How about a real-life room? This was my son's nursery. These are older pictures as he just started Kindergarten(!) and it's been changed to a "big-boy" pirate room instead of a nursery. The crib has been converted to a full and there's a side table to the left now. The ugly carpet and couch have been removed and there's a huge table with a porthole in it's place. The rocking chair is gone now too. The ceiling fan has been painted. See below:

With weighing everyone's input, I'm now thinking maybe I should just go ahead with a room update that would satisfy both his needs for part time use of the room over the college years plus my need for a guest room. Another factor driving the update sooner rather than later, is I know we will have several guests coming in May, both for DS's graduation and my DH's 50th birthday and the closer it gets to May, the busier I will get with party planning. There will be an opportunity in February to paint while he is away for 3-days at a tournament, then when he returns it is winter break so he would have some time to help me put his room back together and be part of the changes. That way, he will be included in the plans. He is away right now until Friday at a retreat so I haven't had a chance yet to run my ideas by him, but I will when he gets back. Main issue with the mahogany bed is it doesn't really go well with his existing furniture so I've been thinking about what I can/should add to make it look more cohesive without breaking the bank. Once he is out of school I don't think he will need such a large desk and hutch plus I do own another very similar one in DD1's room and DD2 has a smaller vintage kneehole desk which I really like as it has great storage space without a lot of room. Offhand, I have a single mahogany nightstand which I can replace his with: I'm now thinking perhaps I should just replace his desk/hutch will a smaller vintage kneehole type one so that he would have a place to work on his laptop when he is staying with us. When searching for DD2 last year I found a lot and here is one listed on CL for only $50: What do you think? While these pieces may not be his first choice for his room, I feel it would allow for more growth during the transition of this room into serving dual functions over the next several years. Long term, my mom has promised to give me my grandmother's mahogany secretary and I can see that working well at some future point when DS no longer lives with us and most likely would replace the desk. As for paint, I was thinking a soft grey or pale blue. He is very fond of blue, but I find these walls too dark. I can get him a blue comforter and keep the present rug for now; then get another set of bedding to use when guests visit.

I got one of the following for my nephew's second birthday (he's a HUGE Elmo fan). He loves it...my sister (his mother) suggests adding more to his wall for Christmas / his next birthday. I'm kind of a kid gift-giving idiot, but (God willing) have enough designs to have me covered for a while. Here is a link that might be useful: Sesame Street wall decal

bebe, His furniture is the from Penneys. It seems fine so far. The night stand had to be sent back originally because it came damaged, but they are very good at picking up and reordering new. The pain with Penneys is that they do not unpack will only deliver to inside your door, not to the room, and no setup! We didn't discover the damage until after the delivery guy left and we undid all the packing, but like I said, they are easy to work with. The other great thing was, I had originally ordered it at full price. It went on sale before it was delivered, I called to let them know, and they adjusted the price for me!