After an entire month of this redecorating craziness...we have FINALLY finished Benjamin's room. Actually, we've been done for three whole days now. I just haven't had a chance to post because I've had kiddos who are under the weather. Which also explains why I am home on a Thursday afternoon. It looks like they're on the mend though. Jonathan ran fever as we put him to bed last night and the whole 24-hour rule prevented us from heading to preschool today. I am quite confident that he and his little buddies from his Bible class (and his BFF from school) will still be able to party-it-up-Elmo-style on Saturday! He's been acting a lot more like himself today.
Back to the room. After it was all said and done, no, I will never do this wall treatment again. It looks great, in my opinion. But it took SOOOO long. If we had an entire week (without work and school and such) to just devote to it, yes, it would have been done a lot quicker. But, when you basically have Saturdays and two holiday Mondays, it tends to drag on.
It occured to me today that we also spent next to nothing on this new room. Woohoo! Well, okay, so the actual materials for the walls kept adding up. When it was all said and done we used 11 rolls of paper, 4 buckets of wallpaper paste, and a $36 can of Polyurethane that was a complete waste of money...I will explain why later.
But as far as actual "stuff" for the room...not much moola. The actual purchases included six red bandanas and three galvanized tubs. That's it. Well, there's one more purchase I still need to make.
A few overviews (ignore the super annoying glaring light...I was super smart taking the photos in the middle of the day with that ridiculous eyebrow window we have in there):
The view when you enter the room. The quilt is actually Jonathan's that my super-talented mother-in-law made him when he was born. But, I think it totally goes in here with the rest of the stuff. And, Benjamin's quilt from Grandma Nyla is actually hanging in Jonathan's room. When they leave for college, we'll make sure everybody takes the correct quilt with them. 
The boy's bed. I am desperately searching for a large barn star to put over his bed. It seems like every time we go on a road trip, we pass hundred of these little shops that have a bunch of the metal barn stars on display outside. Why is it when I am actually serching for one to buy that I can't find them anywhere? If you know of a spot in this area, let me know. I am looking for the plain, bronzed star...no circle around it or any lettering. Just a big star for above the headboard!
We actually already had this comforter...we just had dreaded taking it to the landromat to wash since queen size comforters won't fit in our machine. It really wasn't too bad. Laundromats have really come a long way from the days of the Wash & Tan in Abilene. Seriously...who actually tanned there? I can't even recall seeing tanning beds.
The furniture that started it all! Last year, my brother, Mike and his family gave us this adorable dresser, a matching nightstand and desk (we are saving that until he outgrows the train table). I originally wanted to paint it black and I may still do that one day. At this point, I just wanted to get done, so we loaded it in. Now I can't decide if I'm going to paint it or not...any thoughts? The little markings on it are brands.
I have had the above "bookshelf" (if you could call it that) since college. I designed t-shirts for a shop in Abilene called T's-2-Please. When the owners sold the business to other family members, they gave away all of these shelves that they had used for displays. I jumped on that give-away, of course! It was originally barn wood, but I painted and distressed it a few years backs because of all the splinters and such. The shelves are so deep that they can be a little hard to keep organized, so I ran over to Tractor Supply Company and grabbed some seven gallon tubs-- just trying to keep with the Cowboy look. They're working out well for us so far. The top one is all dress-up clothes (for boys, you know pirate stuff, army hats, etc.). The middle one is books. And the bottom holds almost every piece of Disney's Cars loot that we own. Even all the little die-cast ones! 
The window "mistreatment". I grabbed this idea from
The Nester (she's sooo cool)! Part of the idea I took from the mistreatment she did using dinner napkins (in this case I used bandanas). The other part of the idea was to use old door knobs (which I have a entire box full of, but that's another post). I was excited to atleast put two knobs back to work. They hold up the rustic rope stuff that the bandanas are hanging on.
I thought of using some of the crystal knobs I have, but that might have been too girly. Funny, I had never figured out how to connect old knobs to the wall until she explained it on her blog. So glad I can display this proud badge of honor now:
We did run into one minor snag as you can see peeking out from behind the door in the following photo:
The Polyurethane was a no-go...it totally messed up the treatment. After researching a little more (too late), we figured out what we should have bought. If you ever do this treatment (and trust me, I'll try to talk you out of it at all cost), you should use Drawtite Clear no-run low oder water base to make it shiny on top. We just decided that we liked it as is and didn't do a top coat. And we plan to cover up the Polyurethane disaster as soon as it is completely dry (yes, three days later and it is still tacky to the touch).
The best thing about this room? Benjamin LOVES it. : )
