I'm teaming up with some talented friends for another Thrift Store Challenge! The goal is to take something thrifted, found, or to repurpose an item from our homes and turn it into something we can use and enjoy. This month, I'm taking it back to just about this time last year. I'll be sharing all the details of the makeover I gave Emmitt's first big boy bed and how I got it that beautiful, vintage blue. Don't forget to check out everyone else's thrifty projects at the end of this post!
If I were to pick a fan-favorite piece of furniture in my home, it would hands-down be Emmitt's blue bed. It's such a bright and fun piece with just the right amount of vintage charm and one I hope he'll love for years and years because I know I will!
This is another DIY my mom helped me with when I was very pregnant with Isla last year.
This was actually my bed when I was younger and then my sister's. My mom passed it down to Emmitt for his first big boy bed when we moved to this house. It started out as a beautiful, white frame from Ethan Allen and still looked amazing, but we thought we would change things up and give it a totally new look for little Emmitt.
Here's a look at what the frame started as. I'm pretty bad at remembering to take before pictures, but I was able to track down someone selling one. If you love this frame, you can buy it here!
I'd had this photo from Miss Mustard Seed pinned on a Pinterest board and saved in my phone for years. I was absolutely in love with it and hoped to one day create a space like it so it was an obvious choice for the inspiration for Emmitt's big boy bed.
We started by taking some rusty orange paint left over from a previous project and roughly painting the edges and details of the frame. Anywhere we planned to sand down and distress so the orange would peek through. The color I used was True Copper from Behr. It's the same gorgeous orange I redid my nightstands with awhile back.
Next, we spay painted everything blue using Sea Glass from Krylon in a satin finish. Spray paint on furniture makes me really nervous, but it worked out well with this project. Here's a look at the blue frame before any distressing. Another inspo piece for Emmitt's room as a whole is this jockey artwork I thrifted. I loved its colors and the masculine, vintage vibe and chose my color scheme based off the painting and frame.
Since we were embracing a worn, vintage look, we couldn't leave things too perfect. I roughed up all the edges, details, and a few random spots to bring that underlying orange and the original white through. Here I am 8 months pregnant sanding away!
My mom finished things off with some antiquing glaze to tone everything down and a coat of sealant and Emmitt's first bed was finished!
To make sure the blue popped, I kept the bedding super neutral and went with a white quilt I found on Amazon. I know what you're thinking, "All-white bedding for a toddler??" but I like to live on the edge. I added an orange throw from HomeGoods similar to this style and a thrifted pillow like this fun one or these (one and two). A color coordinated stuffed bear was the perfect finishing touch to make the space more kid-friendly. Most of the other decor details in his room are vintage and thrifted, but his Emmitt and Toy Story pennants are from a great little shop called Fellow Creatures Co.
Emmitt's room was such a fun space to decorate and is one of the coolest places to hang out in the house! I'll share more details soon like his E wall, loft, and rock wall, but his vintage blue bed is definitely a show stopper and something I can see growing with him through childhood and even into the teenage years.
Check out what my friends have been working on below!
