Grace's Big Girl Room

Today I want to share Grace's new big girl room with you, but in order to fully appreciate just how cute it is, take a look at this:

#ilovethe80s

Brown paneling, brown carpeting, odd light fixtures; to say we had some work to do is an understatement.  I started by painting the walls a pretty pink color (Oleander from Sherwin Williams), which ended up being much pinker than I thought it would be, and sort of shifted my ultimate vision of the room from a softer color palate to something bolder. After getting paint on the walls, I moved onto carpeting, and having learned a very valuable lesson from her first room redo -- white carpet in a child's bedroom is always a bad idea -- I selected a creamier version.  Which is probably still a bad idea but I couldn't help myself.  That's where the big ticket spending stopped and the craftiness started. 

We moved in furniture next, a bed and table that I bought from the original home owners and painted black.  Then we moved in two black shelving units from our home office, determining they would be better used in Grace's room to corral books and odds and ends...not a perfect fit for my esthetic, but they do the trick just fine.   

Eric's one design contribution to the room are these cute little antlers, which I was going to work into a collage wall, but he decided would be better served as a tiny purse hanger.  I agree. 

We got a few floating wall shelves at Lowes, and filled them with some homemade art, using paper and prints from Hobby Lobby, frames from St. Vinny's, and the darling panda head came from Target's Pillowfort collection.

Here's a view of the opposite side of the room, with a desk set we inherited from my parents, and the precious full length mirror (which we didn't get a good shot of) Mimi found at TJ Maxx.  I found the cat lamp on Etsy, and then found a matching hamper at Pottery Barn (sold out last I checked), along with the Dreamer mosaic.  Ok, I guess this part of the room also weighed into my budget, but I couldn't help myself!

I tucked her little dresser into her closet in order to keep the room as open as possible.  It works wonderfully!

She likes to climb up on her chair and "do make up."  I'm going to start putting books and journals and pencils up there to foster good habits...

Grace's favorite part of her big girl make over is her secret room...a spot just for her and her favorite pals.  It's a four by six little crawl space that I painted white and filled up with pillows and Christmas lights.  We spend a lot of time in that little space reading and hiding from monsters, and I really wish it had better ventilation ;)

Canopy and star lights came from Amazon.  How did we do life before Amazon?

There may be a few tweaks over the next weeks (curtains, a few more pieces of art), but I thought I'd better share what I've got before my life is over the room gets trashed the baby arrives! Now, you'd think with a room this specially crafted and a bed that cozy Grace might even be enticed to stay in said bed all night, right?

Wrong :)

Stay tuned for little sister's bedroom update...if she ever decides to show up!