Blue and red boys room: The reveal of our traditional-but-fun boys room on a budget %

A traditional blue boys room with twin beds — The boys room as it looks now

A few months ago I posted about my plans to create a traditionally inspired blue and red boys room for my two sons. My youngest was still in his nursery at the time, but I’d always planned for him and my older son to share a room when they were a bit older.

Since I wasn’t quite sure when my youngest son (who is 2) would be ready for a big boy bed, and, if I’m being honest, because I never loved what I did with my older son’s room, I decided to create the room-a-deux in advance so it’d be ready for the roomies when the time came.

You can read more about my design plans for the boys’ room here, but essentially, I wanted to do something colorful and fun, but still a bit traditional. I also didn’t want to spend a ton on kids beds and decor, so I ended up painting a pair of twin beds I found on Facebook marketplace for $100. I also used some of the existing furniture and decor that was already in my son’s room.

My inspiration for the color scheme was actually a pillow from Serena & Lily. I loved this pillow, and after almost buying it about 10 times, I couldn’t justify the nearly $100-price tag per pillow. Luckily for me, my mother-in-law is awesome at sewing pillows, and she made the ones below out of tablecloths I sent her from Target! The total cost for materials was about $30, so I saved about $150 for similar look.

The biggest change for the space, I think, was the botanical wallpaper. I loved it as soon as I saw it, because it’s bold and graphic, and it feels classic but not too serious for a kids room. I used the traditional paste the wall wallpaper, but a couple of months later I found it as a peel-and-stick (linked above), which I definitely would have gone for had I know about it, only because I’m sure two little boys won’t want fern-print wallpaper in their room forever.

On the other side of the room, I have a table-and-chairs set that I painted to match the color scheme. I found both the table and chairs at the Goodwill, for $20 altogether. I bought stencils of each of my son’s names on Etsy, and stenciled their names on the chairs. All of the wall art is from my older son’s original room. The flag and mirror are vintage, and the Chicago print I got from a PR company years ago when I lived in Chicago.

The sconces are from Amazon, and super affordable, and the rocking chair and dresser are both holdovers from my oldest son’s nursery.

Finally – the rug. I tried SIX different rugs in here before settling on the simple round jute one. I felt like with all the color in the room, the natural tone and texture grounded the space a bit.

Shop everything in the space below!