orange. airplanes. not girly {shared boy’s bedroom}

I am finally done with the boy’s room. I’d say it was a labor of love, but really it was just more labor…not much fun. The boys had their strong opinions and I wasn’t crazy with most of them. All and all it is their room, so we worked together to do something we all liked. The boys (ages 2, 4, & 6) all share one room for sleeping, clothes and books. A playroom is in the works in another room. Growing up my parents let my sister and I do whatever we wanted in our rooms. Lesley painted her walls black and hot glued all kinds of things all over them. My room was a hodge podge of Waverly fabric.

I wanted the boys to have a room they liked. They wanted an orange room with airplanes. I’m not huge on transportation, but they aren’t huge on doilies so they won that one. We compromised and used orange as an accent instead of painting the walls orange. They were very clear that they did not want it to look ‘girly’.

Planes. Orange. Not Girly. Their room.

The painting was a family portrait by Biggest Brother…two years ago. The wood portrait of Biggest Brother was done by my grandpa on his scroll saw, 4 years ago. The climbing guy was one of my 9th grade art projects. It is a paper mache. My mom gave it to the boys and they wanted it displayed. Bummer. He is really wonky.

The curtains are hiding two dressers that don’t match and are missing knobs!

Big Brother (4 years old) gets to pick the pictures that go on his clipboards. I love that he wanted one of his baby sister.

Biggest Brother wanted to tape Lego Star Wars characters on the wall. We compromised by making a little paper banner with his cutouts.

For those that are wondering:

Beds: IKEA

Polka Dot Sheets: Target, discontinued

Orange blankets: Pottery Barn kids

Curtain: Made from IKEA fabric, white shower curtain, ‘newsprint’ fabric

Shades: Roller shades from Lowes, Happy Tape on the bottom

Paper Airplane Decals: Uppercase Living (thanks Carrie…I finally finished!)

Custom “Retrospective” Artwork: Simply Create

Pendant Lamp: IKEA

3 Piece Airplane painting: I made this with a paint pen. I don’t really like it, but there are other things I want to do before messing with it again.

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I am SO EXCITED to start on the playroom. The boys don’t care it if is ‘girly’ or not since Baby Sister will be playing in there too. That means free creative license for me. I have fought the urge to work on it and forced myself to finish the boys room before I could begin the playroom. YEAH….no more orange airplanes!!!!

by AshleyAnn

show hide 80 comments

Anna Marie - It is fantastic! Great job! I love your innovation with the roller shades and happy tape. I would have never thought of something like that. Have a fabulous day, Ashley!

Jodi - Ashley, this is absolutely, positively, my favorite boy room ever!! This is Ohdeedoh bound for sure. You have an amazing gift and eye for design. Congrats on the finish. Definitely motivating me to finish my playroom and big girls room!

Cate O’Malley - omg, it is amazing! you need to start consulting because i’m about the start the kids’ room and would love serious inspiration. love how you incorporated the color orange. my master bedroom used to be this wonderful shade of orange, changing hues during the day based on outside light. such a great happy color to wake up to.

bopha27@yahoo.com - the room is great and i love the airplane painting. also especially love the retrospective art, thanks for the good ideas.

Jackie - Love ALL of it!! How do you get away with no ceiling fan in Oklahoma summers? I would love to put cute light fixtures in my kids room but feel stuck with ceiling fans…ugh!

Shannon Phillips - I absolutely love that you put all 3 boys together in one room. Most American families think that when they have more children they need a bigger house with more rooms and more stuff. I love that your family embraces sharing and time together so much more than the typical “bigger, better, mine mine mine” attitude. Truly, you all are a breath of fresh air. P.S. Tell H that he made my day for choosing a couple of the photos that I took of you all.

Shannon Phillips - Oh and I forgot to state the obvious, the room looks AWESOME!!

Yanet - I love it!! I love that you put the orange pencil’s in the Ikea lamp. I think you did a marvelous job with the airplane painting. Lucky boys!!

Margie - I love it! The retrospective print is awesome!

Johanna - This is really amazing–so original, and just plain cool! One question—WHERE are all the legos??? I know your boys love them, as does mine…and they tend to TAKE over the bedroom!!

ashlee - i love their room! my son walked by and said i would like an orange room like that:)

amanda torres - The room looks awesome. The 3 pc airplane art is my favorite piece in the room!

Jaimie - This room is way cooler than you think. Gives me a lot to think about. We will be moving soon, so I will have a blank slate, probably with WHITE walls too, so color is necessary.

Andy - oh my goodness. i love love love this room. you did a marvelous job. love that they wanted airplanes and orange. it’s all great together. my 2 year old loves airplanes right now but we aren’t doing is room again any time soon. :) can’t wait to see the play room

Seamingly Sarah - This is awesome, such detail and coordination. So now that you have two projects done (boys room and table) will you take on 2 new ones? It helps me to live vicariously through you. I’m planning on taking a mini break after my two quilts are done this weekend, even though I have a laundry list of things I want to make.

