One Room Challenge: Boys Cottage Bunk Room Reveal!

Hi Guys! I hope you are having a glorious week. Today marks the end of the One Room Challenge, hosted by Linda of Calling it Home, which means it’s time for me to share the big reveal of the boys’ Cottage Bunk Room.

You can follow our House Journey on my Instagram( @thismamasdance)  with a ton of build photos by checking out #Kootage or take a look at Our House Tour

Matt and I literally built this room from nothing- it’s a part of an 1100 sf addition that we added on to our humble 900 sf lakeside cottage. It has been a HUGE job, a giant learning curve (since we aren’t builders by trade) and mostly completed on evenings and weekends.  Our work efforts have definitely fizzled out in the last year, as life has gotten busy with other things. Why is it the last 10% seems to be the hardest to finish, am I right? It felt like such a huge victory to get all of the electrical run, insulation in, and pine tongue and groove up on the walls- that we moved our boys in as soon as we had lights and carpet. The room sat as is since last Christmas, and all of the “little” things were constantly in the back of my mind.

I am a mama to 3, a dance instructor, I homeschool my kids, and my husband runs an independent film studio, so it’s a lot to juggle. I am sure you can relate. Yet, here we are! There is still trim to be finished, and painting of said trim, a roof to be stained- as well as some fun little details I didn’t get to, but I’ve rekindled my motivation! I am looking forward working on this space in the weeks to come. Joining in on this challenge really helped me to make some great progress though- woohoo!

The best news is, my kids LOVE it! It is such a blessing, and so fun to have a home to make our own, a place where we can rest, grow and dwell in peace. Thanks for you encouragement over the last few weeks- things definitely came a long way in the last two days. I had definitely hit a wall… or 4. If you would like to follow along from the beginning you can do so here

Week One| Week Two| Week Three| Week Four| Week Five

We live by the lake, and I love blues as well as neutrals, so I went with a relatively classic lake house scheme. White washed planks, and plenty of whites, with blues and a hint of green throughout.

I added a curtain rod to the bottom bunk, and used a fun wall hanging from Pottery Barn as a curtain… my mom gifted it to the boys several years back along with the striped quilts, also from PB.

I layered a few small, inexpensive rugs to cozy up the reading corner.

On the opposite wall are the lockers, offering a ton of storage for kids treasures… and let’s be honest, all the stuff they hoard, and the toys they don’t want to get rid of. The metal lockers also offer a great space to display kid art. All of the accessories on top of the lockers were from around the house- antique apple crates, and some inexpensive thrifted items like the lantern, tennis racquet, and tool box. The succulents are all faux- from the dollar store. Awesome I know. The globe came from Home Sense (in Canada)

These lockers were originally blue. 2 cans of white spray paint later, they were the lockers of my dreams.

I love the way the warm wood tones pop against the pine walls now that they have been white washed. It was a mammoth job to stain all of these walls, but in the end it was totally worth it.

Nothing in our house is perfect or overly precious. Most of the things we have are thrifted, gifted or handmade. My (just) 6 year old and I created this little hanging rack and had fun doing so. This is a piece of wood he had saved because he thought it was cool, and now we all get to enjoy it.

Hi, my name is Ashlea and I like imperfect, random gallery walls. I really do. This is so cute IRL. It was a happy little surprise I had no intention of creating. Don’t you love it when that happens?

This massive rocking chair came from Costco of all places. It’s technically outdoor furniture, but was $80, and is so, so solid. I like to imagine myself sitting there as the children rest peacefully in the reading corner, and I read them stories. No one fights, pokes each other in the eye, or cries for a bottle.

Please do not to comment on my high water drapes. I had plans of curtain clips and letting out the hem, but considering the fact that I was putting up trim Tuesday night and painting it Wednesday morning, just marvel at how far this corner has come! Thanks.

Below is the not pretty, but oh so practical under bed toy storage. I love it. I contemplated removing the under bed toys for the photos, but then decided that this is real life- and the bedroom is already 100x cleaner than it ever has been. It’s there just to remind you that  “Hey! Kids live here!”

So there you have the 360 tour. I have to bite my tongue and keep from commenting on the little projects that didn’t quite get done. Over all though, I am so happy with the progress that was made in here! For someone with a DIY house, and project ADD, focusing on bringing ONE space together was such an awesome concept. It gave me focus. I made a plan, and more or less stuck to it.

Most of the projects in here were DIY, and have more detailed posts that I will link to below- with a few more to come in the weeks ahead. I am also working on a video tour of the space, with a few details of how it all came together- so look for that soon.

Here is reminder of the space just 5 short weeks ago….

And today:

Thanks for stopping by, and please say hello. 🙂

-Miss Ash

P.S.- Yes I took the ladder off the bunk- I plan to build a new one that is mounted to the bunk without reaching down to the floor to maximize the under bed storage.

Source List

• Pottery Barn: quilts, drapes, bunk hanging map
• Target: bean bag chairs, wall sconce,white sheets
• IKEA: plaid grey/white pillow, beige pillow, green storage boxes, black hooks, standing floor lamp, wall clock, shelf brackets, blue and beige striped rugs
• Wal-Mart: black curtain rod
• Canadian Tire: under bed storage bins
• Homesense: globe, faux animal skin rug

DIY Projects

• Land of Nod inspired bunk beds
• Wall Mount Book Shelf
• Pine Cone Garland
• “Cabins” Sign
• DIY White Washed Walls Tutorial and Video

Shared at: Sundays at Home, The Creative Gallery