The first step was choosing a special interest to engage Caden with the project, and make sure he would be excited about his very own room redesigned just for him. It wasn't hard to narrow it down to Minecraft for our main inspiration, and some of the block elements of the game suited soft furnishings and wall art perfectly.
I love a challenge, and a budget. Trusty IKEA was the main source of decorative elements and furniture, with a few Kmart bits and pieces added. I also created three custom canvases to tie the theme together clearly and add some colour to the walls. The fun bit about that was the kids joining in, and Caden created his own Minecraft canvas that was a bit smaller and sits on his desk.
Colour scheme: Green, red, white and black with a tiny touch of blue, grey and yellow.
Resources: IKEA, Kmart, Cheap as Chips
Existing furnishings: Black-brown loft bed with desk attachment, black storage unit under the window.
Challenges: A rental meant that painting wasn't an option. Flexible landlords meant that wall art and new window dressing was fine. Also, storage was important, but more space for toys than clothes, being a real boy's room. A light had to be clearly visible from the bed.
Budget: $700 including furniture. I think we went a tiny bit over, with the light bulbs and more expensive window option, but it was very close.
Style: My sister's home and decorating style is clean, uncluttered with simple, strong colours. She doesn't tend to collect or feature vintage / secondhand furniture.
The Ender Man lamp was super quick and easy to make. I bought a black square lamp and cube design acrylic lamp base, which already came together, for a total of $10 I think it was from Kmart. A couple of strips of white bias binding were cut and adhered with double sided tape. Finished!
The black shade means it isn't super bright, and can act as a night light to be left on while sleeping.
The storage shelves and boxes were all from IKEA. These are Pallra boxes with lids on a Molger shelving unit.
We chose red and white for the bed, to imitate the beds in minecraft houses. I bought a discounted queen size quilt cover from IKEA and cut it down to size. A fresh white pillowcase was from Kmart.
Some cheap scatter cushions were bought from both IKEA and Kmart, and I hand stitched some black bias binding fabric pieces on to one of the green cushions to make a 'Creeper' head cushion.
To keep the look clean and simple, but still echo the Minecraft inspiration, we chose these window panels as blinds. They are from IKEA, and have a grey square pattern on it to keep with the block theme. Other than the bed, the black storage drawers beneath the window were the only original furnishings kept in the room.
Two square rugs of 'grass' were bought from IKEA as well, also chosen to suit the Minecraft block inspiration, as grass blocks are an integral part of Minecraft world building. A green Trogan wardrobe from IKEA was added, as Caden needed some new clothes storage, and the various tones of green throughout the room kept things coordinated without being perfectly matching. The wardrobe accounted for almost half the entire budget.
A few canvases and some simple art supplies from Cheap as Chips gave me something to do for quite a few hours during Adelaide's record-breaking heatwave! The kids also completed some art work while I was at it. I made three block-based wall art pieces, simply by measuring 64 squares on each canvas and painting the blocks in different colours.
We have a cloud block above a touch of grass, a grass block with dirt and a Steve face canvas. I like how the block design is a contrast with the imperfect brush strokes and colour! If you are more of a perfectionist, it would actually be quicker and a cleaner look to create prints on the computer ;)
The final few touches were two Drona storage boxes (these things are cheap and surprisingly big!) to sit on top of the wardrobe, and a fun click together clock, all from IKEA.
A few months later and Caden still enjoys his room, and happily sleeps in his bed with the Enderman lamp on in the corner :) Mission accomplished!
