Hunter's Room: Boy's Fun Safari Bedroom- Style Progress

Sharing the progress of Hunter’s Safari Bedroom. A few changes, like a bold wallpaper accent wall, has made this room fun and mature.

Thank you to Photowall for providing us with the wallpaper for our kids rooms. All opinions are my own.
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It’s really amazing how a few changes really has transformed Hunter’s room from a nursery to a fun Safari Bedroom!

We added a fun accent wall, ditched the toddler bed for a big boy bed, and rearranged the furniture. A few simple changes really made the room feel like it’s transformed and come alive. It’s so fun!

Of course changing the crib to a ‘big boy bed’ made a big difference, but the biggest change to his room was the Photowall wallpaper. This one change made a really bold statement in his room, and I love it.

I was hoping to share Hunter’s room as a completed project but our plans have been since the safer at home order has been in established. Stores are closed and even then shipping times have delayed things. So I’m sharing it now as a work in progress. Then, I will have another update when things return a bit more like normal and we can finish things up.

The Safari Adventure

A few months ago, Hunter and I spent about 45 minutes wandering around the kids furniture section looking at the Pillowfort. We were in need of some twin sized bedding and I wanted to see if there was another theme that he might want in his room. We went through everything from dinosaurs, trucks, the big city, under the sea, knights castle, and outer space. I knew that I could make any of these work his room and personality by starting with these elements and then incorporating other items from our home and other stores into it.

We discussed them all, and had various things in our cart, but they kept getting pulled out. Ultimately, he kept saying he wanted to keep his zoo friends.

His decision for keeping his fun Safari Bedroom was great. This allows us to continue to use the prints and decor we had, while building upon them with new fun elements.

The Wow Wall

Much to my husband’s chagrin, I love white walls. Like WHITE WHITE. Not tan, not off white, but white. I like how it feels neutral to me. The rest of the elements in the room act as the accent, not the wall. Now, I have caved, and our down stairs powder room is a pretty intense green, but that’s about it.

He was trying to talk me into painting the kids rooms, but this made my heart race. 1. I like WHITE. 2. He sucks at painting. He is so great at other things, but painting isn’t his strong suit. So, it feels like a win to stick with the white since he hates painting just as much as he hates my white walls. LOL!

WI was really excited when PhotoWall reached out to me about a fun collaboration. It felt that a wallpaper accent wall would be a fun way to give the kids’ rooms a lot of character, but without paint. Win Win!!

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To be honest, I was nervous about installing it because I assumed it would be really difficult to line up because it would be hard to move around and handle. Thankfully, it was really easy to do. So easy that I would be willing to put up move wallpaper in a few other rooms of our house. Gasp!

When I showed Hunter some options for his wallpaper, he picked some interesting options. No, I wasn’t taking any of them seriously, esp this one. LOL

In the end I selected the Columns paper in the color Petrol. I felt it was a great design that could work for a young boy and would stay with him as he grows. It is neutral enough to also go with different themes, in case he does decide to change things in the future.

I think this wallpaper makes such a big impact in the room. I love it!!!

The Big Boy Bed

Hunter is turning 3 soon, so that meant that he needed to graduate from a toddler bed to a big boy bed. The crib had served us well with 2 kids, but it was time for it to move on.

While deciding what bed to get for Hunter’s room, we bounced around the idea of getting Autumn a loft bed. This would allow us to move Autumn’s bed into Hunter’s room. We decided this was the way to go as it allowed us to make Autumn’s room work for her and this would work for him, all while working in our budget.

We moved Autumn’s bed over and it’s amazing how much the room feels more mature and grow up.

The orange quilt on the bed is from Target, and Hunter picked it all out on his own. I mean, I helped him but he was excited to get to pick it out. Even it it did take us about 45 minutes to do so.

The Closet

Hunter’s Room is much smaller than Autumn’s room. In fact, even the guest room is bigger, but we think it is better to keep their rooms together, and right off the bathroom, vs swapping it. Plus, then the queen sized bed would just fit in the room.

Ultimately, this means that in order to get the bed in the room in the way that we wanted, the dresser needed to

I took the doors off the closet to open up the niche and get the dresser tucked into there.

Potentially, we could fit this out like our other closets with the Algot system from Ikea, but there is no rush for that now as we have the dresser. It’s in good condition and satisfies our storage needs, so there is no need for an added expense right now.

As well, we can install a curtain but I don’t feel the rush for that now. However, we will do that if we ever install the closet system in the future.

The To Do List

Because we are experiencing some delays with shopping, getting orders, and getting tasks done overall, we are going to keep working on our to do list for the bedroom. I’m hoping that by Hunter’s birthday. in June, it’s all done. Not so much for its completion is a birthday gift, but it will symbolically be nice to transition the room for him when he is 3. Oh boy!

To stay on task, I’ve created a to-do list for the room to finish transforming it into a complete fun Safari Bedroom:

Bedding. Need to order bedding. I was looking at a really cute safari set from PB, but it’s $70- ouch. So I’m still looking!
Art Work. Print a Digital File I have of a tiger (like the other safari prints), get frame for it at Ikea. Hang where the baby bump currently is.
Baby Bump. Move above the door to keep it in the room, but give it a less prominent spot.
Plants. We are awaiting the shipment of 2 hanging planters, they will then be installed over the bookcases from the ceiling
Closet. Take down the builder installed closet shelving. Then install a stained wood shelf, to match the bookcases, and install some piping to hang clothes on.
Shadow Box. When Hunter had his first hair cut at Disney, they gave him a really cute certificate and hat. I don’t want them ruined so I would like to put them in a shadow box for display