Wille's Room ~ Before, In Between & After

Today I'm off on the train to mainland China, more precicely to Guangzhou or Canton as us Westerners say. In terms of Before and After week we are taking a peek into Wille's room.

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Wille's room bed wall

1998 

Awwww! Look at my little boy! And look at the hideous decor in his room! I regret now saying the color scheme in the house was light. I forgot about the wood and brown frenzy in here.

2003

Wille's room was the first one we addressed when we got access to the house. I just HAD to paint all that brown out immediately so I went crazy with the white solvent based paint on the cabinets and trim before we moved in.

 

A couple of months ago we had a surprise visit by the sons of the previous ownes, both in their early sixties. They still (they made the same comment right after we moved in) couldn't understand how we could give Wille "the best room in the house". Again one of those generation kind of things I guess. They were shoved and shoved their own kids into small rooms at the back of the house and kept the bigger room for themselves as the master while we figured we don't need a big room for sleeping in while Wille needed a big room for his toys and for his friends.

 

Anyway, for his room we started out with my old bed from when I moved away from home. Underneath we kept clear plastic under bed rolling storage boxes in which we kept all his lego. In two of the boxes the lego was sorted into ice cream containers ( I know it's been a thing of mine for ever) and in a third one on-going projects were kept. I had a thing for gingham for many many years (ever since I slept in a gingham duvet at my cousin's house in Vienna in the 70's) and switched the seagrass that was on the closet doors to blue and white gingham and covered the mattress in the same.   

 
2008

The brown doors were quickly painted white and after some years I removed the yellow mottled glass and inserted frosted perspex panels instead. The dots were a further addition after realising that the frosted panels weren't even and it drove me nuts. A weekend with the circular cutter and frosted privacy film yielded this bubbly look. At first it was a bit weird, like the entrance to Wille's own private Spa, but we've since gotten used to it and love it.

The map on the wall behind the bed was added a few years ago. We each have a different color pin and mark each new destination we go to. 

  
2009 

As Wille was getting older the gingham was getting old too so I switched it out to an aqua linen fabric, I made a new bedskirt and got a new bedspread. The new color scheme really calmed the room down.

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Wille's room desk


2007

We are all about salvaging and reusing and Wille used my dad's old home office desk as his for many years. We built the unit next to it for all the technical bits.

 
2009

As Wille was getting older and as homework was starting to pile up and there wasn't really any space for it we decided it was time for a new desk. Wille gave us a list of what he wanted and needed and we built it.

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Wille's room left wall

2003

Those cube shelves are still in his room but they started out on the wall opposite of the bed. Today they house the Simpsons but they used to be the base of an exhibition of favorite Lego builds.

 
2009

On that very same wall today there is an Expedit shelving unit. I had to convince Martin it was the right thing to get because Martin is no fan of IKEA or Allen keys. I'm convinced, it's a great storage and display unit. Check out this post on how we organized it and this one on the reorganizing of it.

So that concludes the tour of Wille's room 1998 to 2009. I hope you enjoyed it. One more before and after tomorrow before the weekend!

Comments

[marie]

question from france (excuse my poor english) : where did you find le bubble sticker for the door ? i love it and i want the same !! thanks for your answer...

[marie again]

I have just read your post, sorry for my stupid question

[NancyV908]

I love this series! Hope you are having a good trip.

You are so right about master bedrooms. My husband & I have a very big room we don't even use till bedtime. The other bedrooms in the house are quite small--yet they are the ones designed for kids, who spend much more time in them playing & of course have a lot more stuff. I must say, it never occurred to me NOT to take the big room, though. :-) You raise a really good point!

[[email protected]]

We did the same thing we took the smaller bedroom cause as you say all we do is sleep there.I don't understand Americans need for grandiose bedrooms!

[martha blom]

Alas, my husband is an IKEA skeptic- the rampant use of allen wrenches and the false backs on everything. But I am prevailing and buying an Expedit for both of our boys! Have a great trip.

[Elle]

I am so loving this series.

[Elisabeth - anyhow.se]

Absolut en ren njutning att se resan - det jag tycker är din/er absoluta styrka, eller en av dom större, det är att ni bevarar och inte bara river ut t ex hela den garderobsväggen & sätter in ngt konceptgrejsigt trist!

Smart & Fint!

[Anna, United Kingdom]

Just to share I'm also loving this series - it's great to see how the space and also your style has evolved over the time.

Thanks for sharing :)

[Jasmine Esbach]

Ooh, I love it.That map on the wall looks great!
Jas

[Cassie]

I love love love Willie's room! I think my favourite part would have to be the Ikea bookshelf. Look at all that storage! That is just fantastic, I would love to have one in my own master bedroom, I think it would be great in there with all the books my husband and I own!

I also love the desk that you and Martin made for Willie. I wish my parents were as handy as you two when I was growing up!

[carol k]

I love that you gave Willie the largest bedroom. It is amazing what you have done with his room. My favorite - his doors! And what a little cutie he was(and still is)!

[jja]

I love expedit in my home office/hobby room. It is of coruse white :-).

[procrastination mama]

This is like sooo tidy. I wish i was you sometimes. I am so messy. So was my dad. I fear for my kids!

[procrastination mama]

lol. I am sitiing here reading about how to be tidy when my house actually just needs to be tidied. That is a serious case of procrastination! tee hee.