Before we moved into our current home, we renovated the entire place top to bottom and that included the kids’ bedrooms. Although the bedrooms were far less work than the kitchens and bathrooms and some of the other spaces, they still needed floor work, trim, painting, windows, etc., which gave me a blank slate to design. I found that a lot of the bigger projects were often overwhelming just by the sheer number of decisions that needed to be made and all the pieces that had to be put together, so when it came to decorating, I really focused on the bedrooms. They felt smaller and more manageable, and I wanted the kids in particular to have cozy spots to sleep and play in when we moved in. I was also excited to design cute little kids rooms to be honest. There is so much adorable inspiration for toddler boy bedroom ideas on Pinterest, Instagram, etc. that I’ve saved over the years, so I couldn’t wait to get started. James has one of the smallest bedrooms but it comes with an en suite bath, which we thought would be great for him as he was potty trained and getting bigger. But it meant that I had to spend a lot of time searching for toddler boy bedroom ideas for smaller rooms. Check out the inspiration I used for James’ room here — I always like to start with inspiration to play off of when designing a space because well, I’m not a professional and have no idea what I’m doing. I just know what I like.
Then I start scouring the web and my favorite furniture and consignment shops (including Facebook Marketplace) for what I need to achieve the look I want based on my inspo. With James’ room, I started with a print that I loved — this sailboat pattern from Katie Ridder that I had fallen in love with during my inspo searches. I had seen it in a few other rooms by some of my favorite interior designers and kept digging until I figured out who made the print. Katie does both a wallpaper and fabric in the print, and while I contemplated going for the wallpaper, because this isn’t our forever home, I ultimately thought it would be better when selling not to have such a specific print on the walls. I love it but it does read young boy, and I worried a future buyer might not want to deal with the pain of taking down wallpaper if it didn’t suit them. The paper is also really expensive, and I felt like I could achieve the look I wanted with window treatments in the fabric that wouldn’t be quite as much of an investment. Plus, the room is small as I mentioned, and while I think wallpapering a small room can be a great look, I felt in this case, it might make the room feel a little smaller and darker. Katie Ridder only sells through designers so I couldn’t order her fabric and paper through any of the local shops I tried, but I found an amazing vendor on Etsy — Lynn Chalk — who does custom roman shades and offers Katie Ridder’s gorgeous sailboat print. I ordered a custom roman shade in the Katie Ridder Beetlecap print through Lynn as a starting point for the room and can’t say enough good things about working with her. I had no idea what I was doing in terms of measuring and installation and she walked me through the entire thing, and Andrew (who is not the most handy) was able to install it on his own. It looks great and really set the stage for the rest of the room’s design.
When it comes to toddler boy bedroom ideas for small rooms, I love the idea of choosing a bold print to lead the design. It’s fun and makes a statement and can just come through in a window treatment or bedding — it doesn’t necessarily have to be everywhere. With that said, I think wallpaper can look really good in small space and love it in kids’ rooms especially where you can have more fun. I thought about doing this Serena & Lily wallpaper, which felt more versatile and is far for more affordable but also compliments the Beetlecap print. However, in the end, I decided to stick with white walls for James room. There’s only one smaller window in the room, and the white really brightens up the room and makes it look more spacious. The roman shade makes such a statement, that with art work, we were able to bring in enough color and make it feel fun without the wallpaper. I did want to paint the room’s trim and window trim navy to play off the theme, but we still haven’t gotten around to that project and probably won’t before we move. But I think that is the one thing the room is really missing.
When it comes to furniture, we already had the Restoration Hardware dresser from James’ nursery in the city, which we procured from the Restoration Hardware Outlet (a great place to get some steals on RH furniture). I found his bed and bedding (which I had monogrammed) from Pottery Barn Kids. I chose grey for the bed to mix it up and make the room feel a little more modern but the shade is still neutral enough to go with future designs. I second guessed the grey for awhile, but now I’m happy with how it looks. Btw, the style of bed is all over Facebook Marketplace if you’re looking to save and also bodes well for resale value for when they’re ready to graduate to something bigger. The mirror, another Restoration Hardware Outlet purchase, was in our dining room in our old apartment in the city and worked perfectly over his dresser and then we found some old boat prints in my in-laws basement that we used to finish the room. We realized that we didn’t have a good place for James’ growing book collection, so we added this bookshelf from Pottery Barn Kids that fit the space perfectly (and bonus was on sale at the time — if you’re okay waiting, PBK always has sales periodically through the year and often include furniture). I went with white to play off the dresser but also because it can easily work in a future playroom or kids’ bedroom. We didn’t have a rug for awhile, but I actually bought this crazy affordable seagrass rug off Wayfair for another room, and it was too small but fit perfectly in James’ room, so here we are and think it actually turned out pretty well and wears great.
I tried to include sources for all of the items in James’ room below and I hope his room gives you some toddler boy bedroom ideas for small rooms. I also included some before/after photos so you can see what we were working with and how paint, flooring and window treatments completely transformed this small space. You really don’t have to spend a fortune on kids’ rooms to achieve a really cute look that both you and they will love.
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