The Boys Finally Let Me Paint Their Bunk Beds!

 

Although I have been cajoling them for a while now, the boys have stood firm on the subject of painting their bunk beds.

It was mostly Luke who was firm, but Noah didn’t need any persuading to stand in agreement with his big brother.

 

But I have been quietly persistent.

Persuasively persistent.

 

 

And at long last, they changed their minds. 

 

Glenn made these bunk beds when Luke was 2 and Alix was a baby.  He worked long and hard, using his own knowledge and experience to make them from a picture I showed him, taken from a Pottery Barn catalog.  Isn’t he amazing?

Of course they were white initially, and for a long time, they were shared by Luke and Alix. 

And then Noah was old enough to sleep in a big boy bed, with his big brother, and Alix and Kate wanted to share a room.

 

 

So I painted the bunk beds a more boyish color – Admiral Blue.  And we all loved them, for a long time.

 

But then I started pining for something different. 

But apparently I was the only one who pined.

 

I can’t say whether or not Luke is a typical 17 year old young man when it comes to change, but I can say he resists it.    I really hadn’t thought it mattered what color the bunk beds were to him.  But I was wrong.  For the second time. 

 

On the other hand, I’m pretty sure that Noah, as regards the bunk beds, is the very essence of a typical 12 year old boy.  It was not that he had sentimental feelings about the color of his bed – I’m not sure he ever noticed what color they were until I brought up the idea of painting them.  But it was the excitement of being in fellowship with his big brother – united for a Common Cause – that really appealed to him.

I’m his mom, I can see these things quite clearly.

 

 

However, as I began to make suggestions about my color ideas, and tried to paint a mental picture for them (well, for Luke, really) of more mature and manly bunk beds, I sensed a softening heart.

It wasn’t immediate.

If I am honest, I can’t say it was even enthusiastic. 

But finally, Luke gave me the thumbs up, and Noah went along with him, because of the Common Cause I mentioned earlier.

 

 

Before they could change their minds, I painted the beds.

 

I also bought a new floor rug (on sale for $8.99 at Menards) to brighten things up.  I climbed into the attic and found the matching comforter that had been missing for a while.  I tidied up their room. I vacuumed and straightened and washed sheets and bought new pillowcases and plumped favorite stuffed bears onto the utility cabinet, and neatly folded their red blankets at the foot of the beds.

 

 

And they liked it!

 

There’s still a lot of work to be done in their room.  We have a few spaces on the walls in the closet that are still only studs, a few sheets of ceiling panel to put up, and lots of trim, and grand ideas for hanging shelves. 

But it’s come a really long way…

 

 

They love their space.

And there have been many fun evenings in which the whole family has crowded together to watch a movie, or see the boys build something on Minecraft, or talk about boyish things, or pray together, in The Boys’ Room.  When their friends and cousins come over, they disappear into this room and we hear shouts of laughter and good-natured joking coming up through the hardwood floor.

 

            

 

There is memory-making going on here.  Manly memory-making.  Sweet memory-making.

 

 

In light of all that, does it really matter what color the bunk beds are?

……….

well…….yes. 

 

 

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