My decor dilemma for Alex

When we set up Alex's nursery, I wanted to create a cheerful space without spending a small fortune and without repainting the walls. So we re-used the white furniture from Meredith's nursery and we left the walls their existing pale blue (also from Meredith's nursery).

This is how the room looked when he was a baby:


When Meredith was a baby, she transitioned easily from a crib to a toddler bed, re-using her crib mattress and bedding. We were able to keep her in a toddler bed until she was three years old, and then we set up a "big girl" room for her complete with twin bed and what we thought she wanted in terms of decor. As it turned out, when we asked Meredith for her decorating input at age 3, she (not surprisingly) didn't understand that she was choosing bedding and decor that we expected her to keep for quite a while. A year later we ended up redoing her room, and she now has an absurdly pink on pink bedroom.

Getting back to Alex's room... Alex didn't actually use his nursery much. He preferred to sleep in our bed, and we let him because frankly, we all got more sleep that way. Eventually though he needed his own space, and after being in our bed, he refused to sleep in the confined space of a crib or a toddler bed. So we bit the bullet and got him a twin mattress and box springs. Right now it's sitting on the floor (not as far for him to fall), but eventually we'll need to add a bed frame and a headboard of some kind.

We made some additional changes to his room. The changing table went away. The armoire is now holding a television in our room, and the nightstand is once again beside Meredith's bed. We added some enormous open shelving units to Alex's room on either side of the window that provide more than ample storage for all of his toys and books. There's also now a giant train table in the middle of the room. It was originally Meredith's, and it's one of those toys that Santa just really thought she'd enjoy, but the jolly old elf gave no real thought to the size of our home and where we'd actually store such a giant toy. Oops. We've kept all of the artwork and accessories, but they've been moved around a little bit to accommodate the new furniture arrangement.

When we set up the twin bed in Alex's room, I bought an inexpensive sheet set from Wal-Mart, and we used a throw blanket he already had. It was fine for summer, but with cooler nighttime temperatures, he's going to need warmer bedding soon. That, and cheap sheets are apparently very easy for an active golden retriever puppy to tear up. At some point Zelda must've thought the sheets would make a good chew toy because when I went to wash them earlier this week, I realized that both the fitted and the top sheet had doggie holes throughout them. Great.

So that brings us to my present decor dilemma. Alex needs bedding, but I'd prefer not to redecorate his entire room both because of the cost involved and because I really don't know how he'll want his room to look a year or two from now. I've been scouring the internet for inexpensive bedding I could work into his existing room, hopefully without having to replace all of the artwork and other decor. I'd also ideally like to have something that reflects his tastes. Right now he's into cars, trucks, trains, planes, dinosaurs, football, and Spiderman.

Here's what I've come up with so far:

The colors match the rest of the room, and I could probably paint a few dinosaurs on canvas to hang on the walls:

Yeah, it's sports and kind of generic "boy" but he does love football, baseball and basketball.
I like this, and I wouldn't have to change out any of the accessories in his room, but I'm worried this seems kind of baby-ish.
I have always loved the idea of an outer space room for a little boy. I have so many wonderful ideas for a space room, and if we went with bedding like this, I could use it as the basis for some eventual redecoration in the bedroom. My main hesitation is that this bedding is more MY choice. He has never expressed an interest in outer space because let's face, the kid isn't even two yet. I'd hate to buy it, start planning a "big boy" room around it, and then find out in a year or two that he hates it. Ahem. This is probably my least favorite bedding set. I'm not a huge fan of character-branded stuff. I also think this looks rather grown up for a toddler, but Alex does really like "Spi-man" as he calls him. He's going to be Spiderman for Halloween, and it definitely matches his interests, but I'm not sure if he'll still be interested later on.


Cars, trucks, construction vehicles. All stuff Alex loves, and the colors match what we already have. It looks a bit on the babyish side, but then again, it's not expensive so if he wants something different in another year or two, it's not the end of the world.

More dinosaurs. I like the overall look of this set, but the lack of reds and yellows mean that it doesn't really match the existing art and decor.


Another space set. The same issues apply to the above outer space bedding, but the brighter colors in this set do match what's in the room already.


Anyone want to help me choose? What would you pick for an almost two year old boy?