Each time we move, we try to come up with ways to make the PCS appealing for the boys. You know, something to look forward to. In the past we have given them gifts, and we’ve also given the boys some liberties with decorating their bedrooms.

(Truth be told, the boys absolutely love it here…they’re really enjoying the hiking and the views of the mountains from throughout our house.)

For the past two houses we were in rentals, so we weren’t able to do much with the bedrooms, but in our current house we let them have a little fun. We told the boys they could come up with a theme with which we’d be willing to paint the room. They quickly agreed on baseball-themed rooms.

As always, I came up with a Pinterest board with the boys’ ideas.

The kids saw a Fatheads commercial not long before we left Florida. One of the commercials had A. Rod or Derek Jeter. I’m not sure which it was, but Jacob started drooling at the TV set.

But wait, Fatheads are EXPENSIVE! Jacob was interested in the Yankee Stadium one, and the best I could do would have been about $85.

“Hey Jacob, how about this poster instead? After all, it’s only 5% of the cost! And you could get 25 posters for the cost of that one silly Fathead.”

Then we could really open up some other options.

For less than $200 per room, we were able to fully design MLB bedrooms for our boys. We used border paper to make it truly unique. Here’s how we did it.

Paint

We needed two gallons of paint — one gallon for each of the two colors we were going to do. We figured we’d be putting grey on the top for both rooms, then navy blue for the Yankees room and red for the Braves room.

But when the grey went on the Yankees-room wall, we realized it was more of the blue-grey.

We also realized the deep colors we chose were REALLY dark. I had never painted with dark colors like that before (well, there’s Jacob’s room in North Carolina, that was more orange.) It was quite scary. What if I dropped some on the carpet?

Now, for Timmy’s room. Dave and I were fighting the clock by this point, the furniture was arriving within 24 hours! Dave ran to Home Depot and got a completely different top color: an off-white.

The total cost for the paint: $50 per room. One gallon of each of the two colors in each room.

Border Paper

The border paper was easy enough. I put several options on the Pinterest board and then asked the boys which style they prefered.

The Braves border paper was $8 per roll and we needed three rolls. For some reason, the Yankees border paper that Jacob chose was $14 per roll and we needed four rolls.

Applying it to the walls was a challenge. Perhaps because we used satin finish paint, the pre-glue didn’t work at all.

We had to come back another time with some wallpaper adhesive and try it again. It’s really on there now!

 

Cost: $24 for the Braves room, $56 for the Yankees room.

Posters and Pictures

The posters for Jacob’s room were very inexpensive. I paid less than $10 for his posters. Then I had them dry mounted for about $10 each at Hobby Lobby.

Timmy had a poster from a 2011 Braves game we went to. I had that drymounted for $10.

He also wanted a Fathead of his team’s stadium. I attempted to find a poster like the one I found of Yankee Stadium. Unfortunately, I couldn’t find one easily.

So I decided to get creative.

I had dozens of pictures from inside Turner Field. We went to games in 2011 and 2012 while we were living in Florida.

I thought this one could be good for Timmy’s room. I shipped it to Shutterfly and had a 20″ x 30″ poster made for $15 (I had a coupon code). I got a red poster frame at Ikea for it.

Cost: $30 for the Braves room, $26 for the Yankees room.

Window Treatments

The simple navy blue valances were from Amazon. 3 panels per room, $15 per panel.

Let’s Do the Math

Jacob’s Room:

• Paint $50
• Border Paper $56
• Posters $26
• Window Treatments $50
• Total = $182

Timmy’s Room:

• Paint $50
• Border Paper $24
• Posters $30
• Window Treatments $50
• Total = $174

I’m not sure if this is a lot or a little for a bedroom makeover. I think I did pretty well.

I didn’t address bedding. I saw some nifty bedding for each of the boys’ favorite MLB teams, which is on the Pinterest board. I also saw some nice-looking, good quality MLB bedding at Pottery Barn Kids. But even on clearance (which it is right now), it’s still pretty costly. Probably $200 per boy’s bed!

Now enjoy some pictures of the finished rooms.