Cars and Trains Boys Room

I meant to blog this room as I went along, or at least when I was finished, but it was constantly evolving. My oldest was 2 when I started it and he was obsessed with cars. Then I thought, why not add a few planes, too? Then his little brother moved in so we added some trains.

This room sort of grew up with the boys, and I was a little weepy when we tore it down when we moved because it marked the end of an era. It was a fun one!

It all started with this magnetic road:

I bought a road decal set from Target and used a pencil to trace it on the wall.

Painting it was a process:

Step 1: Frog taping and base painting. To get a perfect line, I always tape and then paint the edges with the original wall color paint so the new paint doesn’t leak through. If you want more detail you can check out my guest room wall stripes post.

Step 2: Magnetic paint. Unfortunately, this paint is thick and hard to work with, and it needed three coats before the magnets stuck to it. My hubby was very patient with this project.

Step 3: White paint and taping. For the center lines, I painted two coats of a white line in the middle of the road and then cut small rectangles from Frog tape and spaced them out. Then I painted over them with white (again, so no paint leakage).

Step 4: Blue paint. I finished it off with blue paint and then removed all the frog tape.

For the cars, I hot glued long magnet strips (you can buy it in rolls at Hobby Lobby) to the flat wooden vehicles (also Hobby Lobby). I didn’t use circle magnets because I’m paranoid about choking hazards and I think having more magnet helped it stick better.

And the rest of the room just came together project by project.

It was tough choosing which cars to use on this so he wouldn’t try to remove them. Super glue did the trick, though.

Gotta love the Pinterest-inspired IKEA spice racks for book storage. The are the best and the cheapest, and it’s great having the books where they can reach them.

They asked for these snuggies for Christmas. I blame the Sprout channel. (If your kids watch it, you’ve probably seen the crazy commercials that are apparently effective.)

My cousin and my son’s godmother got him this adorable boxed frame. He had a nautical themed nursery, but I still wanted it up in the cars room.

This is a pic of his first tractor ride with my dad at my grandparents farm in Pennsylvania.

For the shelves I used pictures of the boys with cars and trains, of course.

This was one of my favorite DIY costumes, Percy from Thomas the Train.

My cousin took this picture of my son at our grandparents farm. These are standout prints from Mpix (love).

I always like to throw in some sentimental pieces: His uncle gave him this monkey for his Curious George nursery.

I painted that side table blue and do you see how it’s chipping? I needed chalk paint in my life back then.

The boys loved the flashing lights on this lamp.

This was the trains side…

I was not successful with using trains he wouldn’t take off…at least one stayed up.

This was another Mpix standout print.

I lined these at the top of one wall, much easier than crown molding. 😉

Their new room ideas are a little more grown up now, but I’m still excited. I have to figure out how to break it to my four year old that a shark tank under his bed won’t be possible. It was originally a salt water alligator tank, but he decided that might be too big. I hope he’s cool with my other ideas.

Twin bed – Pottery Barn Kids

Twin quilt – Target

Twin sheets – Pottery Barn Kids

Toddler bed – Pottery Barn Kids, discontinued but it’s like this one

Toddler bed sheets – Pottery Barn Kids

Dresser – Pottery Barn Kids

Side table – Pottery Barn Kids, discontinued

Shelves – Pottery Barn Kids

Book racks – IKEA spice racks

Rug – Zulily

Curtain rod – Pottery Barn Kids

Curtains – Pottery Barn Kids