The Kids' Rooms and Bathroom

When I was pregnant with Bryce, my mom offered to paint his bedroom. We were renting at the time, and the rest of the house had flat white paint, but one weekend we painted the baby's room a sunny yellow, and she stenciled navy blue stars as a border around the room. Since that time, it's become a tradition for my mom to do something over-the-top in the kids' rooms. We've had whales and sailboats, flowers and frogs, lots of hot pink flowers, fairies, and in this house she really outdid herself.

The boys' room was one of the first rooms in the house to reach a state of near-completion, and it's stayed this way for two years. Isaac had surgery shortly after we moved to Utah, and we decided that while he was in a full-body cast recuperating, we'd entertain him by transforming his bedroom (I'm guessing he didn't think it was as much fun as we did). He and Bryce have always been huge fans of the zoo, and what do you do to decorate a bedroom for huge zoo fans? You fill the walls with huge elephants, of course. We actually drew the elephants on the wall with washable magic marker, then painted in the lines. Bedding is from The Company Store, beds are from Overstock, dressers are from West Elm. We plan to put cork tiles on the slanted part of the ceiling, but haven't actually gotten that far yet.

When we visited the house for the first time, Annie ran upstairs and claimed this bedroom for her and Maren. I still don't think Isaac has quite forgiven her, but I have to say that I can't blame her. I would have chosen this bedroom for myself if I'd been a kid too. Although we bought the bedding while we still lived in Texas and assembled the beds (from IKEA) in this room before the moving truck arrived, my Mom didn't finish painting the room until about a month ago, and we're currently in the process of adding another bed to the room (we're having a neighbor build a built-in bed in what has been called "the reading nook"). I'd also like to add some curtains, so Annie can have her own little preteen lair in the room she'll soon share with two little sisters. We also have some lovely Olli and Lime wallpaper sitting in the closet that I'll get around to putting up on the slants over the existing beds one of these days. The chairs are from PB Teen and Overstock, bedding from PB Teen, dresser from KSL Classifieds. The embarrassingly large collection of American Girl dolls is courtesy of the Grandmas.

It took me a long time to decide what to do in the bathroom upstairs. I decided that rather than going for something over-the-top (since the bedrooms are already so wild) we'd go understated in the bathroom. I filled it with bird prints painted by Ashley Mae, a friend from my MFA program. The prints are much more lovely in real life than they look in the pictures, and I like the way that this room feels serene.

Up Tomorrow: Master bedroom and bath