Ben's Room

Ok, so when you are adopting, you don't have anything but paperwork to remind you that you will one day have a baby in your arms.  Paper pregnant never makes me feel like things are real.  I assume every adoptive mother has her "thing" that she does to get ready for the soon to be baby.  For me, I decorate my kids nurseries.  For some reason if I have the babies nursery in place, then the reality of the new kid feels more real.  Reid thinks that I am completely crazy for doing this each time we adopt, but is afraid of me enough to let me do my "thang".  He figures if it calms the crazy, then why the heck not.

So, in February we had a preschool room, and I knew I would need to make some changes before Ben got here to make it a nursery.  I think it took me all of 2 hours to dismantle the room to 4 white walls and carpet.

Here is the room before

So we decided that since we were in pilot training that we (obviously me because Reid could care less) thought a plane themed room would be fun and very appropriate for where we were in life.
With me not working Reid was pretty apprehensive of me decorating this room in a way that would allow us to still eat.  He challenged me to use what we already had around the house, especially since we had so much stuff in our garage not being used.  Lucky for that man, Enid Oklahoma does not offer much in decorations outside of Wal-Mart.  This forced me to get creative and it ended up being so rewarding to not just decorate, but design.

When we packed up our house in North Carolina, we decided to bring the crib and changing table shrink wrapped for the "just in case".  Already owning the major pieces of furniture helped the process along quite nicely.  Ben is using all of Mason's nursery furniture and it is really nice to see those items in the room.  Mason is surprisingly ok with Ben having his old stuff.

So we placed the furniture in the room, but it all seemed so bare.  Mason had a full mural in his room, but in base housing, this was not realistic for us.  I spent a long time on Pinterest looking up ideas and decided a photo wall would be nice, and then I could create some of the pictures on my silhouette machine.

 Mason and I made a trip out to the Thrift Shop in Enid and bought all their fun frames.  We also scoured our garage and found some plain wicker baskets that we had never used, but I got a "really good deal" on them so obviously my hands were tied to buy years ago.

 We split up the frames and baskets at random and bought spray paint.  I am not very trendy, but went with some bold colors: orange, navy, and teal for a color scheme that I could incorporate into everything.

 After about 4 weeks the grass grew back in and no longer had teal and orange splotches in it.

The house was slightly unusable as things dried.  

We also spray painted paper lanterns in the matching colors, the same 2 spray paint colors on everything to ensure I didn't wind up with 12 shades of teal that would clash horribly.  

Mason and I then made a trip to Hobby Lobby to find papers that would match our color scheme and  then dispersed them somewhat randomly, some what strategic.  We looked up different plane designs and this was the one part Reid got interested in.  The fact that I had found a T-6 style plane made him fall a little more in love with me I think.  Once the planes were approved, we cut them out and placed them on the wall for our baseline of the decorations. 

 

Testing out the papers and making sure they coordinated together.

 All 4 custom pieces on the wall.

 A heart in Oklahoma, Ben's birth state.

 Benjamin Levi around the T-6 silhouette.  

 Ben already earned his wings way before daddy.

Then 2 old school fighter bi-planes.  

Here is the wall mostly with the addition of a mirror, F-22 Raptor pictures from Uncle Syd, and some other plaques and empty frames to add pictures of us with Ben.  

We got extra scrap book paper along with cardboard letters "BENJAMIN" to place over his bed.  

 We spaced out color and design and came up with this.  

I mod-podged these and then used a nail file to shave the edges equally.  

Now that I had an idea for the direction I was going, I ordered navy sheets for the crib.  I don't really like using the store pre-bought sets because then my kid has the same room as someone else, but I do love coordinating items.  I only but dark sheets for baby.  I didn't want a set of cute sheets that ended up with a brown stain the first time baby had a blow out.  Navy should cover up poo brown nicely.  I ordered a soft orange blanket to tie the colors together.  

We got a bookcase for free on the Vance Yard Sale page and filled it with all of Mason's old board books.  Mason is wasn't too sure how he felt about Ben getting his books, but was ok with the idea that he could pick which book to read to Ben.  As you can see by the book shelf, I may have bought Mason quite a few board books...I don't really like reading the same books over and over.  

 We got a set of sheer teal curtains and spray painted a coat rack.

 Then we placed the spray painted wicker baskets on the changing table.

So you ready for the full reveal yet?

I am going to make you work for it...

Insert a cute picture of Mason practicing being a big brother to hold you over...

AND NOW, HERE IS BEN'S ROOM~!

 

I hope you like it, I will try and post some more recent photos with a few more updates and awesome-tastic pieces that I have found since the last photos!