Sylvia’s Makeover: Ricky’s Bedroom

Today on the blog we are revealing Ricky’s bedroom makeover (if you are wondering what this series is, head on over here for the video, here for the living room/intro, here for the dining room, here for the bathroom, and here for the master). This bedroom was ripe for some styling love and I have a lot of that to give. I figured that Sylvia picks up after both of my kids all day, so it was my turn to help. So I was so happy to be the one that got to get my grubby little paws on it.

Here it was before:

He had a pull out sofa, two pieces of clunky storage and that’s about it. I asked what he wanted to keep and he said nothing, and then he showed me his collection of wrestling masks and said ‘don’t you dare touch these …’ in a playful way. So they packed up all his clothes and donated the furniture and left just the masks for us to work into the design.

He pretty much needed everything. I asked him about colors and he said that he loved blue, black and red. Perfect, I was so excited get some red on the walls – especially just that small band of red above the paneling which is not too overwhelming for the small space. Rarely does a client give you red as an option, so I was psyched.

We came up with the initial mood board (before we decided to panel the walls):

I liked the vibe a lot and while we made some changes, the vibed stayed the same. We wanted it to feel fun but not too kid, and cool but not too sophisticated. He wears red glasses for pete’s sake – he’s a kid that can take some color and style. We wanted it to have energy and vibrancy that it lacked before, but not to be too busy or cluttered since it’s small.

We paneled and painted the walls and man, I fell in LOVE with this room.

A few days later it looked like this:

I just love it so much. Let’s start with the bed. We upgraded him to a full bed, and put that awesome headboard with it. It comes as a full bed as well for those of you that like a footboard. In this case we could have absolutely done both headboard and footboard, but we were trying to save and on budget, so the headboard was perfect as is.

The rug is the perfect large scale to go with the medium scale of the quilt and the stripes of the curtains and, it kept it feeling bright and fresh. That band of red added the perfect amount of punch and we brought in that same red through little touches throughout the room (the quilt, his posters which we framed, and some books).

That dresser is GREAT, by the way. For the price, finish, and quality it’s a good buy that I would totally recommend. Don’t get me wrong, I love the look of the the one in the master but it’s twice the price and this one was easier to put together (I’m not one of those people who says secretly (yet loudly) “ooh, i kinda like putting furniture together” – I ACTIVELY don’t). Brian nor I could take the time to put Charlie’s play kitchen together so I hired a task rabbit who took 3 hours, at $40 an hour which cost more than the kitchen itself so that was cool).

On the other side of the room we put this lovely shelf to provide him with some storage as well as a place to house the TV.

Had Ricky left more of his stuff unpacked, I would have styled his own things in there. But they got rid of most everything as they wanted to start fresh, so instead I gathered some cute pieces from Target that I hoped he would like – and we put his TV back in.

Now, the masks.

Every Monday I ask Sylvia what she did over the weekend and most of the time it involves them driving to Tijuana to watch Mexican Wrestling – Lucha. Ricky LOVES it and has befriended so many of wrestlers. It’s a big part of his life and I wanted it to be a big part of his room.

So we framed his signed posters like so:

And in the room, with all the red, blue and black they look so good. I was nervous, but the final room really showcased them and they look so elevated and, well, less terrifying 😉

P.S. we filmed this segment (which got cut) where Peter and I told each other our Lucha names and I was “The Flying Ottoman” and he was “El Chambray Duvet”.

Ricky loved that globe at Target, so obviously it was a good buy for him.

We put the masks in these simple shadow boxes from our local framing shop (Aaron Brothers, I believe) and he can switch them out, add more, etc. In fact on Monday Sylvia asked where she could buy more because he wants to add a few, and after staring at the photos I wish we had added more as well.

It was so much fun, it gave me such joy to do this. This transformation is satisfying on so many levels.

The most satisfying part is because that young man (Ricky) is so happy and proud of his room. And pride leads to confidence, and for a teenager that has been challenged by some physical disabilities due to his being so premature, my hope is that this can really open up a part of his life.

It was a true privilege to give back to her son as she has done for my kids. I don’t say that in a trite/generic way. I mean it. She cares for mine every single day. She loves them, feeds them, makes sure they have napped, have played, have gotten outside. She deals with poop and spit-up and an insane amount of clutter and stuff being thrown around the house all day long. And yet she does it all in a really patient calm way and NEVER makes me feel guilty when I get home.

I am so happy to be able to let her know how grateful I am by making her son’s room (and hopefully life) better. It’s just so satisfying. WIN WIN WIN.

Thanks again, Target, for supporting such a passionate project with your wonderful product that I use every day regardless of the project or budget. It’s consistently just so good.

1. Navy Sheet Set | 2. Quilt | 3. Duvet Cover | 4. Woven Roller Blinds | 5. Curtains | 6. Industrial Table Lamp | 7. Dresser | 8. Wall Paint | 9. Mirror | 10. Bookshelf | 11. Navy Throw Pillow | 12. Lumbar Pillow | 13. Area Rug | 14. Sconce | 15. Headboard | 16. Pillow Insert | 17. Storage Bed | 18. Duvet Insert | 19. Book Ends | 20. Globe | 21. Modern White Frame | 22. Mixed Metal Table Lamp | 23. Side Table

***Photos by Tessa Neustadt. Video by Propeller Digital Content. And Thanks again to Target for sponsoring this makeover and gifting all the wonderful product for that amazing family.