Decorate for a boy's vintage military inspired look...

As I close in on the final days for living in Alexandria, I’ve realized how much in this house has actually changed and how little of it has been documented. I’m hoping to take as many photos of the changes as possible before I actually have to start packing up so I figured I’d start with the room that has been made over a ton of times.

My son Noah’s room has gone through so many themed looks over the years. As his tastes change, one thing has remained the same…boys love Nerf guns.

Take a look at the before photo of when we first bought the house. It’s all in it’s 60’s glory but it underwent one makeover which I blogged previously.

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When I gave his room a refresh the first time, I noticed that the honey oak flooring gave his room a warm tint. I tried to offset it using a pale grey paint but that just made his walls look almost purple at different times of the day. So he lived with his room in this vintage/adventure theme for a while until it was time to give him a refresh again. See the first round of the makeover >>HERE<<.

Fast forward a few years, and literally everything in this room has been refreshed! From the crown moulding, to the deeper stain on the wood flooring, this room is entirely brand new (or almost if you don’t count the vintage items).

The first thing that made a huge difference was brightening up the walls. I used Benjamin Moore “Simply White” for both the walls and the trim. The only difference was the sheen between the two. I painted the walls in an eggshell finish and the trim in a semi-gloss finish which adds a tiny bit of contrast. I learned this trick a few years ago and makes painting walls and trim a breeze!

I wanted the room to have some contrast so I painted the doors in Behr “Aged Beige.” This added a bit of neutral color to the wall but also kept things pretty bright. I love that this color pairs beautifully with wood tones. My son has had these rustic pallet wood shelves since he was a baby and I love how they look.

Over the summer, I had the floors refinished by a local contractor. He was able to take them to bare wood and used an Early American stain, giving them a warm and elegant look. Although they are mid-range brown tones, the honey oak color that dated them is completely gone.

One of my son’s favorite features in his room is his Nerf Gun wall. He has so many of them, we ran out of closet space, trunk space and under-the-bed-space. We thought it would be a cool idea for him to display them on his wall in a “armory” type setting to go with his military inspired room. This project is literally peg board spray painted in Matte Black with hooks.

The Eastlake dressers are not a set. **They are mismatched dressers with similar lines painted and finished with Fusion Mineral Paint in “Coal Black.”** I gave them a soft distressing for the appearance of a weathered look. The new antiqued brass cut pulls pair perfectly with the theme and color and of course are perfect for small hands pulling out big drawers.

Almost all of the decor in Noah’s room was thrifted. It made decorating very cheap, but overall more meaningful. The American flag was $2 at a goodwill. The “Statesman,” was a garbage find from work, and the piano lamp was a $5 purchase from a local thrift store.

Everything on his shelves were also thrifted or purchased from an antique store. I’d have to say I spent a total of $400 refreshing his room including the thrifted finds.

The large block letters were purchased from an Etsy seller. They come in raw wood so you can finish them anyway you like. I just sprayed these with a matte black spray paint and put them on the wall with gorilla mounting tape.

Lastly, the woven blinds are the same shades I put in my kitchen, except these are inside mount. They are from Blinds.com and in the “Bonaire Flaxen” textured finish. I just love the warmth they bring to the room.

So that’s it! Noah’s room has gotten made over twice in the last two years and there are still parts of my house I haven’t even gotten to. I hope you enjoyed seeing Noah’s room with all his vintage military thrifted items. I’ll include a list of sources for you here at the bottom!