Nordic Industrial Boys Bedroom | One Room Challenge Week 1

We’re taking on a shared nordic boys’ bedroom makeover with an industrial twist for the spring One Room Challenge! Here we’re sharing our plans and the before photos.

Blue Nordic Boys Bedroom design with industrial touches

It’s that time again! I am so excited to be taking on our boys’ shared bedroom for the spring One Room Challenge as a guest participant. Wait, what?! Yeah… we’re still finishing our entryway… and haven’t painted trim or doors in our hallway… we haven’t finished the patio screen we’re building and we haven’t put in all the windows we have sitting in our garage to finish. Did I mention we will be starting to re-side our exterior this month? BUT that’s living through renovation and it’s exactly what we signed up for. And our boys have been so patiently waiting for their turn for a room makeover.

Before we moved in, Emmitt and Windsor had plans for their space- what colour, what toys… and then when Aubrey had her room made over for the fall One Room Challenge, that planning went into overdrive. Emmitt drew plans for the space, he’d point at pictures in magazines or things at the store (you can see a clip of him explaining his plans here if you like!). Windsor wants a mirror like Aubrey has, they both want a desk like Aubrey has… they definitely want drawers and night lights and a cool light with a cage so they can throw balls. And blue. It has to be blue. So even though it’s one more space to take on, it’s such a fun one for us and I know it’ll bring so much joy.

Before I show you what the room is starting out like… what the heck is the One Room Challenge anyways?! It’s a challenge to anyone and everyone to make over a room in 6 weeks, sharing an update every week. I love that it gives me a push to get something done in a kind of tight timeline and the encouragement of everyone doing their spaces at the same time is nice too! Okay… so the before:

Well… there she is. In all her glory. We’ve since thrown a crib into the mix so all three boys are sharing that one room and that one small closet. So what are the plans for the space? Well… like the rest of our house, we’re replacing the floors with a nice light laminate and replacing doors, door knobs, windows and trim for a fresh, modern look (that’s more energy efficient). From there… we get down to design!

The first thing the boys were set on is blue walls. They also wanted a red closet but I’m determined to paint all our closets white so I never have to climb into a closet and paint it again. I’m pretty sure that I’ve decided on this beautiful muted blue from Behr called Nor’wester. It has such a Norwegian feel to it which is what I’m loving for this space. The other one I’m looking at is Myth from General Paint (shown in this post). I also want to add an accent wall in with a skinny vertical shiplap for some texture. The room is going to be so full of beds and kids that I want to try and keep the decor pretty quiet while still being interesting. That’s why we are choosing a toned down blue (and the boys are on board for it too!) and then accenting that with neutrals.

We’re also planning to paint the beds. We have a pine bunk bed that is totally sturdy and functional but the colour doesn’t work really well with the new floors and then a really beat up white crib. We were thinking of building triple bunks but I’m not ready to let Calder out of his crib just yet (although I’m sure he’d do just fine, he’s the last baby and I want to keep him a baby for a while longer!) and we weren’t sure how long they would be practical as Emmitt already likes to sit in his bed and read. We decided to save the money and work with what we have. I *think* I’m going to paint it this beautiful warm grey called ‘pebble’ from Fusion Mineral Paint but have also ordered ‘Little Lamb’ which is a cooler grey to see if that’s a better tone with the wall colour we do!

We are also removing the valance since it was the last one in the house (heck yes!) and adding a real door to that closet. We’re partnering again with the amazing Imagine the Room to create a super functional closet for all three of the boys to share. By putting all their clothes in the closet, we’re planning to free up some space in the room for a desk for them. We’d love to have all three boys able to sit at the desk but that’s just not possible with the size of the room, so we’re planning on building a desk that will seat two of them. We’re going to do this the DIY way so watch out for a tutorial! We have two of the Ceres chairs from Article (the same ones we have in our dining room– they’re so clean and simple looking!) for there.

Just like the beds, we’re trying to work with what we have. We are keeping the same bedding (from Target, can’t find the exact ones now!) and rug (this one!) that they’ve had since their room makeover at our last house and we are re-using the art from Windsor’s nursery at our last place.

The last things that we’re swapping out (I mean… I’m sure there will be lots more decor, but I haven’t planned that yet! Ha!) is the light fixtures and window coverings. The caged light is a bit industrial for my style but the boys love it and Shane likes that the light bulbs won’t get broken. I have to agree… those boys are wild. I found these affordable little plug in sconces for the bunk bed boys to each have their own light and when Calder graduates to a big kid bed, we can order one for him as well.

Some other things that I’m planning but haven’t figured out quite yet is a night stand alternative for the bunk bed boys. We did these little IKEA shelves at the last house but the falling waterbottles and the toddlers trying to sit on them weren’t fun so I’m back to the drawing board. We also want to create a way for the boys to display their art (like we did in Aubrey’s bedroom) but are trying to think of something a little bit different than we did there!

Alright… so that’s our plan! I hope you’ll follow along with the process as we share our progress over the next 6 weeks!