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Y’all…I’m super excited to share this next project with you because it’s the first major project that I’ve worked on in the home I grew up in. The project: turning my mom’s neglected guest room into a welcoming space for her grandson.

My mom’s house has been asking for attention for a long time. My parents began a major renovation of the 1920s home years ago, but then life happened: my mom went through a divorce and then remarried, she took care of multiple special needs pets, and she finished both her B.S.N and N.P degrees. Over the past few years I’ve been bugging her to get the house decluttered and fixed, and she finally gave me the go-ahead to work on one of the rooms.

Needless to say, I’m super pumped right now! So let’s take a look at how we did this DIY kids room makeover transformation!

The Before:

Ready for this? Brace yourself…

Here’s what the room looked like before we started:

The bedroom before: The small room was neglected and only being used for excess storage.

It. was. BAD! A leak in the roof years ago led to significant damage in the ceiling; the wood floors were stripped; the paneling was dated; there was NO storage space (not even a closet); the room had no space definition.

Before the remodel: the ceiling was caving in due to a leak in the roof.

Our first order of business was to get a contractor in to make sure there was no permanent damage in the ceiling. He confirmed, and the design plan began!

The Dirty Work:

The paneling covers plaster walls, which make a huge mess when you take them down. In order to cut down on cost and keep the mess to a minimum I convinced my mom to do the shiplap look over the existing paneling. I’ve been dying to do the shiplap look recently, so this was a huge win!

To prevent seeing the old paneling behind the shiplap, I quickly primed and painted over it. We knew we’d be taking down the old crown and baseboards, so I didn’t worry about doing a neat job. Even after a messy paint job, the room already looked so much better with a bright color:

Now for the exciting part: replacing the ceiling and adding the shiplap! Woot! I didn’t see the need to spend the extra money on real shiplap since we were painting it, so I opted for 1/4″ plywood cut into 8″ wide planks instead. I was single-momming it at my parents during this (because Ted has, you know, a real job 😉 ), so we hired the contractor for this (and for adding crown moulding and baseboards). Once he finished, I painted the walls, and voila! Here’s what it looked like:

The room after we replaced the ceiling and added shiplap and crown moulding. It’s already a huge transformation!

What’s Next

At this point our goal was to finish painting and refinish the floors. However, as the project moved along the condition of the floors seemed questionable. Because I was on a time crunch to get back home, I ultimately decided to take the floors out of the scope of the project. It was a bummer, but without letting go of the floors I risked not being able to finish the project at all! On one of my future trips to visit we plan to revisit the floors, but until then the show must go on!

That’s part 1 of the DIY kids room makeover! In part 2 (the reveal!) of the DIY kids room makeover we’ll furnish and decorate! Until then, grab some DIY advice over at 8 tips to paint like a pro and inexpensive tricks to make your old home look new again!