For the past year Emma had been talking about a room update. At age 3 1/2 she started with a pink, pink princess room. When we moved to Arizona (age 6) she transition to hot pink, black & white with zebra print. That theme moved with us here in Georgia. Over time her white bed paint was yellowing. The mess of her room was overwhelming! So.much.stuff. I have learned the phase of tween has less to do with attitude and more to do with STUFF! She wants her Build-a-Bears, American Girl dolls and "big girl" electronics and arts & crafts supplies. That become A LOT of stuff! Someone recently described it to me best- it's like she is a gas. She will take up as much space as she is given. And, well, Emma's room is quite spacious. Very much the size of a master in most homes complete with full walk in closet and Jack & Jill bathroom. All that equates to too much space for her to fill!!!
So, to be honest, my main motivation in this project was to purge her room! Therefore, I decided to do it while she was gone on her loooong summer vacation. My idea- a newly decorated room and she might not notice what all I purged. :) Ha! I started by removing everything from her room into our bonus room. I didn't even touch the contents of her closet.
I don't have very good "before" room photos. I allowed her to leave for the summer with a pretty messy room since I knew I was tearing into it.
BEFORE: She had a pink and white chevron duvet that is not pictured. What you see were her sheets. :) Matt built her bed when she moved out of the nursery when Aidan was born. Inspired by Pottery Barn furniture. It has served her well. In her first big girl princess room it was on a hot pink wall. When we moved to AZ & GA we placed it on a black wall. Pink & white zebra shears and hot pink curtains. Her name in bold pink placed above her pillows.
AFTER: Good bye black, hello aqua! This aqua has been her new favorite color since spending the summer with Grandma LAST summer! We opted to paint the yellowing, white bed with Annie Sloan Paris Gray Chalk paint. It's such a new crisp, airy feel. New pink sheets and a pretty quilt that ties all the colors together. Her name is updated with a Southern swirl monogram. (Picture on left taken in her bedroom doorway. Picture on right taken in her bathroom doorway.)
The main reason I was insistent on keeping hot pink in the new room was A. I had just painted her dresser pink ombre since moving here and was not in the mood to change it. B. Keeping pink we could reuse the same curtains and other accents. The dresser is the first thing you come to when entering the room. (In these photos her door is to the left of the dresser.) Her guinea pig cage sits to the right of the dresser. (not pictured) I found the lamp at Target. I painted the gray I AM HIS canvas. The three wooden aqua blocks is a craft she did with Grandma last summer. We will use it to display photos.
Now for the oh so dreaded disaster zone. To the right of her bed, next to her bathroom door. The nightly argument. My total frustration. The collection spot, that was piled high. Overflowing, landing all around on the floor. UGH! (Not pictured in the center of her wall collage was a zebra print picture board I snatched off her wall and gave away.) The desk got a new coat of paint to make it more clean and crisp. The chair painted the aqua wall color. We reworked some of the items on her wall collage, added a new picture display board and hung her guitar to work as function and décor. To the left of her desk you can see some pieces of her American Girl Doll corner. She was very selective on what she left out and what we have stored under her bed should she decide to play with them.
Between her bedroom & bathroom doorway is her walk in closet. To the left of it is a full length mirror and her beloved IKEA cart that inspired the room color. Her IKEA cart is loaded down with her arts, crafts and scrapbooking tools. She can wheel it to her desk or the scrapbooking room which is quite handy! To the right is her backpack/purse rack that received a fresh coat of aqua paint and above it hangs the beautiful arrow planks her Aunt Mandy made her. SO cute!! Next to her mirror she has a new jewelry display....but it kinda blends in with the wall. We might need to paint it. :)
Along with Emma's room we painted the "L" shaped Jack & Jill bathroom and the upstairs hall a fresh coat of kakhi. We had yet to paint those spaces since moving in. So nice to have it all done! I found this cute new shower curtain that blends the pink/aqua/gray of Emma's room & vanity area with the orange, blue and green of the boy's room & vanity area. In the painting process I removed the towel bar above the toilet that no one ever used and replaced it with this canvas painting I made. My only regret- I should have added AIM as a rule. Hee Hee! Now to find something colorful for the back of the potty to hold spare tp and such.
The little white shelf holding Emma's hand towels was the find of a century on our Texas trip. I had been looking for a shelf for just this purpose for weeks. We were walking into a little antique store and spotted this in an ally way propped up against their building. It was dirty and marked $15. I took it in and asked if it was for sale. She said- "sure how about $5?". I hesitantly told her it was marked $15. :) She said $5 was fine! Yahoo! A quick clean up and fresh coat of paint made it like new and perfect! She loves to display her chapsticks and nail polish on it. She also proudly displays her two new monogrammed hand towels I made her.
I am SO, SO pleased with how the room turned out! My plan didn't work 100%. I wasn't able to purge and reload Emma's room before she came home. SO, she was a part of the purge and did great! Honestly, she purged more than I probably would have without her for fear of trashing too much stuff. HA! It's amazing how decluttering to the tune of 6-7 trash bags of trash and the same number of bags to Goodwill or friends who could use the hand-me-down clothes & décor we have a room that is more manageable for her to maintain. We haven't had one messy room dispute since the room redo!!! Many thanks to my MIL for helping us sort and purge. Just how she wanted to spend her trip here I'm sure! Ha! It was SO overwhelming and having a third party to help keep me sane was key!
This room will be a great one to grow with her. Kinda makes me sad to think there won't be many room redo's left before she's living outside our home. On that note I will go cry now.
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