When we found out baby #2 was coming, we decided it made the most sense to transition our 2-year-old son to the larger bedroom and keep the smaller bedroom the nursery. He’s going to be 2.5 years when baby brother arrives so we wanted to give him ample time to warm up to the new room and hopefully transition into a toddler floor bed. To ease the transition, we kept the theme similar to his nursery which is camping/woodland animals and went with a more colorful forest animal/bird theme. We chose to decorate with things he loves to hopefully make the transition easier. This also allowed me to do several DIY projects to get exactly what we wanted! This is our DIY woodland toddler boys room and other toddler room ideas for making an easy transition.
Toddler Room Ideas: DIY Woodland Toddler Boys Room
When my husband and I initially talked about decorating the toddler room, I wanted colorful dinosaurs and he wanted sports. Since he’ll inevitably want a sports theme later in life, I didn’t want to do that yet. I wanted to keep my baby boy as youthful as possible for as long as possible! So, as I mentioned, we compromised and went with a DIY woodland toddler boys room because it was the only option we both liked. After the fact, we realized this would also, hopefully, make the transition from nursery to toddler room a little easier since the rooms would be similar.
Toddler Room Ideas for Transitioning
Our son loves animals and especially anything that looks like a horse or a cat so I knew that would be an easy sell. He also really loves birds and the bird mobile in his nursery so I wanted to recreate that for sure.
Toddler Boys Room Decor
I started the room by making a trip to Hom Furniture to purchase a mattress and get sizing down for the floor bed we were planning to build. While I was there I also found a super cute deer print with colorful birds on it and that really got the toddler room ideas going. I decided neutral animal prints with pops of color would be fun and still neutral enough to last him into childhood.
Next stop was Hobby Lobby and I immediately found a neutral raccoon print and the “Go Play Outside” iron wall hanging that I HAD to have. We’re not a video game family and are very adamant about getting outside to play so this just fit perfectly. I also found one that said “no grass stains, no glory” which is the cutest phrase ever, but the style was off. That might have to be a DIY addition down the road!
I randomly scored the map wall decor while browsing Target (shocker!) and thought it would be a cute addition to the gallery wall to balance the black iron sign. I also found the rabbit and fox succulent wall vases at Target while my son was with and he was so excited when he saw them. He just loves his animals!
Toddler Boy Room Ideas: Bedding
One of the hardest parts of the room was deciding on bedding. Our son hates blankets in his bed but I knew down the road he would want something, and the decorator in me just couldn’t skip bedding. Everything we found was very cartoon character looking, pricy, or just neutral stripes. Finally, I left it up to my husband (who is the frugal one in the family) and he picked the super cute woodland quilt that was on the pricier side but we scored on clearance. I was shocked but super excited he agreed it was perfect and adorable!
We decided since we splurged a bit on the quilt, the sheets would be more affordable, basic grey patterns. I happened to find several cute options on sale for a great price. Nice quality, good reviews, and tons of colors and patterns! Can’t go wrong with these jersey sheets and these printed sheets for your toddler boys room! (The little character pillow is a find from Hobby Lobby)
Adding Pops of Color to Our Toddler Boys Room Decor
Lastly, I wanted some color added to the decor. I knew I wanted to carry the colorful birds from the deer print into the rest of the room.
DIY Toddler Room Ideas
This for sure included the bird mobile but I while shopping for the birds at I decided to get a few extra and add a bird branch to the gallery wall.
To cover a lot of wall space with minimal cost and get more pops of color into the room, I decided to make my own felt ball garland to string across the entire long wall. Store bought options were expensive and short. I would have needed at least 3 to get the length I needed, plus I wanted jute string for a more rustic look and most pre-made options were white. So, I found a large package of felt balls in the proper size for about a 1/4 of the cost of the premade options!
Plus, this allowed me more options for the gallery wall as well. I thought about making a yarn wall hanging until I realized I would have extra felt balls. It was a natural fit to create a cute felt ball wall hanging to tie the whole room together.
Don’t worry; DIYs are coming for each of these items!
Furniture and Organization: Toddler Room Ideas
We painted our existing outdated oak dresser a medium grey to hide dirt and dings. It should also easily transition to other room themes down the road. We pulled in our old, short side table and paired it with my family heirloom baby rocker for a sitting area and little work (aka coloring) table.
Last, we took a bookcase that used to be in our living room and added dollar store bins for storing and organizing toys and books. We won’t keep a lot of toys in here at this point since we really want to push SLEEPING in this room, but eventually, when bedtime becomes routine, we’ll need the storage.
**Don’t forget to secure all furniture with wall mounts! Safety first, especially in an active toddlers room!
DIY Toddler Floor Bed Frame
We also built a DIY toddler floor bed for his mattress so we wouldn’t have to worry about him rolling out of bed. We used a twin size so he can grow with it and we’ll eventually pass it down to the next kiddo.
We’re hoping the transition to the big boy bed goes well, but our back up plan is to use the rails from a vintage crib we have (my old crib actually!) to temporarily add sides to the twin bed that he can’t crawl out of. We don’t want to have to buy another crib for only a year or so.
Read about our DIY Toddler Crib for Transitioning to a Toddler Bed
DIY Woodland Toddler Boys Room | Toddler Room Ideas
I just love how this room came together! The first time our son walked into the room his eyes lit up and he didn’t know where to look first. He just kept pointing at things saying “Bird, Ball, Oooh.” Choosing things he loves was definitely the right move! Now, if we can just get him to nap in the bed rather than jumping on it we’ll be all set! Four more months to make that transition… wish us luck!
Until next time, happy decorating!
XO,
Meg
