The Great Bedroom Swap of 2014

With two boys sharing a bedroom upstairs and both of the girls with their own rooms downstairs, as soon as we found out that Natalie would be heading off to BYU both boys started pleading the case that one of them should be allowed inherit Natalie's room when she left.  Not thinking that far in advance I had just redecorated all the kids rooms only a few years ago but I had to agree with the boys.  It really wasn't fair to make them share a room when there was another room downstairs that would now be empty for most of the year--and thus we had the great bedroom swap of 2014.

Phase one began when the girls were at camp.  I redid Emily's room to become home to both girls and left Natalie's room empty as kind of a staging/packing area to get her stuff sorted and ready to go to school. (Click here to see Emily's old room.)  I tried to combine their existing furniture and reuse as much as I possibly could.  The only thing I bought, other than the bedding and wall decor was an iron bed frame to match the one Natalie already had.  Here is what the new shared girls room looked like--before they home and moved in:

At first, neither girl was super happy about having to share a room for the first time, but I think as they got used to each other, they found some positives to being roommates.  

After dropping off Natalie at BYU, I came home and started in on redoing her room to house Bryce.  He was so excited to be getting his own room that he started sleeping in it as soon as the paint had dried and well before it was all finished.  Here is Natalie's old room and here is Byrce's new one:

 I'm not going to tackle painting the bathroom until after Christmas but, for now, it's good enough.  I didn't buy any new furniture for this room.  The bed was Emily's and the headboard and dresser were from the boys room upstairs.  

With Bryce moved downstairs, I was able to get started on Brandon's new room.  I didn't do any repainting but did buy a new desk and bookcase.  Brandon and I had some fun mother-son bonding time assembling his new furniture.  Here is the old boy's room and here is Brandon's new space: