How to Build A Toy Cubby Shelf + Boy’s Room Makeover

This DIY boy’s room makeover is so inspiring! Whether you’re renovating and entire room or just organizing a kids’ room, you’ll want to build a toy cubby storage shelf with these woodworking plans, too! 

Our entry table with cubby storage is another great kid-friendly cubby storage idea. See more DIY toy storage ideas in 50 Smart Toy Storage Solutions and 25 Fun Toy Storage Ideas. 

When you’re remodeling or renovating a home, it’s hard to keep your sanity, especially when you have kids. (Here’s our best tips for surviving a remodel!) When our guest today was getting ready to move into their fixer-upper, she wanted her toddler son to have a safe, familiar spot amidst the chaos, so his room was tops on the list.

Amanda worked her magic and turned the truly cringe-worthy before into a lovely after in this boy’s room makeover — and the DIY toy cubby storage shelf is icing on the beautiful room cake!

This post contains affiliate links. Learn more and read our full disclosure policy here. 

Boy’s Room Makeover + DIY Toy Storage Cubby
by Amanda from Sincerely Marie Designs

Hi, I’m Amanda and I couldn’t be more thrilled to here on Remodelaholic sharing my son’s bedroom makeover. You can find me over at The Tale of an Ugly House Sincerely Marie Designs sharing our fixer upper stories and projects. I’m a firm believer that you don’t have to blow your budget to have a beautiful home. With a little time and creativity, you have turn any ugly house into a lovely home! Here’s what you can expect to find over at Sincerely Marie Designs –

Farmhouse Style Bathroom Redo + Cheapest Shiplap How-To

Pottery Barn Inspired Outdoor Buffet

Easy Gallery Wall

My hubby and I recently purchased our second fixer upper and I don’t take the term “Fixer Upper” lightly. The house has great bones and classic charm but was ugly in every sense of the word. We’re slowly renovating each room. You can find all the before photos over on my blog. It took a couple of months of hard work and tears before we were actually able to move in. One of the very first rooms I wanted to fully complete was my son’s room. Uprooting a toddler can be a little hard on them to say the least. I wanted him to have a space that felt familiar.

Here’s what we were working with.

I don’t know what was worse, the wallpaper or the carpet! What I do love about this room is the size and the great natural light that floods in. We first got to work cleaning the room out completely. That included ripping that old carpet out as well. Can you say hooray! We then scraped, scraped and scraped some more to get the two layers of wallpaper down. I found that spraying just plain old water works onto the wallpaper and letting it sit a couple minutes worked great for removing it.

Here’s what the space looks like now!

We choose a soft, neutral gray paint color by Benjamin Moore called Moonshine for the walls. I love that it adds some warmth to the space without making the space seem small. The color allows the natural light to bounce from wall to wall.

We replaced all the upstairs carpet with an engineered hardwood floor from Floor & Decor. Aside from my durability and resistance to dents and scratches, they’re very affordable! They can only be refinished up to two times but in the nines years we had our previous house, we never once refinished the hardwood floors. We decided to give them a shot and we’re so glad we did! They’ve been fantastic so far. We choose a mocha espresso stain that pairs beautifully with the gray wall color.

Instead of adding curtains we installed some simple bamboo shades. They still allow light to filter in and have great natural look.

We left the basic flush mount light but attached a lamp shade to add a more modern touch. We brought in all of my son’s original furniture, including the PB inspired bed, Ikea night stand hack, no-sew teepee and art station.

There is nothing like good storage and a well-organized space! I have found that one of the hardest places to organize has been my toddlers bedroom. With the ever-growing toy collection, it seemed like there was no hope!

We purchased a toy box over a year ago but I quickly found that it was more of a black hole than anything else. Besides being big and dark, my son would throw half of the toys out before he found what he was looking for. After I had finally had enough, I started searching for toy organizers online. I found this one from Land of Nod and loved it!

One thing I did not love was the price. $199 for one bin . . . ouch! J and I knew we could make it on our own for way less and we did. We were unable to find plans for exactly what we wanted.  It took us a week or two to hammer out the plans.

We built our toy cubby shelf, from just one sheet of plywood (plus a scrap backing piece we had). Get the printable woodworking plans for the toy cubby storage shelf HERE. 

Get the printable cubby storage toy organizer plans HEREWith some simple and fun decor items, his room was complete! Our last steps for this space and the rest of the house is to plank the ceilings. I’m still working up the confidence and energy!

Here’s a cost break down of the space-

• Paint- $35
• Flooring- $315
• Roman Shades- $50
• Toy Cubby build- $55
• DIY Art Station- $20
• Ledge Ikea Shelves- $30
• DIY No-Sew Teepee- $23
• Ikea Nightstand build- $55
• Metal Desk- $10
• Ikea Area Rug- $12

——————————————-

Amanda, thank you so much for sharing with us! You’ve got your work cut out for you, but this shows that you are up to the task! 🙂

Remodelaholics, go visit Amanda at Sincerely Marie Designs to see how she’s transforming her ugly house

More wonderful boy’s room makeovers, plus lots more ideas here:

• Boy’s Room with Pallet Wood Accent Wall Headboard
• Shared Boys’ Room with Bunk Beds
• Shared Boys’ Room with Map Wallpaper
• Boy’s Room with Orange Accents

First published 18 Mar 2016 // Updated 30 Apr 2020