Race Car Themed Room!

Hello Everyone,

Part of my New Years Resolutions is to work more diligently on my blog. As some of you

may have noticed, I have not been posting for several months. I found a teaching position

in the nick of time and shortly after I found out I was expecting! Although they are both 

huge blessings these two things put me in a state of high anxiety and consumed the

majority of my time the last few months. (My pregnancy is High Risk and my class has

been extremely challenging to say the least.)However, I am excited to find a new rhythm

and a stock pile of great posts to launch 2012 with! So I figured, why not start with a

big project first!

 With the baby coming, and discovering that we would need to switch out the rooms to

accommodate a nursery I went to work on making the room transition exciting and

remarkable for Aiden. This way he would feel special and not feel pushed out.

 

It has not been a secret that my son has been almost obsessed with cars/vehicles of

ANY kind so, I had my theme, that was easy… Cars! The two challenges were budget

and the fact that we are in a rental.The color of the room was white, and very dingy…

luckily our landlords offered to pay for paint if they pre-approved the colors. Naturally,

we had to go with neutrals. However, this is not too much of a compromise since neutrals

work with many color pallets.

The pennant banner material was  purchased and started for his Birthday in September

but I just finished them this week. I had extra material left over and made the Checker-

flag Valance. He got the Stop-light bank for Christmas. (Knowing our budget was

tight, we picked things that would work for Christmas and his room transition.) He

LOVES it! His Aunt made the red and blue afghan to match and the car blanket

at the foot was from his room before. The bedding and bed was already red and blue so

to save money we kept the same color scheme.

 

Aiden was extremely excited to use his “letters” in his new room. These were previously

used in his nursery and had yellow and green ribbon around the edges. I removed the

ribbon and found this old elastic belt in my odds and ends craft box that worked perfectly

as a backdrop to glue the letters to! the colors and design worked perfectly I think, as it

looks like a road! He has been fascinated with clocks since he was 18 mo. or so. Getting a

Cars themed clock was a no-brainer when it came to Christmas this year! The wall

clings came with the clock so homerun on a free and removable room décor helper!

The picture you see was colored by Aiden’s cousin as a gift. It added a great personal

touch to the room.

 

The red and blue wall plaque was a very inexpensive project made over the summer.

I considered  re-painting the lamp and the orange book case but I felt it added a bit

of “umph” and went quite well with the cars theme. Not to mention it kept the budget

pretty low. I had left over fabric from the pennant banner to recover the lamp shade

that helped to tie it all in. He loved the “new lamp” so much he literally squealed in

delight! I used his own toy cars to help drive the theme such as the remote control race

car on top of the bookcase and I reused the wall pictures that I had in his old room

to complete this room. They were cheaply made from a combination of cork tiles,

scrapbook paper, and pre-painted wooden vehicles. Several months ago I also picked up

the cars coat hanger on clearance for less than 5 bucks!

 

Tips to consider when on a budget…

*Repurpose, repurpose, repurpose.. ALL that you can.

*Choose a theme that you love!

*Go with solids on sheet sets so that in does not interfere with theme. (it is easier and

less expensive to recover throw pillows and throw blankets than it is to change an

entire bedding set!)

*Pick colors that can be used again as they grow or are easily added to, to make different.

* Check your scraps before shopping for new, you never know what can suddenly be a

great inspiration!

* mix it up, do not commit to a brand (such as Disney only) when committing to a brand

you limit your options on budget and in my opinion is too confining in style. For example,

I sprinkled Disney Pixar Cars throughout, but as he grows and his taste changes, I could

switch those items with Chevy, for example, with little added cost to me.

Things I would like to add:

*recover pillows with scrap material from pennant banner.

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