A record of Girl’s Bedroom Evolution

Who is ready for the coming of age tale of a girl room, simply finding its own way in this big striking world? Growing, changing, and living life without regrets and a whole lot of heart (*cue the romantic comedy music*). I think Reese Witherspoon should play the room.

Some recent updates to our daughter’s room made us realize that this space has undergone quite the evolution since we moved in three years ago. And much like we took you through the evolution of our last house’s master bedroom, we thought it would be lively to do that in here. We are big subscribers to the whole “if at first you do not succeed, try try again… and again, and again” concept when it comes to cracking that how-do-we-want-this-room-to-look-and-function puzzle. And the brought in element of a space that is evolving to fit the changing needs of a then 3-year-old to a now 6-year-old is fairly lively to look back on.

So let us go back in time for a bit, shall we? Here is what the room looked like when we picked up the house, complete with periwinkle blue trim and old wall to wall carpeting.

Before we moved in we ripped up the carpet…

…. sprayed all the baseboards & doors white…

…and installed hardwood floors.

On the day we moved in, we in short simply dropped in all of our existing furniture and it stayed like this for a little while (check out that paint overspray from the doors on the walls).

Eventually, we painted the room white with a soft pink ceiling and made a few other swift swaps (the afternoon sun was so bright in here it bounced off the rug and the whole room glowed hot pink, so we brought in a blue rug we had on hand instead). We also tried some other patterned curtains we already owned, simply to give them a whirl in here.

Next, we brought in a plain little fabric canopy over her daybed using store-picked up brackets and fabric with blue pom-pom fringe sewn along one side (walkthrough here).

Then came the crown molding that we installed (here is how we made it extra beefy), along with a bold pink closet door and some colorful raindrops on the wall, simply for lively (here is the full rundown on how we did that with paint colors, steps, etc).

Then came a third rug since the navy/teal one consistently felt a smidge too large. This new one – which we originally used in our living room – was a strong replacement after we found a big turkish rug for down there. The lighter color on the floor inspired the breezier curtains that I dyed pink (more on that in a bit). So for the last 18 months or so it had looked like this (this photo was taken for our second book, Lovable Livable Home):

Now let us turn our attention to the other side of the room. It initially looked like this, since she still slept in a crib for the first several months that we lived here. We expected her to make the transition to a bed long before our move (we had a daybed set up and waiting for her in our last house), but she surprised us all by happily sleeping in a crib until she was three and a half!

Once the crib was no longer needed we moved her dresser over there, which was a piece of furniture that we refinished to act as a changing table for her original nursery in our first house. It has served her well for all 6 years of her life and transitioned fairly seamlessly. We hope it is still going strong when she’s a teen (three cheers for old furniture that is built to last).

It also likely bears mentioning that this wall served as a demonstration surface for a stenciling project that we detailed in our second book. We enjoyed how it turned out, but it did not exactly go with the raindrops on the opposite wall, so we let Clara decide which wall she hoped to keep (she voted raindrops, so the stencils got painted over).

These days it is looking a bit more like this. The dresser’s still there, but with the new rug and a little lampshade update (I painted an old white one we had with a soft watercolor technique – simply fully wetting the fabric with a paint brush first and lightly brushing some light blue fabric paint on it). We also brought in a lively pink mirror that Clara and I were both too enamored with to pass over.

And here is a look at the evolution of this wall, as seen from the doorway. Starting with the crib…

…to the dresser…

…and now, a couple of years later, with all of our tweakity-tweak-tweaks. (Sidenote: how cute is that doll bunk bed we made this past Christmas? It is hilarious to see distinct things get tucked in each night, like trucks, drawings, and paper towel tubes with faces drawn on them.)

The other main wall is the one next to the door, which also underwent its own old gradual transformation. Once the dresser moved to the wall where the crib was, it became home to her play kitchen and fridge…

… which eventually got an upgrade with art, shelves, and a mirror.

As her need for book/toy storage grew, we used a mudroom bench and constructed a grid of cubbies on top (another project featured in our second book). The drawers store dolls and doll clothes, the baskets are filled with Legos, and the open storage up top is for books and other random play things.

And at last, the latest change has been the transition to a full sized bed, which was in fact initiated by our girl herself. If we are being honest, we were a little resistant to the whole bed swapping idea (funny how chronic room-tweakers like us can fear change sometimes). We dive deeper into the reasons we came around to it AND the design lesson it helped us learn in this week’s podcast episode (#5: The Rug Crime We Did not Realize We Were Committing), which you can listen to on iTunes, Google Play, or Stitcher. And if you need assist getting began with podcasts (they are straightforward and free!), this post will walk you through it.

We also brought in some new side tables and pink touch lamps, both snagged on a 20 minute run through Target in hopes of surprising her with the new set-up before she returned home from school one day last month. She loves tapping them on every morning and off at bedtime with a flick of the wrist.

Oh and back to the curtains. They were simply plain white Ikea curtains that I dyed a soft pink color by filling the tub with water and adding only half of the powder in one packet of Petal Pink RIT dye, and putting all four panels in there to soak for around 5 minutes. Simply using half a packet along with so much water for all four panels made it a light whisper pink tone, which looks truly pleasant with the pink ceiling and the white walls. Not too bold, but still cute and playful – especially with a little $6.99 strand of birds that we hung on one side. We also picked up some chunky white wood curtain rods (from Home Depot or Lowe’s – cannot remember) because the dark bronze rods we had in there before were feeling heavy.

We put the white pouf and the blue pouf that seem to migrate around our house at the foot of the bed to assist Teddy & Burger hop up for snuggle time (you can see them in the pic above). And for anyone looking for other items in the room, here is the pink bunny print on the wall (seen above) and similar pillows, curtains, and bedding.

That basket you see in the photo below (next to the bookcase) is the hamper, snagged from HomeGoods a while back.

As for the art, we have enjoyed filling that wall up with colorful prints and lively quotes. Here is the You Are So Enjoyed print by the remarkable Katie Daisy. And here is that excellent Dorothy print that we picked up through Society6 (it was done by a friend of ours, who made it out of sequins!). There is also a especially cute print that is simply out of frame that says “Though She Be But Little She Is Fierce” that we picked up on Etsy.

Oh and see that sun thing plugged into the wall next to her hamper, above? That is the most genius thing ever that glows blue (like a moon) when it is time to sleep, but glows yellow (like a sun) at a pre-programmed time each morning, which we have taught her is the signal that it is okay to get up and play in her room. We picked up ours on Amazon a few years ago and cannot find it there anymore, but here is something similar.

So that is the coming of age tale of a little girl’s bedroom. Fairly sure it’ll keep on changing as she grows. I’d enjoy to add a little vanity and a mirror to the back of her closet someday when she outgrows her dollhouse (*sob*).

And I am already eying that big wall behind the bed and thinking that a headboard would be a pleasant little addition (bad photoshop below to demonstrate).

Psst- If you are looking for paint color info or where we got something in our house, this page is full of all the details for you, including links to some of the exact items we have purchased.

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