Using An Antique Jenny Lind Bed In The Little Girl’s Room
Ever since we shared a picture of the kids bedding we picked up at HomeGoods for our daughter’s room in the podcast show notes for Episode #69, we have been meaning to share a room update. Over the last few months we have been giving our little girl’s bedroom an update, complete with new paint and an antique bed scored on Craigslist!
Why Update Her Bedroom?
Because dang it, kids grow up. And sometimes they do not want their 7-year-old room to look like their “little kid” room anymore (please cannot 7 still be little?!). So here is how our daughter’s room has grown up a bit – but not too much. Thank goodness there are not New Kids On The Block posters (or their 2017 equivalent) quite yet. I know they are coming! You might remember that it used to look like this right after she upgraded from a crib to a daybed back in the day (I think this was taken when she was 3, sniff!).
And we later got her a larger bed and made a few other changes at her request (we shared this post over a year ago, but mentioned we still hoped to tackle a few things, like adding a headboard, etc).
Well, a few months later she told us she did not want the canopy anymore. So down it came. And with the canopy gone (which you can also see around the 3-minute mark of this video house tour we did last year) the raindrops were looking fairly weird. Some were even half-painted along the line where the canopy once sat. We considered simply touching them up, but they were dubbed “too babyish” by our girl, so over the last several months we have been making some little tweaks here and there – including a new paint color on the walls to cover up those drops. We sanded them slightly, then primed, and then simply used two coats of White Heron by Sherwin Williams. It totally covered them and the whole wall feels flat to the touch. Whew.
Also, because I am neurotic, it should be noted that our compact client has now chose that she likes the purple side of her comforter better, so these room photos all look slightly odd to me because I have already become used to the purple side being up, and I have to tell you: SHE’S A BETTER DECORATOR THAN I AM, because it looks so much better that way. I have no idea why, but the cooler purple pattern simply works with the rug so nicely. Still might change out the curtains someday – but on the whole it is looking a lot more wrapped up lately.
Certainly a far cry from the room we began with:
The New Bed
But back to that headboard that we mentioned we were searching for, oh, over a year. We eventually found this treasure on craigslist for $90 (yes, I am 35 and I call old wooden things treasures now). It is a complete bed with side rails and a footboard (the seller said it is 100 years old and it in fact has holes in the frame to wind rope around to support an old straw mattress!). There are newer comparable beds that are $1000+ (like this one from Wayfair), so yes yes yes to this craigslist find! For anyone looking for a similar secondhand one, there are some good ones on Etsy and Chairish.
When we propped up the footboard it was feeling kind of dark and imposing in the room (both visually and literally – we all kept bumping into it), but the footboard is so cool on its own that we are planning to use it as a headboard in our son’s room eventually. It is not exactly the same, so it’ll be cool to see what looks like this headboard’s sibling in his room.
Since we were not using the fully assembled bed, and simply hoped to attach the headboard to the wall, we used some scrap wood to create a cleat on the back of the headboard so it could hang independently of the rest of the bed (here is where we showed you how to make a headboard cleat). I enjoy that it brings something old to the room, but the spools still keep it feeling lively. When I tuck her in I likely talk way too much about how cool it is to have a bed that is 100 years old. Moms are so lame.
I am also obsessed with how the little pom-pom trim that lines the comforter sort of mimics the shape of the spools in the headboard. It is like it was meant to be together (again, we found that gem at HomeGoods – and the llama sheets are from Target because, llamas!).
The white nightstands are from Target. I enjoyed the campaign hardware detail, the pleasant functional drawer, and the fact that they are white (we had old wood side tables that looked especially heavy with the wood headboard – so my pointer would be to try mixing in white night tables if you are battling that issue yourself). She still has her trusty pink touch lamps that we got her over a year ago (I do not have to tell any parent this, but kids enjoy tapping things on and off – it is one step away from my childhood go-to: The Clapper). Also, I enjoy that she uses the drawers for practical things like storing doll clothes and housing a compact toy mouse.
The abstract art above the bed is from Target and the pink quote art is simply a page I tore out of a magazine called Flow. It reads “If you only read the books that everyone else is reading, you can only think what everyone else is thinking. -Haruki Murakami” And it has a cat on it for good measure. When I asked her if she hoped me to hang that up there in the frame she said “Yes because NOBODY else likes to read BabyMouse comics AND Goosebumps at the same time!” This kid.
The Paint
Back to the walls for a sec – we went with White Heron paint after truly liking how it looked throughout the beach house.
It plays well all of the other existing paint colors: the bright white trim (Benjamin Moore’s Simply White), the soft pink ceiling (Benjamin Moore’s Pink Cadillac) and the bold closet door (Benjamin Moore’s Cinco de Mayo). White Heron is a quite soft warm grey-tan color, so we joke that her room’s kind of like a muted Neopolitan ice cream bar now, thanks to that strawberry ceiling and vanilla trim.