Skylee - Is there a story behind the pencils? that’s a lot of pencils..

Kizzy - Ashley– I love, love love the boys room! Having 3 boys of my own, I gain so many creative ideas! I hope you don’t mind some of us copying your creative originality! Thanks for always sharing! By the way, I love the orange…

Liene - Looks really great the boy´s room! Really love the measuring tape (I’m Dutch I don’t think that the correct word for it). We are almost done reconstructing the attic into two rooms for the two oldest boys, and your pictures are very inspiring! I think the paper mache climbing guy is very cool!

Liene - P.S. sorry for the bad English!

shelly - It’s an awesome boys’ room! Love it! Can’t wait to see the play room!

Anna Joy - This room is AWESOME! Gavin’s room looks similar in the fact that I have paper airplanes all over the place. I love that you can tell it’s a boy’s room but it’s not too over the top with cars, legos, Star Wars, sports memorabilia, etc. I think it’s the perfect touch..and orange is GREAT for boys! A great change from blue or green! Good job, mama!

Shanalea - It looks great. Not girly at all. I love the tee-pee in the corner. We have a similar one from my parents.

Barbara - LOVE this room! As a “boy mom,” I appreciate the inspiration.

Rachel Ridd - I’ve been waiting for you to share :) You’re kids have hands-down the coolest rooms ever!!

rachel denbow - I’m pretty sure you will always have interior design as a career option should you ever want it. I’d be your first customer. I love how easily all of your detailed, thoughtful elements work together rather than being distracting. There is so much attention to detail and creativity in design in there! And I love the color story and that you have aviator pillow cases on the floor bed! I think I might pee my pants when you reveal the playroom, though. It just keeps getting better and better!

kellyt - LOVE this room! Can’t believe how relevant it is for me right now. I am contemplating re-doing my son’s room and he has an orange quilt. As you probably found out, orange is not an easy color to match! I want to do the walls in a light gray and it looks like you did the same thing. (Is it a gray or a blue?) In any event, can you tell me what the paint color is? Also, I found an artist who displayed kids’ art in a similar way but was bummed out by the $1,100 price tag (no, that’s NOT a typo!). I’m very excited that there is another option on etsy!

Patricia Teo - I LOVE what you did! I’d never have thought to add orange accent instead of flooding the room with orange paint… but that’s just me!

Hollie - I’m copying every idea for my son’s room. I hope you don’t mind! I love everything about the room, especially the simple roller shades. You make simple details look great! Thank you for sharing!

jenny - fabulous. i was stumped for ideas on how to make my son’s room have a little spunk. thanks for the ideas!!!

Emily - Such a cute room. It is a great boys room, they will love growing up in there.

Emily @ http://456eleven.com

Emily - Such a cute room, your boys will love growing up in there.

Heather - i think the room is fantastic! it can be so hard to create a unique boyish space and you did a great job. really inspiring…as always. :)

Martina - I love it!! Awesome job! And I really like the 3 part airplane painting! How big is the room? I love that you could put 3 kids all in one room and give them a playroom too.

Ashley Ann - Just found your site! Love the photos, love the name!

lifeologia - I love it! This room makes we want to have a boy! It’s great that you have all 3 boys in one room and you made it work so well. Great Job.

Lisa Johnson - love it!! Wow- you are making me want to re-do my entire house. I can’t get enough! My favorite thing? I can’t begin to choose, but I love all the details, and those pencils in the lamp! Amazing. Can’t wait to see the playroom. Hooray for Ashley!

kate o. - the paper airplanes are great!

and too funny, i have the same bed, same orange blankets, and a transportation “look” for my boys, too. except my creativity stopped when i splurged on dwell studio’s transportation duvet cover.

love the room.

meg duerksen - GORGEOUS!!!!
love everything about it.

Crystal - OK! Now I want a room with airplanes! This is great!!!

Trina - Crazy cool room. Can you please tell me where you got the road rug? My son would love it

Carla - WOW. so very very impressed and inspired. it’s artwork!

Nancy - AWESOME room! It’s funny I have 3 girls and I love to see little boys rooms…so different from the girly stuff I’m used to. Any chance you’ll be sharing your little girls shirt details you showed a picture of in your projects post?

Kate A - This is BEYOND AWESOME. Seriously. The details you come up with…you have pure creativity pumping through your veins!!!

Darcy - Super cute. I have those same planes from Uppercase living in my son’s room!

