Will's Big Boy Room

In November, we moved Will from his crib to a twin bed. Which was basically just an excuse to totally redo his room.  :)

I don't really like rooms that are too "theme-y", but I wanted some sort of cohesive element throughout the decor. In selecting pieces for his new space, I found myself being drawn to nautical elements like boats, anchors and the color navy. So I ran with it...

Big boy bed

Burlap pennant

Reading nook

I really love the way the space turned out. The bed (no longer available in white) was a bit of a splurge, but the quality is exceptional. Seriously, this thing will easily last though two kids.

I found the duvet cover at West Elm (no longer available), and ordered the artwork from Etsy. The anchor pillow and the burlap name pennant came from a darling little shop I visited while in Louisville.

Arguably the coolest part of his room is the reading nook. I first saw the concept on Pinterest and immediately fell in love. The shelves (actually spice racks from Ikea) came in a natural pine color, but we painted them white to match the other furniture.

Will had been sleeping in a converted crib since he was 19 months old, so the transition to the twin bed was no big thing. For a few days prior we talked about how he would be getting a new bed and new room. The evening of the big transition, he had a sleepover at Grandma and Grandpa's so we could get everything ready. When we got home the next day, he immediately climbed into his new bed and asked to be covered up. After pretending to go to sleep, he got up, announced "it's morning!" and proceeded to his reading nook to read a few books. It's been smooth sailing (and many restful nights) ever since.

One thing that I believe helped with the overall transition was completely disassembling his crib and putting it in the basement. We didn't want Will to feel like he was getting kicked out of his crib or that the baby "took" his bed, so we felt it was important to remove the crib completely, essentially removing it as a sleeping option. It would have been way easier to just move the crib into the spare room, but we wanted it out of sight and out of mind. Hopefully when we bring the crib back upstairs for BG's nursery, he won't even remember that it was his.

UPDATE: I've had a couple of people ask about the bumpers on Will's bed. You'll notice we didn't do an external bedrail (I personally hate the way they look), but we didn't want to risk Will rolling out of bed every night. Instead, we elected to use these soft bumpers. They go between the mattress pad and the fitted sheet. They're soft enough for him to climb over comfortably, but keep him contained while he's sleeping. We love them... highly recommend!