When I was little we lived in a 2 bedroom trailer and so of course, I slept in the same room with my older sister.  Not only that, but we shared a queen sized canopy bed that I had begged for.  It was frilly and had pink ruffled layers all around.  I know my sister wasn’t thrilled but I was the baby and Santa was good to me that year.  I have fond memories of my sister protecting me from monsters that lived under the bed and calming my fears each night.  She even walked me to the bathroom because I was too afraid to walk from the bed.

Now I have two little boys who are sharing a room.  For us, this isn’t necessity.  They used to each have a room but it never felt that way.  The room with the big queen bed has always been home base and the secondary room was never played in or slept in.  Since this was the case I took it over as my office for filming and photography and the boys moved in together.  Lucky for me they have similar interests!

Even though the theme had been “Nintendo” the items go with a lot.  We also have an entire tower of Dino items from Everett, and a cabinet full of Lego creations and special “display” worthy items.  Minecraft is another big thing that is creeping (pun intended) into their room!

Rather than buying bunk beds, a piece of furniture that makes me nervous, we kept the queen sized bed and they sibling co-sleep.  The standard stores for bedding that cater to young boys and girls don’t make bedding for queen beds!  We checked them all and came up short, or found them to be very expensive.  I knew we had stored a feather queen sized comforter somewhere in a closet so I hunted it down and purchased a queen sized duvet from Ikea.  I took the boys with me and they picked something they liked and of course, at $30, it was a great deal for us.

I still wanted the bed to have a custom touch and to match the game “theme” we had going on from our old decorations.  Using my Silhouette Portrait (a die-cutter than can cut heat transfer vinyl and other items) I decided to make pillow cases that would give them each their own little space in the big bed and make it fun to go to sleep on THEIR pillows.  I took the boys shopping and they picked out this teal color sheet set at a bargain price from an outlet.    Fun sheet sets in bright colors are so hard to find!

Using a font from dafont.com called Kemco Pixel I made my cutting template.  The Silhouette has a default cutting size that matches their cutting mat but with heat transfer material you don’t need a mat so I was able to extend the size in the settings, no longer restricting it to a small size.  I chose to have each say “Fletcher’s Side” and Everett’s Side” and cut the words into a black flocked vinyl.  Fletcher is so obsessed with “8-bit” right now that I knew he was going to love these!  I was right!

We use a lot of Ikea pieces in their room.  Most were Craigslist finds (the bed, the dresser and the nightstand were all from one person that we bought for cheap!) and the Expedit cases plus the cabinet were purchased new.  The cabinet was our solution for the many completed Lego sets our son has built.  We wanted a place he could put them that was safe and that allowed them to still be seen.  The doors beneath hide a big messy library of books.  No longer do we have open shelving that forces me to tidy them before having guests over.  The Mario cross stitch has graced the walls of every room my oldest son has slept in since he was a baby.  I started the project when I was pregnant with him and finished it when he was a few months old.  The pattern can be downloaded from SpriteStitch.com.

I love that the boys share a bed, it makes me happy that they have each other for comfort and company just as my husband and I have each other.  Since they co-slept (and sometimes still do when they need us) this situation works great for us.