The Storage & Art
While we kept the Hands-on toy/book storage as is (we made that a few years ago and covered the process in our second book), we did refresh some of the art around it. It was lively to see what things got to stay and what got switched out, and our daughter insisted on the little silver antlers (they were downstairs in a pile of things that I was going to use at the beach house) because it was the ideal spot to hang her dreamcatcher keychain. Clearly she’s into form and function – ha!
This photo cracks me up because you can get a sense of how the bookcase has kind of become a playhouse of sorts too. Part of the “de-babying” of the room was also heeding her request to remove the homemade dollhouse in the closet (more on that in a moment while I sob quietly behind my laptop). We craigslisted it to a grandmother who was quite excited to have it for her grandkids, so we were glad it was going somewhere that would get more use, but I do find it oddly reassuring when I walk in and the bookshelves have been turned into compact rooms for her toys.
I also had some lively bringing in some gold, simply because I enjoy those gold Target frames and have likely purchased my body weight in them, but also because I like that there is some silver layered in with them as well (in the antlers, the oval mirror I painted years ago for her, and even that little silver spotted dog sitting on the frame). That dog in fact used to be a drawer knob but it cracked and fell off, but he has lived on as a little picture-sitter of sorts.
The Dresser
The wall opposite the bed still features her old changing-table-turned-dresser (it is nearly 8 years old and still going strong!) with that fairly inlay mirror above it that we all enjoy. I think the only update here is that I spray painted the yard sale moose lamp gold because he used to be white and I thought he’d pop more, but he’s looking kind of weird in this picture. In person he’s less bold looking (more of a soft hammered gold) but here he looks… I do not know… like a golden chicken nugget.
That laundry basket is an estate sale find and the curtains are Ikea panels I dyed light pink years ago. They are likely the next thing we will upgrade in here, because they are so lightweight that it is hard to keep them looking like they have not been whipped by a daily tornado.
The paint color change has been good for plenty of reason. As much as we liked the white, her room consistently felt a little disconnected from the rest of the upstairs because everything else had a warm tan-gray color on the wall (this room had been a especially crisp white color). Plus, her room gets the best light of any room in the house, so it can certainly handle something less stark. We also like how it is helping the white elements – like the crown molding or the lampshade below – pop off the walls a little better. Once again: chicken nugget moose, everyone.
The Closet
As I mentioned earlier, the closet got a little update too. With the dollhouse not getting used anymore (*SOB!*), we in short simply asked our daughter what she’d rather use that spot for, and she requested a place to draw and write. I had consistently thought a vanity might make sense in there when she’s older, so I enjoy that this works as a drawing/writing nook and could also be a getting-ready space for her someday (since I am sure someday she’ll need a larger and more legit desk, which I imagine might take the place of her bookcase down the line).
We grabbed the vanity at Ikea since it is small sufficient to easily fit into that nook (remember when we “wallpapered” that back wall with fabric years ago). Then we simply brought in one of our spare dining room chairs for a place to sit. It had been in the attic since we got upholstered end chairs for the dining room, so it is pleasant to make use of it.
The desk/vanity flips up on one side, so it is strong for stashing pencils and stuff, while the other half has a normal drawer for tucking away papers. I am not sure I agree with Ikea’s inexplicable decision to make the inside of the vanity blood-red, but it in fact works in here.
It may seem like overkill to have three kids drawing/writing surfaces in the house (if you include their desks in our office and the bonus room) but they all get used, and this one is pleasant because it is simply hers and she can work in here quietly in the morning before her brother wakes up.
Get The Look: Updated Girl’s Bedroom
For anyone looking for all of our sources in one place, here is a little get-the-look mood board for ya. We hunted down similar items for the things that are thrifted or discontinued:
1. Walls (SW White Heron) / 2. Trim (BM Simply White) / 3. Ceiling (BM Pink Cadillac) / 4. Door (BM Cinco de Mayo) / 5. Touch Lamp / 6. Bedside Table / 7. Faux Plant / 8. Woven Pot / 9. Windsor Chair / 10. Vanity / 11. White Pouf / 12. Faux Antlers / 13. Abstract Print / 14. Toy Storage / 15. Colorful Print / 16. Antique Wooden Spool Bed / 17. Inlay Mirror / 18. Midcentury Dresser / 19. Throw Pillow / 20. Llama Sheets / 21. Rug / 22. Bedding Set
I am sure it is not the last evolution this room will see. At some point, she’ll likely need a dresser with deeper drawers (what once held onesies and diapers perfectly is sometimes feeling maxed out with sweatshirts and skinny jeans). And I truly can see that bookcase getting swapped out for a full-sized desk in a few years if she wants more space to spread out. And who knows when and if those curtains will change. Will it be before or after the Nick Jonas posters (or whoever’s the current heartthrob at the time) go up? Everyone says it, but they truly do grow up too fast (*sniffle*).
Psst- Wanna see other kids updates and projects? Here are dozens of walkthroughs from our archives.
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