Half Finished House: A Harry Pottery Barn Big Kid Room

Before the Kiddo was born, I had a grand vision for his nursery (and WAY too much time on my hands), resulting in a full-room mural of friendly safari animals.

I was not counting on the safari animals sticking around for 8 years, though. Baseball got added to the design (including an amazing but impossible to capture on camera baseball ceiling fan). The mishmosh was messy and maddening...but nothing was inspiring enough to convince the Kiddo to paint over them.

BUT THEN...

PB Teen came out with their Harry Potter collection. And this year, the Kiddo just so happens to be FULLY into Harry Potter, so he was totally ready to trade sweet safari animals for Hufflepuff Badgers.

I wanted a good neutral base to accommodate his rapidly changing tastes, so no murals this time. Instead, I went with a cozy grey that's Hufflepuff now, but can be easily be anything else later. Finding the perfect grey is tricky - some are too brown, too dark, too blue... and what looks great in one room's lighting looks wrong in another... we got lucky with our gut-reaction pick of Steely Grey (top row, third from the left).

The old crowded Ikea Kallax bookshelves weren't working anymore. But the Kiddo's room is really small (like, 8 x 9 -ish small), so finding more shelf space without sacrificing visual space seemed impossible. Happily, I got an infusion of Pinterest-inspiration and decided to take the shelves straight to the wall. Something about still being able to see the floor under the shelves really opens up a room.

Keeping the standards level and even across 2 walls was tricky - a laser level was very VERY helpful. Also, these standards are going to shoulder a lot of weight, so you really need to make sure they go directly into studs.

Then I stained some cheapy pine boards to match the dark finish of his bed. It took 2 coats (after the conditioner) to get the color deep enough.

I always like to elevate a plain white lampshade with a little tracing art that fits the theme - this minimalist Hufflepuff Badger is total perfection.

The Kiddo's dresser was a hand-me-down from his Dad, and it's so sturdy and perfect. Every time I decide I'm going to replace it with something else, I can't come close to matching the quality, so I just paint it instead. The blue took SEVEN COATS to turn yellow. And I can STILL see some blue peeking through. Primer is your friend, is what I'm trying to tell you.