Extreme Makeover: Viggo's Room Edition

When we came home from the lake we unexpectedly left Viggo there.
Don't worry - loving people were taking care of him.
We decided that it was time for a change.

Nate got to work in his shop.

He bought lots of wood. He had plans.

After agonizing over a color for Viggo's walls we decided on Sweet Marzipan. Nice and light. Nice and neutral. I didn't want his room to feel dark like a dungeon.

At the time it seemed like a good idea.

Here's some befores. Nate made this headboard when Viggo was 2 1/2.

When we moved in furniture got thrown into Viggo's room and it stayed that way. It was cramped but whatever.

Cramped and . . . boring.

Boring . . . so I cleared out the room and all twelve million Lego pieces. That took all afternoon. Especially when I kept finding granola bar wrappers and pencils with the erasers chewed off and shoved underneath every surface.

And when I moved some furnitureI knew this was a fake snake. But knowing that really didn't make it any easier when I found it.

Nate cut out huge panels of wood for shelves to go underneath Viggo's new custom bed.

And I painted the room.

Nate came in to check out the paint job.

"I really hope he doesn't hate it." That's what Nate said. Oh dear.

The paint matched the carpet. Everything was cream. We had held the paint sample up to the wood trim and thought it looked nice. Kind of slipped our mind to see what the paint sample looked like next to the carpet.

Whoops.

After some agonizing over more color samples we found a better one. It was dark, but at least we were positive Viggo would love it. So the girls and I trucked back over to Home Depot - again - and bought another can of paint.

Why buy one when you can buy two at twice the price?

And here it is in the lovely Neptune color.

I wish that it was really that easy.

Nate took care of painting around the ceiling and I took care of the rest of the painting. And Nate hauled in the frame of Viggo's bed and assembled it in the room.

Putting it together . . .

Adding the shelves for maximum Lego capacity . . .

Nate is adjusting the placement of the blinds. I made curtains to make it look more cozy and less like an office. He had to move the blinds back to fit the curtain rod.

Of course when I bought the fabric I bought dark blue to really stand out with the boring light paint I had chosen.

With the wall color change, that just wouldn't do. So the girls and I headed off to Gruber's - again - to get different fabric that wouldn't blend in with the newly painted dark blue walls.

I think Nate rolled his eyes all the way to Wisconsin when I said I had to get different fabric to go with the different paint. This was just a gentle reminder to Nate that he did not marry me for my gift of planning ahead.

Nate, putting Viggo's books on his new wall-mounted bookshelf.

Here we go!!!!

Now, what could be better than a bed that sits on top of Legos?

A bed that sits on top of Legos and lights up! Yes. There is a light switch.

Nate made this nice little bookshelf and tucked it in by the edge of the window so it looks like it's always been there.

This bookshelf was my idea and Nate . . . well, he did everything else. Although I do claim some spray painting.

His bedroom feels so spacious now. There's room to play on the floor!

Lots of more room. A bedroom that is actually fun to be in. And I am banking on it being fun to clean too.

Ahhh!!! SO PRETTY! Nate did such a fabulous job building everything.

When Viggo came home yesterday he couldn't believe it. It was so much fun surprising him!

And we weren't the only people that liked it.

Before, nobody else wanted to hang out in Viggo's room. He never had any visitors who wanted to play with his toys. Now, well . . .

One little girl woke up from her nap today and made a beeline for you-know-where.

Viggo is one happy kid! He's so blessed to have a dad that loves him like crazy :) We love you, Viggo! We were so excited to do something special for you!