Casey - every inch is so creative! I love how you’ve hidden the mismatched dressers, the hanging paper airplanes are awesome! and I really like the pencils around the lamp

Gevay - You did a great job! It’s perfect-not commercialized! I love it and I am sure they will too!

MayDae - Weird question: Do you know what the dimensions of your boys’ room are? I have that exact same IKEA bed AND bunk beds in my kid’s room, and I’m thinking your room must be larger. Thanks!

Stephanie @ http://www.maydae.com

Alisa - Oh my I LOVE IT. I love the grey and orange together. You have wonderful vision… I am working on my kids rooms this year (we rent so cant go to crazy) but this is inspiring.

Benay - Thank you for the inspiration! I have a boys’ room that desperately needs an upgrade. I love your ideas!

Dee - Love, love, love this room! My two boys share a room and we are planning a makeover soon. This is so inspirational!

Kate - Oh WOW! Perfect!

Kae - loooooove it! Thanks for the inspiration…now you make me want to redo my room! haha!

Dianne J. Gralnick - I LOVE the orange!!

Jane - The room looks amazing! You are so creative and talented!

Carrie Sowell - Their room looks AWESOME! Can you come help me figure out what to do in the my boys room? I want to do a barn/tractor theme. I don’t want green/yellow. I want a rustic feel, but not sure where to begin!!! HELP ME!!!

jessica h - AWESOME!!!

Karli - OK, I can keep quiet no longer. Your pictures are amazing, your blog is amazing…and this bedroom??!! The coolest thing I think I have ever seen. I love the colors, the artwork ideas, everything. Your kids are SOOO lucky!! :-) It looks fantastic!!

katherinemarie - BEYOND MARVELOUS! Only you could make a room this FANTASTICALLY CREATIVE & FUN!!!! I am in love with the clipboard art.

dianereeves - I am seriously inspired. I love ALL the details and thought you put into their room. I can’t wait to see the playroom when it is finished.

emily anderson - looks so great ashley! our boys room has taken me MUCH longer than anticipated…partly cause i didn’t have free reign to do whatever i liked :P
hope to have it done soon…
em

Elissa - truly you are just incredibly talented… an eye for everything and how DO you get things done with 4 little babes running around???? my house is in SHAMBLES, ok well clutter shambles, and i can’t even manage to get small things sewn or painted! ack!

maegan - Looks great! Such great details. I can’t wait to see the playroom.

mandi - love the clip boards! i think i’m stealing that one!!!

jody - OMG!!! Cool as HECK!!!!

deb meyers - This is exceptional! Love it! You hit all the right buttons, a treat to view.

Here from Modobjectathome

deb meyers

Stacy@RedDoorHome - This is fantastic.

I just finished up a room redo for my daughter. (revealing the photos over the next few weeks) I completely understand the give and take in the design. The kids have definite opinions of what they want – which is not always what you have in mind. I tried to compromise but in the end I had to remember that it is her room. I didn’t want her thinking that her ideas didn’t matter. Love what you did!

Abby - Woah. This is just about the coolest boys room I’ve ever seen. Seriously. Wow.

Kerry - Found you from the feature over at 6th Street Design School! Love this room – you did a fantastic job. So many great details, I really love your climbing man scaling the shelves! They must be thrilled with their room!

pamela - You are so talented!!!!

chereemoore - when I have kids, I hope I can create creative spaces for them – you are truly an inspiration!!!

alison - I love love love this room. my oldest son saw it and asked if he could have it! :)

Laura - Love your style! So inspiring!

Megan - I LOVE this room! Same colors I’m using in my little boys room. PLEASE tell me where you got the orange & white polka dot pillow?? I love it and it’s perfect for my room!

Sue - love,love the grey walls. I am really into grey and thinking of changing my grey green walls in my kitchen to a Behr’s ‘castle path’… Enjoyed all your ideas! I’m now into grand baby stage, so will have to plan a ‘fun’ room for them someday. :)

Sue - love the grey walls!

Rebecca - Don’t sell yourself short…The 3 piece airplane painting is one of my favorite things! Fun room.

Shari Hamann - You are so talented and are very inspiring!! Thanks for inspiring me to use orange more. Love the gray walls too!!!Keep going and don’t stop with all your creativity.

Christi {Jealous Hands} - This room is great – perfect for little boys! Would you mind sharing how you made the paper airplane mobile?

Link Time! | My.BuzzCritic.com - [...] for updates on this topic.See how one cool, creative mom made over her boys’ room. – Ashley Ann PhotographyTake a look at a cute backyard tree house inspired by hobbits. – Hooked on HousesTour a [...]

Ashley Ann Photography « - [...] that she’s obliged. Her taste and creative talent is unreal, so be sure to check her blog and her post about the boy’s room to get more info and description. And of course, you must become a fan of her blog! Her daughter’s room is coming up soon, so [...]

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