This is a very handsome combination of browns and navy blues, perfect for a boy's room, IMO.

And check out BM Van Deusen Blue and Normandy.

This post was edited by Tibbrix on Fri, Oct 17, 14 at 20:39

Double post.

This post was edited by Tibbrix on Fri, Oct 17, 14 at 20:40

What color is his furniture, bed, dresser or whatever.
Is the bedding going to change, if so what color.

Van Deusen blue is looking amazing online! Thnaks Tibbrix! I may or may not change the dresser, it's cherry. His bed is a toddler bed, so he'll upgrade to a twin one of these days. The chair will go one day, but he's still small enough to cuddle on it and read stories.

The doors and baseboards will change to white. His bedding is nonexistant so far, just blankets, no theme quite yet. I have all these ideas and he shoots them down, "I like plain." so even agreeing to new carpet and paint has been great for him.

Another angle. His bed is kind of where I'm standing!

We painted our son's room Behr's Holiday Road. It's a light blue, but not baby blue, and rather rich and warm. Just very "boy". He was, oh, 12 when we did it, it suits him still at 15, and wish we'd done it when he got that room when he was 5.

I always find it easier to select the fabrics first...bedding and/or window treatment and then pick a wall color from that. Far easier to match a paint to a fabric than the other way around.

Thanks bpathome, I'll take a look at that colour.

I know AnnieD- it's just we're on a roll here with him being open to us doing some stuff to his room. He's a sensitive guy who doesn't like a lot of change, and I figure while we have all his furniture out for carpet install, good time to paint. He doesn't really have bedding, and won't until we change his bed out, while probably won't happen for a few months (I'm overwhelmed!). But he's excited about painting.

Now he likes BM Hudson Bay as his name is Hudson :) I'm thinking chair rail, revere pewter on top, dark blue on the bottom, something like that. Sigh. Maybe we'll paint later.

This post was edited by aklvdb on Sat, Oct 18, 14 at 8:04

With that age, I would show him pictures of rooms that you have pre-chosen on Pinterest and ask him which ones he likes. He probably means solid colors when he says "Plain."

Or, since his name is Hudson, try looking for some Hudson River-themed artwork to put on the walls and then pick the room colors from the picture. There are a lot of different options: Hudson River School if he's a traditionalist, or a landscape picture, or a bridge picture.... Or maybe a FIREBOAT!!!

Here is a link that might be useful: Fireboat picture for inspiration

Well, you could select the bedding ahead of time and paint the room accordingly so it will be ready for when you do swap out the bed....

jane _the_renovator- your post made me laugh, "if he's a traditionalist... :) " Great ideas though, I love them. He likes the fireboat, but he doesn't want to buy it. He's a character. He does love trees and stuff too.

Thanks AnnieD- I appreciate the help! I need to preplan definitely before I do crazy painting.

There are some really cute ideas here for inspiration.

Here is a link that might be useful: Pottery Barn boys room

He's 4.

Don't go crazy.

Thanks Tibbrix, he is 4, I know! I can guarantee you, it will never look like the pottery barn pics! (thanks newgardener!) I like this bedding from Sears. And I have $50 off, so might be worth it :)

Here is a link that might be useful: bedding

That quilt is adorable.

aklvdb, I found a resource for you if you decide to go with the work-off-the-artwork idea: Pictaculous.com. Basically, you upload a picture and it will generate a palette based on the colors in the picture. You could even do the bedding picture.

As a practical note (I am also a mom of a preschooler), I wouldn't coordinate off the bedding. Our guy is in love with a character now, but I know that by the time he's 7, things will change. We were able to pick up a lot of character-themed bedding for cheap from parents whose kids had grown out of their bedding! For now, he loves them, but when he's older, we will sell off his character linens and get him something more mature.

P.S. There is a great book called "Fireboat," by Maira Kalman, all about a retired fireboat suddenly called into service during a national emergency.

Here is a link that might be useful: Pictaculous

Thanks jane_the_renovator. I'm going back and forth b/w just painting it revere pewter (the colour of the rest of the house), or leaving it for now and not rushing around like a maniac as carpet is being installed next Thursday.

I wouldn't get characters for him, I hate having characters on stuff. The only reason he has stuff on his walls now is I found the valence and bedskirt (for when he had his crib) on clearance for $3.98 each at Sears, and his stick on lambs for $20. Done and done. His sheets don't match and come from TJ maxx, $3 each (of course he has like 6 fitted sheets, but whatever, my mom went crazy :) )

I'll have to look at that book. He loves books, and his grandpa is a firefighter (so my mom buys him a lot of ff stuff, but I don't want it everywhere). Thanks for the link.

