Good morning! Today I am sharing my boys shared bedroom. Two questions I get asked a lot when people visit the barn are: why we decided to have our boys share a room, and how is it really working now that they are? I can honestly say that I love having them share a room, and I hope to keep them in the same room for a very long time. That’s not to say that my youngest never keeps my oldest up when he doesn’t want to go to bed, but the benefits do outweigh the negatives.
When we decided to build the barn two major factors concerning bedrooms went into our decision. The first factor we had to consider was that we do live on a septic system that will only allow for 6 bedrooms. This does not impact us right now but if we do decide to build again on our property we want to be able to build a 4 bedroom home, therefore the barn could only have two bedrooms. The second factor was our boys relationship. If you are a parent, and specifically a boy mom, you need to read Monica Swanson’s blog, she has so many words of wisdom. I read Monica Swanson’s blog about how her boys became best friends, and I read that she believed one component of that was their shared bedroom, and it really resonated with me. I want my boys to fall asleep talking (let’s be real right now it is more wrestling and giggling), and at their current age, they prefer to have a buddy with them in the dark (we did allow for their lights to dim in their bedroom, which I HIGHLY recommend). They have two beds but often prefer to sleep in one, and I hope that it is a bond of comfort and a practice of leaning on one another that we are creating. So with these factors in mind, we moved forward with the shared bedroom and have never looked back. So without further ado here is how we made that bedroom work for us!
One quote you may begin to hear from me a lot is, “your excess is making you unhappy!” This is my personal mantra as I create spaces for my family. Children often have so much “stuff” (clothes, toys, books, stuffed animals) that it could make it hard for them to share a room, so I worked really hard to simplify their room for them. I regularly purge of clothes and toys so that their “stuff” does not overwhelm them and their space. My boys do have a playroom, so I wanted their bedroom to be a space that felt organized and simple, a place where they could go and rest. Currently my oldest, Ketch, is in a big boy bed, and my youngest, Ledger, is in a toddler bed. Ketch’s bed is actually a DIY that I will share next week. I will note that having a full bed is amazing, it makes it easier when he is sick and wants to snuggle, and I love that I am not falling off of the bed when I am trying to read him books. I did want a bed that he could continue to use as he grew and this one has worked great! Ledger’s bed was his crib that is working for us right now, in the future we will most likely change this to a matching set of beds.
This sign that I added was another DIY has a lot of meaning for me. I found it when I was pregnant with Ledger and had many expect for my second to be a girl. I had so much emotion behind this and when I read these words they spoke exactly what was on my heart, “something tells me I am going to love him forever,” and so I added a bit of my mama’s heart to their room for them to read.
Here is where I worked to create as much organization as I could for their bedroom. The shelves provide extra room for their blankets and books, and the center trunk is where I store all of their board games. In full disclosure the trunk was somewhat of a disaster when Ledger was younger because he would take all of the games out, but now it seems to work really well. If you do not have a playroom for your kiddos this could be a great way to store their toys in their room, you could even add baskets to the shelves for added toy or even clothes storage.
This is their shared closet that I included simply for you to brainstorm. What works for me is to separate their clothes left to right, and then again from tanks up to long sleeve. I use the shelf for all pants and sort them shorts on up to pajamas (I have learned to not put pajamas next to each other because they get confused). The bottom I use for outdoor/seasonal clothes, and in the drawers are underwear/socks and hand me downs from my oldest to my youngest that don’t quite fit yet. The bin in the bottom right is a necessity for me, and it is where I can easily store all of the clothes my youngest has grown out of, as you can see we are about ready for a new bin.
So this is how we have made our shared boys room work for us! The boys really do enjoy each others company, and I really do think that I would choose this even if we had a 4 bedroom home! I hope you enjoyed the tour and gleaned some ideas for your home, I’d love to hear what has worked for your home! Have a great weekend!
~ Ashley
Paint color ~ Sherwin Williams, Morning Fog Big boy bed ~ DIY Sheepskin rug White Trunk Ladder Shelves Big boy bedding Light fixture Large picture frames Bear Plush Rocker Wall clock
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