Jaxon's birthday

Jaxon's birthday was in August but we were busy back then. We had a deal that I would work on his present during September. So I did. He also wanted to wait for his birthday party until the new "Magic the Gathering" set came out.

Jaxon wanted his room redecorated. That was fine with me because a few years ago we offered it to him and he chose to get a video game instead.  Here are a few befores. We were in the middle of getting all of his stuff put in boxes when I remembered to take pictures. I wish I could say that his room is usually cleaner than this. But it was usually a mess- so this is usual. He had all the latter-day prophets and a lot of temple pictures up on his wall. 

He always had thousands of Magic cards spread out on the floor of his room. We have to come up with a solution to that in his new room.

Jaxon has a huge mirror in his room. It does make his room look bigger but he does not like it. Look in the very corner of his room and you can see a corner shelf thing.

Jaxon does not have a closet so we bought this wardrobe from Ikea. He also had a filing cabinet that he never used except to put random things in.

So, first thing we did was knock those corner shelves off. (there were 2)  Do you see the color that was under those shelves? That is what the whole room was when we moved in. There was purple on the top including the entire ceiling.

Then there was teal from the middle of the wall to the floor. In-between that was this border:

Yes, I saved a piece of it. I had to. No one would believe me if I just described it. This was around the whole room. They also had that huge mirror so they could see themselves working out. The had a full weight room and treadmill and other equipment. This was the first room we painted when we moved in.

So... back to getting rid of the old. Jaxon wanted white paint. He wanted a black and white, very modern, sleek room. Do you see what color it used to be?  Jaxon did not like it. He said it was pink. I have to say that it was not pink but it had a pinkish tone in certain light.

Then we had to bring down the computer to his room. We had to set up a projector to draw a picture on the wall.

Jaxon wanted black and white. But as his parents, we wanted to make it not boring. We knew that he would want to have an accent color. And we knew what he would like to decorate his room with. 

See how modern it looks with just a corner painted and just a part of the wall painted? Those little red marks on the wall are the clue to what we did for his room.

Here is the next clue. Yes, I love my son and I don't hate the U. Rivalries are fun but hatred is not.  

Then we put the bed together. Jaxon never had a headboard and he really wanted one. IKEA is the best. In fact everything in his room is from IKEA.

Then we have the end tables. He really wanted two so it would be symmetrical. (bed=$150, end tables $10 each. This is why we went to IKEA)

We also wanted his room to be edgy and teenage-y. So we added metallic accents. Those are diamond plate pieces of metal above his bed. 

This is his desk (from IKEA a few years ago) in it's new place with a desk lamp.

Curtains! And new placement of wardrobe conveniently covering half of the mirror.

New lamps (IKEA $10 each)  It really helps get it brighter in there because Jaxon's light fixture is really lame fluorescent tubes. New light fixture was not in the budget or ability of his parents.

Also, the new grey blanket.  I watch a lot of HGTV (decorating shows) they sometimes do black and white rooms. They add a lot of grey to complement the black and white.  I was looking for a bed set that was grey, but they are expensive and this project was getting out of control. I went with a really big, soft grey blanket for $20 instead. I don't mind saving a hundred bucks or so and that is the kind of blanket he likes anyway.

Jaxon's desk with the new red chair and Magic cards all over it.

The end.

Kind of. I still have one thing to add (magnet board) but that can wait a day or two.

So, the new "Magic the Gathering" card set came out this weekend and Jaxon held a "draft" tournament. (technically is holding a tournament since it is still going on.)

Jaxon worked extra jobs and saved a bunch of money and bought a hundred dollars worth of cards. Then each boy that he invited opened their cards at the same time and picked one card and passed it to the next person, and kept doing that until they had a full deck in hand and all the card packets were gone. In theory the best cards are taken at first and progressively worse cards after that.

Then they play each other  and get points for the amount of hands they win. or something.

They were bugged at me for taking pictures. But I provided pizza, chips, drinks, candy and cookies. They were spoiled. It was a birthday party in my mind (but we did not advertise it as such to the boys we didn't want them to have to bring presents. we wanted them just to come.) so I provided a bunch of junk food. I earned those pictures if you ask me!

Happy Birthday Jaxon! (A while ago)