall of the city prints. And psssst: there is a giveaway coming your way soon to win a felt ball garland like mine from One Balloon

Kid's *NEW* Room Total.........$116

Oh, and just in case you're wondering about some of the other things in their room...
Lily's quilted dress pillow is from Liz Taylor Handmade, The needle point art of a Lady and Gentleman were found on the side of the road (but are so symbolic of my kids. HA.), Lily's bed was $15 from Salvation Army, Oli's crib is DaVinci, the white dresser was $25 at a garage sale and re-purposed by us, the reading corner is actually an old ottoman covered in a piece of thrifted fabric, the balloon throw pillow on the ottoman was from a store in Montreal (now closed), the rocking horse was made by Lily's great-grand-father Murdock (my step-mom-in-law's father, such a lovely man), the turquoise and blue rocking chairs were both thrifted, the white toy chest was found on the side of the road and re-purposed by us, the Africa and China pillows are from Once Was Lost, the yellow blanket on Lily's bed was thrifted, the rug was $30 from IKEA, and the mobile is Cookie & Curly.


  1. It's adorable! I love the grey and that pink/red ikat fabric is so fun! Great room.

    1. Thanks girl! If that fabric came in a heavier weight, I'd totally upholster my dining chairs with it! But it's just quilting cotton :(

  2. I love their newly decorated room! I love the gray and white base with pops of color!!

  3. It is so hard to have a combo room for a boy and a girl, but you have done it beautifully!

  4. Anonymous26.4.13

    Hi Emily,

    I am looking at buying a crib for my 17 months son. Did you get yours from amazon US and get them shipped to montreal? What was the cost like? Thanks

    1. Anonymous26.4.13

      Opps sorry, my name is Jade

    2. Hi Jade! I don't actually know because it was a gift but I know shipping from amazon.com to Canada would be a lot, so they probably it in Canada...