Spiced Up Room for a Sparkly Girl

Hi friends,
Finally, I am so excited to share with you our secret room make-over. As I mentioned in a previous blog, our kids were spending some awesome time with my husband's mom and family a couple of hours from us during their fall break. They were gone for 10 days! That was a long time not to kiss their plump warm cheeks. This allowed my husband and I to achieve three goals: (1) travel for business trips, (2) have a quiet weekend alone together at home to celebrate our eighth wedding anniversary, and (3) create a secret spiced up room for our sparkly little girl.

Truth be told, there were several reasons why we spiced up our daughter's room without her input and her knowledge:
1. She's been begging us for over a year to 'spice up' her room. She's observed us spice up her brother's room as well as many other rooms in our house. We really hadn't touched hers since we moved in.
2. Okay, here's the real truth, her vision of how she wanted her room 'spiced up' and my vision did NOT meet. Nowhere did our visions meet. So, if I'm really honest with myself, I mostly 'spiced up' her room for me. Otherwise, that little girl's room would have looked very different than it does now if I did want she wanted. Perhaps, someday, I will grow as an individual and let my daughter express her individuality through her room. I will try to work on this.
3. It's a heck of a lot easier to paint a room and make major changes when the person isn't there.
4. We thought it would be an awesome surprise to do this for her without her having a single clue. Too bad we weren't home when she arrived back home with her grandma and brother and walked into her room.

Okay, let's get on with this. Here's what we were dealing with. This room worked for us over two years ago when we moved in. After all, the house already had a little girl's room. But, somehow over those two years the love I was feeling for the room had disappeared. It might be the peeling princess wallpaper border. Maybe it was the sponge painted purple paint. Or it could have been the chaotic feeling I got being in her room with the combination of the peeling princess border and sponge painted purple paint.

Before:








Now:

 

 

Okay, so here's a breakdown of the room:
1. My painter, aka husband Steve, removed the peeling princess border and painted the room a pale soft pink with a hint of lavender in it. Instantly the room felt calmer. Ahhh!
2. We replaced a faded purple shade with a similar hot pink shade that the other light had. Target.
3. I removed the sweet yellow gingham ottoman that I first repurposed for Bryce's room when she was a baby. I still remember being pregnant and decorating her gingham yellow, pink, and green room. I found a fun graphic bright green (from the quilt she already had in her room) and hot pink print.
4. I also made two small pillows from this fabric.
5. I took down her nursery pink gingham curtains and purchased inexpensive Target white ruffly curtains and added a fun hot pink pom pom accent along the edges.
6. My electrician, aka husband Steve, finally put up Bryce's old purple chandelier from her toddler room after I added white strings of seashells to the chandelier.
7. I added some fun graphic pink and green scrapbook paper to existing frames and also added some new black and white photos of Bryce and family at the beach.
8. I painted white starfish that were left over from our wedding hot pink, bright green, and aqua blue to accent the room.
9. I repainted Bryce's headboard a bright green. I found this wooden headboard at the dump (yes! the dump! and I actually picked it up and put in my car) over 15 years ago. The headboard has been painted many different colors.

Since the photos were taken I've already changed:
1. The cardboard/sticker project chandelier hanging from the ceiling has been moved to over the dresser. It looks great there!

Still to do:
1. Bryce still wants a surfboard (girlie colors of course) hanging from the wall. I need to check out Pottery Barn Kids and Etsy for this. I like this idea! It correlates with her quilt which she's had for years.

What do you think? Do you like the changes? What are you changing or 'spicing up' in your home?

Next on our list is moving our current guest room to my husband's large office. The two rooms are swapping spaces. Pros of the move: our guests will have considerable more room and a quieter space and my husband will have an office that is easily accessible.

Thanks for joining me today friends. Please let me know how you're doing and what decorating projects you've got going on.

Happy decorating,
Megan
meganlawbrewer@yahoo.com

Almost an Update

Hi friends,
Thanks so much for joining me. This weekend I'm home with my husband in our bizarrely quiet home as our rascal kids are staying with his wonderful momma about 3 hours away from us. I haven't seen my children in a week! This is their fall break as they attend a year round school which means you go to school 9 weeks then you have a break for 3 weeks. Therefore, no long summer breaks for them, their breaks are spread out throughout the year. It actually makes a lot of sense academically- they don't have a long break in the summer to regress which actually does happen.

Anyhoo, my husband and I have a quiet house and are celebrating our 8th wedding anniversary this weekend. He just cooked lobster, filet mignon, baked garlic, yummy bread, a coucous dish with shrimp, a strawberry/goat cheese/walnut salad, and a delicious wine for me. Yes! I am sooo blessed! Not to mention I spent the entire day doing whatever I want which included waking up when I wanted (8am) and using: a nail gun, a staple gun, a glue gun, a sewing machine, a needle and thread, and a paint brush. I CANNOT wait to reveal to you what I spent my day on....but I can't reveal just quite yet but I will soon.

Tomorrow after church I am headed out of town for business but I'll be back home real soon and share what madness I've been up to. :)

Thanks for coming along for the journey with me.
Happy decorating,
Megan

Disappearing Act

Hi friends,
Thanks so much for joining me today. Maybe you've noticed that there haven't been any recent posts from me and were wondering if I fell off the face of the Earth? Maybe like Sandra Bullock in the movie Gravity that I plan on seeing this weekend. Doesn't it look amazingly scary? Well, no, I'm not adrift lost and alone in space, more like losing my mind! (More about that a little later!)

I joined the full time working mom world again after a brief hiatus of about two years spent dabbling in the part time work world. The lure of interesting and engaging work plus a steady paycheck coming calling my name and I couldn't resist. Needless to say, I'm overwhelmed and exhausted (in a good way, I think) but have had to set aside some of my favorite things to do like blogging, decorating, etc to get my work done. I'm hoping that as I settle into my new routine I'll find more time for my side projects.

Some new blog postings I plan on working on real soon and posting are:

*Happy Halloween (yes, I'm the crazy lady on your street who has three boxes of Halloween decorations in my attic)

*Spicing Up A Room in Our House

*My Home Office Update


I've missed you friends and am promising myself to find some balance in my life and spend a little time with you. I also want to update my fall reading book list with you and hear what you're reading this fall.

Be well and happy decorating,
Megan