The New Bedrooms

When we originally designed our finished basement, we did so with adding two bedrooms in mind.  Since it was 2020, we were adding our little twins to our growing family, and our big twins were moving to a shared bedroom in the basement.  We also needed a dedicated office for my partner: I used the structure of the One Room Challenge to incentivize finishing both projects before the little kids were born... and I almost made it.  

In any case, we had two really functional rooms that fit our needs very well before the babies came home, and we were able to add a bathroom and slow-roll other adjustments in the basement over time. 

Now that we are all four years older, our family needs have shifted.  The big office moonlighted as storage, and the kids are ready for separate bedrooms!  There are some straggler pieces to do in the new bedroom to really make it work.  The biggest is finishing one wall under the beam.  We're moving the door to the bedroom just a bit to expand space for the library.  My dirty little secret from the back bedroom is that I never did finish the closet.  While the walls are down, I'll be able to get the bed moved in without disassembly.

Even though we've had the library set up essentially as it is for six years, I continue to find that the storage space near the air handler and the water meter are more an inconvenience than a useful space.  So, I'm pushing the library wall back about three feet to capture more useable space in that room.  And with bigger access doors, any work will be made easier as well.  After shifting all the other walls in this room, this really feels like a natural progression.

The Office-Turned-Bedroom

I've had a lot of conversations with my pre-teens about how they want their new bedrooms to be, and I love how different they are!  The kid moving into the office is greatly inspired by a love of gardens and dinosaurs.  I'm so excited to play with these in this bedroom!  

I do plan on keeping the original wainscoting paint with Sherwin Williams Oakmoss.  It's a lovely deep green, and it'll be the darkest green in the room.  The real wall feature is the Peonies wallpaper from Chasing Paper.  It's gorgeous!  The juxtaposition between the sage greens and the bright golds speaks so well to my kid's style.  The surprise color for this one is mauve.  I love a split-complementary color scheme, and seeing the orchid colors peek through adds a little bit of energy.

The Bedroom-Turned-Cat Den

The currently-shared bedroom is turning into a room for a boy and his cat.  I swear, this kid is going to be my emo body double.  When planning colors, his initial thought was purple and black, but that quickly shifted (his choice!) to blue and purple.  A lot of this room isn't going to change, because the loft bed and built in desk are both favorites.  But the awkward corner opposite is getting dedicated to some space for the cat.

Again, I'm using a feature wallpaper from Chasing Paper.  In here, I'll use Smitten Kitten, and the cat area is going to be filled with dark blue accent pieces all dedicated to life with a cat.  As for paint, we're using a combination of Sherwin Williams African Violet and the Color of the Year Upward.  The purple undertones of Upward balances out the bright purple with the dark accents for Martin.  

I'm really looking forward to making these rooms exactly what our kids need.  It'll be really fun to see their individual personalities come out in these new spaces, especially as they venture out into something just for them!