Transitioning from a Nursery to a Big Kid Room

I’m not sure when it happened exactly… but sometime in the last couple of months, my baby boy has grown into such a big kid!! He started climbing in and out of this crib every day, so we decided to take the one side of it off and put up a guardrail (for safety reasons). And ever since then, he puts himself in bed every night… and of course gets out again… then back in… then out again… and so on. Transitioning out of a crib has been EXHAUSTING.

the last “styled” shot of his room:

and how his room looks today:

I’m not sure if taking the one crib wall down has made him feel less secure or if the new found freedom of being able to easily get out of bed is too tempting… but I’m determined to create a space that he wants to stay in!

As you can see, his room is looking pretty bare these days. I took the art above his crib down because I was worried he would mess with it and end up hurting himself if it fell down… the wicker shelf is pulled out further from the wall so his monitor camera could reach the wall plug.. and the shelf isn’t styled at all (but that’s mostly because he’s pulled everything off). AND he told me that the lion head on the wall was scaring him, so I took that down. Basically his room has zero decor… and is a big, neutral BLAH. No wonder he doesn’t like to hangout in it!!

I’ve been pinning “big kid” room ideas for a while now, and was able to narrow my saves down to a few that I really love…

I was kind of on the fence about whether I should get him twin sized bed or full one… but since his room is on the smaller side (10.5 x 11), I think a twin bed makes more sense right now. We are also going to replace the glider chair with one that has a smaller footprint… the glider isn’t necessary at this point, but he still likes to sit and read in it. As for wall art, I’m definitely going to ask his opinions before I buy or make anything… it’s clear that I need to stick to art that is calming, or that could definitely not be taken as scary (ie: cars, landscapes, simple abstracts, etc)!

I’ve put together a couple ideas for the general look I’m going for…
**the dresser will be the one we currently have in our living room - we need to buy a bigger one for downstairs, so once that’s done we’ll move the brown one to Nathan’s room. we also already have the table lamp.

AND… so you can get an idea of how everything will fit in his space, I put together a floor plan using his actual room measurements:

I have a couple of other ideas floating around in my head of how to make the most out of his space… including possible wall treatments, and maybe a long floating shelf for extra storage! Plus I’ve already started thinking of some DIY wall art ideas to hopefully save a little money.

I’m hoping to start making some moves on his room within the next month or two - so be sure to check back! And if you have any tips about making the crib to bed transition any smoother - please let me know!