Girl’s Room Makeover

Our daughter’s room is finally finished enough to post a few pictures.  There is more I’d like to do in this space,  but with school in session and weeks flying by, I thought I would post what we’ve accomplished so far, with more updates later.

My daughter really wanted hot pink bedding, but to keep the room from feeling too little girl sweet, I ordered a gray buffalo-check duvet cover and shams from Ikea.  I like how the gray check balances out the more feminine pink and faux fur in the room.

We did a cheater’s Board and Batten treatment on her walls which means we did the battens directly over the textured sheetrock without adding the “board.”  This treatment adds such dimension and detail to a room!  (Although it can make it a bit trickier to hang artwork, mirrors, etc.)  The board and batten is painted Sherwin Williams Creamy, and the upper walls are Benjamin Moore’s Gray Owl, a soothing, warm gray perfect for a north-facing room like this one.

One of my favorite things is this beautiful sign taken from Proverbs 31, a verse near and dear to my heart and one I hope will be an inspiration to my daughter as well.  We used a wrapped canvas, printed the words onto an old-fashioned transparency from Microsoft Word, projected the words onto the canvas with my overhead projector, and traced lightly with a pencil.  Amaya helped me fill in the letters using a gold paint pen, and Fireman attached wooden strips for the frame.

One thing that took so long to complete this room was the shipping time for pink pom-poms.  Who knew when I ordered them from Etsy they  would take three weeks to ship from Thailand!  Pink pom-poms are worth waiting for, though, as they added a delightful touch of whimsy to the $5.27 apiece Walmart twin sheets we used for her curtain panels.  Can’t beat that!

These bookshelves were in her other room, too.  I didn’t take much time styling them, just displayed her Little House collection (she LOVES these) and Diary of a Wimpy Kid set.  We brought several games upstairs from the family room and I’ve noticed she and her brothers (as well as cousins) play with them more up here, so that’s a plus.

I ordered Katie Daisy prints for her previous room and still love them today.  The butterflies now hang beside her bookshelf, and the Wildflower print is above her desk.  I painted and dry-brushed the frames.  The colored flower below the LOVE plaque is Katie Daisy, too.

And, really now, who can resist her darling faux fur stool??

(If you look closely at her desktop you will notice a lovely blue stain left behind when she left her school-made silly putty spread out a little too long.  Like overnight long.  Momma not happy about this.)  We changed out the knobs on her desk with wooden ones spray-painted gold. This desk was her great-great grandmother’s and is such a treasure.  When it’s not stained blue, that is.

Her wrought-iron bed (found on Craiglist after looking for over a year) weighs a ton and makes my heart go pitter-pat whenever I take the time to look closely at its detail and run my hands along its heavy-coated texture.  We painted it SW Creamy. Most nights I come to bed with my daughter and read to her before prayers, and I must admit there’s something quite charming about climbing into this beautiful iron bed.

We hung her Pottery Barn book display shelf on the wall opposite her bed but are still working on this side of the room.  I found the gray chair on Craigslist but still need to add a standing or hanging lamp beside it.  The pink crocheted afghan was made by my grandmother who turned 89 this summer.

So there it is, my precious daughter’s new room, perfect for sleepovers, dog cuddles, late night reading-fests, and silly putty fiascos.

Bless her 11-year-old heart.