So that leads me back to this big empty room. I decided to turn it into a kid's study room. I had always had this idea and assumed I would make my dining room a shared kid's study space. This worked out so much better because I could really get creative with the decor. Growing up, I never spent much time sitting at the desk in my bedroom to do homework, so I never really wanted desks in my kid's rooms. Additionally, I don't like the idea of kids having computers up in their rooms. I want them where I can see them and supervise them. I want them to be forced to interact with their parents and siblings. I may change my mind once I have a house full of disgruntled teenagers, but for now I'll stick with this plan. But I don't want them at the kitchen table. I love my kitchen and I don't want it overtaken by kid stuff and clutter. This room was a great solution because it is close enough that they can shout out a question to me while I'm in the kitchen cooking, but out of site from the tv and video games.
When I start to decorate, I like to trust my instincts. My first step is to find my inspiration. Without this inspiration, I find that my decorating is kind of boring and missing cohesiveness. I need that inspiring piece to focus my direction. For the kid's study, my inspiration was a giant wall map. I helped my friend apply one to her kids' bedroom and was in love with it. I've always had a bit of an obsession with maps and love to stare at them and study them. This seemed perfect in that it was educational, but also a real visual statement piece - something that would look appropriate to children growing, but not tacky. The downside was the price. She purchased her from Pottery Barn Kids for about $200. It was high quality, thick glossy material with the ability to use dry erase markers on it. But let's be honest. What mom of four little boys in her right mind would ever set her kids loose with a dry erase marker and encourage them to draw on the wall?! After a little searching, I was able to find a very similar map from Target.com for about $68 and free shipping. It was a much thinner material and matte, not glossy. However, I actually found it easier to apply, much like wallpaper. It comes in 8 sections and gives you options for arranging the map to highlight different areas of the world. One big tip when applying this map is that it will be difficult to align the sections perfectly. Once the adhesive paste is applied, the paper expands, and then contracts as it dries. I had a hard time lining up sections because some were already dried and contracted while others were expanded. But I don't really notice this unless I look really close. I then had my husband add a trim border around the whole map, then painted the border a white to match our baseboards, and then painted the walls and ceiling shades of the neutral beige I chose for my house. The effect was pretty stunning, in my opinion, and always receives comments from house guests.
My other big inspiration was the chandelier. When we built the house, I had them install a ceiling junction box with the hope of one day putting a super cool light fixture in there. I set out on my internet searches looking for a real statement piece, but something that wouldn't break the budget. Yeah right, good luck with that! Lighting is freaking expensive!! I came across a couple sites where they had DIY orb chandeliers. I thought, hmm, it's worth a shot. I decided on a bright red color for it after seeing a neighbor's dining room chandelier which she had painted a bold red color and it looked stunning. So my friend gave me a an old, ugly brass chandelier that she had on hand and had decided not to use. I cleaned it up and removed the extra pieces around the candlesticks. To create the orb, I used large quilting hoops. You need 2 sets of hoops, and cut the tops of them. Now comes the bang-your-head-against-the-wall frustrating part. You need to glue the tops of the hoops to the top of the light fixture. I used Gorilla glue, but it takes a long time to dry, so I ended up with a bit of super glue as well to get that short-term hold. It really was a pain in the butt to get it to stay in the correct spot. Additionally, you put a screw on the bottom where the hoops all overlap, but I can't remember if I did that before or after gluing - I think before. Once the glue is hardened, you need to be super gentle with it. It is definitely not as durable as a metal one. The final step was to spray paint it. I also chose some filament light bulbs that I found at Home Depot. They were more expensive and not as bright, but look pretty cool. And then I added a crystal to the bottom of it to give it that Ballard Designs finish.
Next, I worked on my table and chairs. I purchased a dining set off of a local yard sale Facebook group. It was too contemporary and too small for me, but $60 for the whole set so I figured I would go for it. Unfortunately she had sold the table leaf separately, so my husband built me a new one. Not perfect, but definitely doable. I wanted a nice, durable top for the kids to work on, so I used General Finishings Java Gel Stain. It took 3 coats of the stain and then 2 coats of a polyurethane top coat. This stuff is just amazing. Super easy to work with and looks incredible. Very durable too. I ended up painting the table base with Annie Sloan Chalk Paint in Greek Blue, distressed with dark wax. The chairs were painted in ASCP Antibes Green, distressed with dark wax. Then I stumbled across this wonderful fabric that I loved at JoAnns, and happened to purchase it over a holiday weekend with some amazing discounts that I then used to reupholster the chairs.
I knew I needed some sort of shelving for the boys to store their supplies, but once again I was discouraged by the prices. The solution just kind of fell in my lap. On a Facebook yard sale site, someone was giving away a 3-piece media cabinet for free. I had my eye on the 2 side pieces as potential for my family room, but he wanted to give away the set together. Funny enough, I ended up not using the side pieces and then loved the center piece for the kid's study. I painted the doors with chalkboard paint and decided to leave the rest with it's natural wood so that I didn't overkill the painted furniture idea. On the inside the shelves were all scratched up from the tv they used, so I sanded and painted over those. It had this handy little outlet in it meant for attaching your tv components, so I thought - score! I now had a family charging station for their ridiculous amount of electronics and have gained back the space on my kitchen counter. Lots of storage on the bottom and top gave me a place to keep all of our school supplies and a cubby for each kid to keep their "stuff" that usually ends up sitting on my kitchen counter. One PSA: Be careful with chalkboard markers! I hate the idea of chalk dust everywhere so I thought they were the perfect solution, but I am having a very difficult time removing them and will need to repaint the doors so that they are useful again.
My final project for this room was a growth chart. I had painted a similar chart on a door at our old house, but wasn't in love with it and the placement of it. I was hesitant to paint it on a wall because I thought it would look funny in 5, 10, 20, 30 years when I needed to repaint the walls around it. So my solution was to have my husband add a trim border around it and paint the background a slightly different color. This way I can change the wall color and decor of that room at any point and the chart can remain as is.
I made my own burlap curtains using a super simple technique, then add some kid's artwork and tchotchkes that I had sitting around the house and purchased from HomeGoods (my favorite store, ever:)). The indoor/outdoor rug was an amazing find and deal from Home Depot. And there you have it! I really just love this room and I my kids have already gotten a lot of use out it.
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