Boy, have I got a cute room redo to show you! I love, love, love the way this one turned out. Kersten, an outgoing second-grader, has been itching to get rid of her pale pink and "baby-ish" room decor. Around this same time last year I helped decorate her parents' master bedroom (her mom is a coworker and friend of mine) and then a few months later I painted a triptych for her little sister's room. Kersten patiently waited her turn as we promised her a bedroom makeover. Her turn finally arrived this weekend and I think she could barely contain herself, she was so excited!
I visited her room a few weeks ago to take some measurements and while I was there, I took some Before shots. I gave her and her mom little notice before I arrived and I caught them on sheet-cleaning day, so overlook the unmade bed. Here's how Kersten's room looked - from the doorway - on my first visit.
Kersten made it clear that she did not want her new room to look like a baby or little girl room. Her mom and I used some down time at work to surf the net and plan out her room. We found the perfect bedding at Pottery Barn Teen (on sale!) and used this bedroom view online as our inspiration.
We loved the bright colors against the white bed, which is why we decided to paint the headboard I made solid white. The white sheets, turquoise pillows, and tailored window treatments were all things we thought we could copy too. We obviously didn't have the built-in bookcase around the bed or tons of colorful medals but I felt confident that we could create this same bedroom style in Kersten's room.
Some pre-work had to be done before the big day. While I worked on the headboard and shopped for fabric (and roped my mom into doing the sewing for me), Kim, Kersten's mom and my friend, patched the walls and painted them a shade of khaki just like in the inspiration photo.
Are you ready to finally see it? I may be biased, but I think we pulled off the Pottery Barn look and then some. Here's the way Kersten's room looked - from the doorway - when I left yesterday.
Lots of color, but still plenty of white and clean lines so it doesn't look too loud or chaotic. I love it!
Now, let's break it down.
One of the trickiest parts of the room was trying to decide what to do with the big window. Kersten's room is at the front of their house so she has a big decorative arched window on top of regular double windows. Before, her mom had hung long curtain panels from above the arch to cover the window at night and block out the morning sun.
Kim finally bit the bullet and ordered a set of arched blinds to go in the top window. These types of blinds have to be special ordered and they don't come cheap. It took lots of encouragement and convincing on my end but I think she finally began to see the blinds as an investment for the house. Installing them was a great decision...look how great they turned out! (And notice the curtains - made by my mom - are very similar to the ones in the inspiration photo, only our turquoise stripe is horizontal instead of vertical.)
Remember the felted balls I was working on? I used a few of them to make flowers, but the majority of them I strung on a white thread to make a garland. I originally thought we might drape these on the headboard frame, but once we were in the room, we thought they would look best on the curtain.
Here's a Before picture of the bed wall from another viewpoint.
And here is Kersten on her bed as it is now. My mom also made the turquoise pillow shams and I think Kim found the furry throw blanket at Walmart. The hot pink floor lamp was already in the room and the three metal flowers above the bed came from Hobby Lobby for 60% off. Gotta love a clearance aisle.
Her dresser and small white mirror stayed, we just fancied them up with some vinyl picture frames (PB Teen) and new knobs (Hobby Lobby).
The Before bedroom had a basketball goal hanging from the closet door.
We switched that out with more cute vinyl frames above the door. Of course, they'll eventually have pictures in them, we just didn't have any on hand. (I thought all of these frames were so cute I kinda wanted to take them home with me.)
The vinyl frames came in a pack of eight so we still had one left over. We hung it on the small wall that you see right as you enter the bedroom.
The other main wall in Kersten's room (across from the bed) is home to some very nice built-in shelves. The Before shot:
Kim and I discussed that adding more bins to the shelves would be great for more out-of-sight storage. Especially since the room isn't big enough for an additional dresser. I was originally on the hunt for turquoise bins, but I couldn't ever find the right size and color we needed. Kim ended up ordering hot pink ones from Amazon, and now that I've seen them in the room, I'm so glad we didn't get turquoise.
I love the look of the bold pink color on the bottom of the shelving unit, and the white cord handles go great, too. These will be great for storing socks, pajamas, and things of that nature.
This bulletin board was made from a frame found at Hobby Lobby. It was another clearance aisle find for just $10. It was originally black but I just gave it a few good coats of turquoise spray paint (Lowe's) and then added the bulletin board (Michael's).
I think our final touch was just adding the vase of felt flowers to the shelf.
And that's a wrap on this room transformation! I don't know about you guys but I'm ready for the first slumber party...