The transformation of a girl's bedroom

When we moved into this house in 2007, Ann-Marie was 4 years old.  Her Pap paints houses, interior and exterior, for a living.  So, he offered to paint the kids' rooms when we moved in.  Ann-Marie chose her wall color - a bright, Pepto Bismal pink.  I intensely disliked this color (yes, I hated it), but it made a certain little girl very happy.  It was so bright that at night, her room made the street outside glow pink!  My sister-in-law, Maura, gave us my niece's bedroom set....a beautiful white canopy bed (we never did turn it into a canopy) and a dresser, nightstand and desk - gold hardware, perfect little girl bedroom.  Add a couple of Ikea curtains, a couple of princess wall hangings and we were done!

Until Ann-Marie turned 10 that is.  And she started not liking pink and was growing out of her little girl pink phase.  Little did I know that she was scheming with Pap again.  Surprise...her 10th birthday present was another painting of her room by Pap!

Now, I will tell you....I do NOT like decorating.  It is NOT a talent of mine, I do not change decorations, or furniture, or wall colors very often (we're talking decades.)  In fact, in the past, I was satisfied with moving every 7 years - that's my level of decorating.  Give me a good cabinet to organize, schedule to overhaul, curriculum to make work.  Just don't give me a room I have to decorate!

So Ann-Marie's room - now a lovely shade of blue (I do LOVE this color) stayed pretty much the same.  I never did take a picture of it......think blue walls with the Ikea curtains and pink bedspread.  So, for her 11th birthday, she asked for a room makeover.  

Her birthday was in April......we just (almost) finished the room.....it is the end of October.  Things move fast at the Jerome household!

Her birthday present.....the bedspread.  With her birthday money, she bought the lime green/white striped curtains at Wal-mart.  The blue lamp was bought at Target.  And she was promised an update to her dresser, nightstand and desk.  We weren't prepared to buy any furniture new and we liked how the white looked against the bold, blue walls.  So we searched Pinterest, and came up with the idea of painting the drawers of the dresser, nightstand, and desk.  With a trip to Home Depot, we found a perfect shade of lime green spray paint and began the (long) process of pulling out her drawers, painting them, and returning them.  We LOVED the new look to the furniture, but we didn't LOVE the gold hardware.  There were 4 flower pulls, which we liked the look, but not the color of.  So with silver spray paint, that I already had, we covered them and loved the look of silver against the lime green.  The 6 other pulls were antique-looking, which we didn't love.....so we went to Home Depot and found some silver pulls that were a similar color to the flowers.  

 Some of her new wall hangings are a character sketch a local artist did of her at a friend's birthday party, a framed picture of her life verse (Proverbs 3:5-6), and a string of lime green lights hanging off her bed.

 Right after her 10th birthday, we did pull the wooden doors off her closet, much to Darrell's displeasure as they will be very hard to put back on if we want to sell this place some day.  We found a curtain and created an art/writing center in her closet.  So half of her closet is a closet for clothes, the other half is an art/writing center with a very small desk.

What is not done yet.....the tops of the dresser, nightstand, and desk need to be repainted white, as they are pretty scratched up and marked up.  We might do some painting of her bed, but we're still thinking about what we will do.  Otherwise, we are very pleased with how the room turned out!

Next up - the boys' room.  The concept - changing it from a dinosaur themed room to a Steelers football themed room.  Paint has been chosen and bought.  Goal - complete before Evan is a Senior in High School!