Sports-Themed Toddler Room

Boys like sports

Pretty much as soon as our boys came out of the womb, they started playing with balls. Throwing, catch, swatting, chewing. When they both hit the age of 2, they were turning everything they could into a golf club and golf ball… even a spoon and cheerio at the breakfast table… super cute until something breaks or someone gets hurt. Have you ever gotten hit with a golf club? I BARELY was touched on the head with one once, and had tears in my eyes and a bump for a week.

As I’ve mentioned before, I grew up in a household with only sisters, so this boy world is new. When we started thinking about a big kid room, we were trying to come up with decor that D would enjoy, but that wouldn’t annoy me. If D was allowed to make the call, it’d probably be some sort of cluster of Paw Patrol, Cars, Planes, and PJ Masks. I’m too much of a minimalist for that. Not to mention, his bedroom was on the first floor and visible to any and all visitors. (Don’t even get me started on how scary it is having a kid sleep alone on the first floor)

Vintage Sports

I don’t think I understood what vintage was until I worked in retail. The company I worked for was all about it, and it didn’t take me long to become obsessed. We knew that whatever theme we ended up going with, we wanted to put a vintage spin on it. We narrowed it down to sports or vehicles. Sports won, but we snuck a couple planes in the decor;)

I love the wood elements combined with the metal. It’s one of my favorite combos, and I think that these elements, especially, look great in a boy’s room. We also threw some leather touches in the mix. It doesn’t get much more masculine than that… probably a little too much haha

The play table is, by far, my favorite piece of furniture in the room. A great way to hide the mess of toys, and it fits so much stuff! Also the perfect height for a toddler and his trains. If you give a toddler a table, they’ll avoid making a table out of “forbidden” furniture.

Wall Decor

The wall rack looks cool, but it’s not super functional and was hard to fill. I’m still not 100% sure I love what I chose to put in it. The “W”, airplane bank, and the soccer ball are my fave though!

You’ll notice the adorable little caddy outfit from D’s first birthday hanging on the hook. We love that thing so much, and I was happy we found a spot to display it.

I love these letters! This was actually one of the biggest debates Joe and I had with the room. What sports-related word is short enough and doesn’t sound too cocky? There aren’t a ton of them. I thought we landed with a good one, but there were still people who teased us about putting that over our son’s bed. I know it’s less appropriate as a kid gets older, but I’m hoping to update his room before then:)

The bed looks funny because we have those blowup toddler “rails” under the sheets to keep D from rolling out. As much as I like to set up the rooms without all the practical kid stuff, there’s just some things you can’t avoid. Now that D is four, and we moved into a new house, I managed to eliminate the blowup guards. He’s fallen out of the bed a few times… I’m not proud, but the kid’s gotta learn.

A personal touch that we are really excited about is these framed art pieces done by a friend we used to work with. He’s super talented, and we got to pick which athletes we wanted drawn. We went with Tiger Woods, Michael Jordan, and Ken Griffey Jr (not pictured). So awesome to have a few pieces of his artwork forever!

Locker Dresser and Vintage Balls

We had the vintage basketball and football before our kids were born. I don’t even know why we had gotten them (maybe for the basement?), but I wish we had even more!

Joe and I are Ohio State Buckeye fans and were lucky enough to go on one of their annual cruises with their athletes to raise money for cancer. I was either hungover or seasick during the early morning signing hours, but Joe managed to get a bunch of signatures on the balls:)

I’m excited to add more sports memorabilia in the coming years… as long as it somewhat matches the rest of the room. The boys ran the bases at an Orioles game and got some of the cutest pictures, but I still haven’t decided if I can make my peace with orange in the room. TBD…