Thanks Tibbrix, I think it's adorable too! DS seemed to give me the goahed to get it, but we are going to the states soon so I'll see if I can find anything else- so much stuff in the US!

Here is a link that might be useful: love the top 2 colour themes!

Well, if little Hudson lives in Canada, of COURSE he has to have a Hudson's Bay Blanket!

bpathome - my folks have a Hudson bay blanket, it's wool and scratchy, even from 40 years ago! I was looking at a Bay wool jacket the other day, so cute :) It is iconic, eh? So you know it even from the US?

It is so cute when he sees things with his name on them, we were at the Bay on the w/e, and he hated it until I told him it was the Hudson Bay :)

If you're thinking of the darker blue, my suggestion is to try it on one wall first. I worry that it might be too dark/depressing for a little guy...and putting a bunch of accent lighting in a child's bedroom isn't very practical (IME -- I have two boys, 9 and 5, that share a 10 x 10 room; the only accent lighting that has been okay are gooseneck lamps from Ikea that are mounted to the walls above their beds).

See how he likes having that accent wall first, and then go from there :-) If you paint after new carpet, just use drop cloths and protect the baseboards. A little prep saves a lot of headache later.

Thanks melle_sacto! I'm thinking now about stripes or something, so it's not so dark. I will wait. I have too much going on in this house and getting overwhelmed!

I couldn't even imagine accent lighting with my little guy, I'd be worried he do something and it would fall or whatever!

Thank you for all the advice!

Kids' tastes, likes and dislikes change so much as they grow. What I did when mine were young was go with their favorite colors in solids that washed and wore easily and well. For example, with my son, I went with royal blue for his washable comforter and then added touches of red, green and yellow with his valance (over blackout shades), bedskirt and throw pillows. I then bought poster frames and 5x7" easel back frames that allowed me to quickly, easily and inexpensively change out his art as he grew. The 5x7" frames were perfect for turning "cool" greeting cards into works of art that he could place around his room wherever. We went from zoo animals to dinosaurs to whatever he had a big interest in next. I brought in a long 3-section bookcase and primary colored bins to corral most of his toys and let him display his books and whatever toys he chose on the rest of the shelves. As time went on, I let him pick out printed fabric in "cool guy designs" and made throw pillow covers for his bed.

I guess what I'm saying is that I liked to keep things basic so that he could inexpensively and easily choose new art and accent pieces. It was his room, not his decorator mommy's room, he used to like telling his friends and he was always very proud of it.
Lynn

Don't give up! You'll never have a perfect time for this kind of project.
Go ahead and paint the room your Revere Pewter, it looks like it will be a match to the new carpet. Paint the trim and take down the lambs.
Then you'll be ready to go with the bedding and an accent color when you find something you both like. I think an accent wall of the Hudson Blue would be perfect and might even go with the Sears bedding you showed. He will think it's his own personal color!
Good luck!

Just bumping up as we have made progress! I found a different comforter that DS LOVES as it's navy blue (didn't hurt it was on clearance at sears for $33, (100% cotton (with poly fill)), so we went with that and some cheap Target space pics, and we'll have some decals that my friend picked up(going to miss Target:(

Got some cute pottery barn sheets from someone off your version of CL for $15, love that they are cotton and soft!

His nightstand is being put together as we speak, and the dresser is to arrive any day. That'll be a pain to put together, oh well! I'm going to keep the wall colour light as the comforter is dark, and I'm going to see if I can find some cute short curtains in maybe an orange/light blue combo.

Wow, someone is into space and rockets :) He must be so excited about the new room.
When my kids were that age, we put glow in the dark stars and planets on the ceiling.

Does that headboard have bookshelves in it? That is awesome and a great idea!

Well, he's not super into space, I'd say there are things he likes more but he loves the colours and with Target in clearance mode here I got the pictures for dirt cheap, so if he does change his mind I won't worry about it!

Yes tibbrix, the headboard does have storage for books behind. My folks bought the bed and my mother was obsessed with getting a storage bed, and I wanted him to be able to prop himself up without leaning on shelves like the traditional bookcase headboard.

He loves his new room. Bonus that his new bed is so much comfier than his toddler bed he sleeps a lot better! And we can cuddle before bed while reading stories :)

Good job!