A Room of Her Own

Blondie moved into her own room last August. She had patiently bunked with Brownie here while Cupcake slept peacefully in his nursery until we were ready to move him in with his older brother.

Blondie is 9 and needs her privacy, you know. She is a contemplative girl who appreciates space and quiet to think and play by herself sometimes. Honestly, I don't know where she gets that from.

The room re-do has been a months-long process. We did the room switch at the absolute busiest time of the year. I'm not sure what I was thinking. But I had promised my girl that by summer's end she would have her own room and a place of privacy from her brothers and I felt like I needed to keep my promise.

Here's what her room used to look like. It was Cupcake's sweet nursery and I must admit, it tore me up to part with his baby room.

And here's the room now. {Sorry for the blinding window light...I'm not a professional.}

I must admit, it looks like a candy store boutique and I wish it was my room. I hang out in there all the time.

I also wish I had taken pictures of the many moments-turned-months of sheer mayhem as we transitioned kids around to new sleeping arrangements, painted after bedtime, and put together furniture. The crib was in the hall for I don't know how long. We had beds in various states of assembly, painters tape that stayed on walls for entirely too long. There were many stages of ugly and mess as we waited for time and extra cash to finish her space.

So here's the low-down on all the stuff and probably more information than you need about this space.

Bed: a consignment sale castoff that I bought for $12.50. No lie. I stored it in my attic for 2 years. It was off-white and I spray-painted it green. It sat in my garage for days to defumigate from all of that spray paint! I still need to spray paint the bed risers so they blend in. We have a mattress stashed under the bed for sleepovers and since Blondie's room also serves as our guest room.

Bedding: Duvet and pink pillow from Ikea. Turquoise dot sheets from Target.com. Pink chenille body pillowcase from Walmart.

Polka-dot bed-skirt fabric from Ikea, marked down to $1.99 a yard! My mom sewed it for me because I only know how to sew with hot glue and velcro.

Curtains: Polka-dot part was a window-in-a-box thingy on clearance at Home Depot for $5 and included the rod and hardware. I spray-painted the rod and hardware hot pink. Bottom strip of fabric and pink ruffle trim from Hobby Lobby. Again, snaps to my mom for stitching the bottom part on.

I was all set to mistreat {a la Nester} with my hot glue gun but my mom said she could stitch in no time. Yay mom!

We took the closet door of its hinges and put up a curtain instead. Luckily there's room in her closet for her dresser and a good bit of mess...all hiding behind pretty polka-dots.

Desk: Ikea

Hutch: Not quite the length of the desk but works just fine: $25 from Pottery Barn outlet {retailed for $500!} Yay me!

Desk Chair: Ikea

Pink lamp: The top dangly part of the lamp was from Blondie's cousin. I rummaged around my attic and found this gold lamp base that I'd gotten for $2 at a thrift store.

Two coats of pink spray paint and voila! I dig this lamp.

Chandy: This may be my favorite part of the room, probably because it came together in the coolest and kookiest way and therefore it's got a story. Most of my stuff has a story. That's what happens when you are equal parts bargain hunter and historian {we history folk tend to love stories and old stuff.}

The light fixture was leftover from The Nester's swapmeet. All the stuff had been swapped and there were a few items left that were going to Goodwill. Lily told me I should take that plain old kitcheny-looking chandy, turn the 3 sconce thingys up {instead of pointing down}, and remove the frosted globes. So I did. And then it sat in my garage for a year and a half. I was going to paint it pink but one day my dad showed up to install the light fixture and I decided I'd rather have it installed and white than pink but still sitting in my garage. Also? The Man was tired of the pink overspray decorating our garage floor.

The sparkly part was super fun. Blondie and I worked on it together. I bought fishing line at Walmart and a pack of clear beads. Most of the larger "gems" were from Blondie's collection of jewels. They have little holes in the top so that you can string them. Who knew? I did buy a 3-pack of magnetic jewels on clearance at Hobby Lobby. They just stick on. Brilliant.

And last but not least, some of the jewels were purchased from The Nester's yard sale, all of them in a baggie for a dollar. Thanks Nester!

The shades are from a thrift store. I used spray-adhesive to stick leftover fabric to the shades and hot-glued the pink trim. I ran out of trim so that one in the back is missing its frou-frou. Gotta fix that.

.....................................

The room makeover process was not an easy one. Blondie has her own sense of style and so does her mama. She agonized over paint selection. I'm pretty sure the nice paint people at Home Depot have never met a more deliberate 9-year-old. I tried to narrow her options and make suggestions and ultimately it's a room we both love. But really, it's her room and she's only a girl once and I left most of the decisions {within reason} to her.

And I have to admit, it's fun to teach her that a space can be beautiful and personal without being spendy.

We have some finishing touches yet to complete. We're hoping to make one of these big bulletin board thingys that she found in PB Teen {but smaller.}

I'm on the hunt for a giant thrift store frame for that project. I'm also on the hunt for a big white furry rug. She thinks that would be cozy and pretty and I think she's right.

It's been fun to take a departure from my normal string of posts on marriage and motherhood and take some time to dish about this girly space.

I hope there will be a few more sprucing-up sorts of post throughout the spring. My creative spirit has been restless during these busy, messy months and I'm in the mood to pretty things up a bit. How about you?

{P.S. I'm back to good ol' blogger commenting system. My "new and improved" commenting system was being mean and not letting people comment. So sorry if that happened to you!}