Orange Scuzzy Walls Become Boutique Chic

Last week my kiddos spent their first week of summer vacation with their grandparents.  While they were gone I took a couple of days to get my daughter's room painted.  Pink has been her favorite color since she was 3 years old (she's almost 7 now) and she has always wanted a pink room. We could never do it for her before because we were always renting, but now that we finally own a house she was excited to finally get a pink room!

Let's take a look at the "before."

Stepping into her room her bed was on the left in front of the windows, and on the back wall was her kitchen set (that my dad made for her a couple of years ago.)  The poor girl had a mish-mash of bedding that didn't match or coordinate at all.  Her walls were the ugly orange scuz that the rest of the house was, paired with the dark brown trim.

In this picture you can see her closet door on the left and the door coming into her room on the right.  She had a set of Barbie wall decals up in random places as well.  : )

At some point I found a cute pink ticking striped bedskirt at a rummage sale for $1, and an aqua throw pillow for 99¢.  I flipped the red and white quilt over to the plain white side and folded up her old twin sized quilt at the foot of her bed.  It was a huge improvement on the bedding situation, but the walls were still depressing.

I didn't have time to try out color samples so I had to just pick a shade of pink that I thought would be right and hope for the best.  I chose Boutique Chic by Clark & Kensington (sold at ACE).  Many torturous hours later and it was finally transformed to a nice bright and fresh look.

The bed got moved to the back wall and the kitchen set is now on the opposite side of the room from the bed.  It was amazing how much bigger the room felt just moving the bed to this wall!

I made this little set of valances for her room when we still lived in Ohio and I was really happy to find that they fit the windows here perfectly as well.  If I could do it over again, I think I'd go one shade lighter on the pink for the walls, but I didn't do too bad for a one shot deal.  And of course to her, the pinker it is the happier she is, so it was perfect in her book.

Last week in the Fun Friday Finds post I told you how I found matching pillows and a bedskirt at two different thrift stores.  I loved both bedskirts so much and didn't want to do away with either one so I just layered them!  The rest of the bedding still needs a bit of tweaking.  I hope to find her a pretty white bedspread that fits the bed a little better.  This quilt is actually more of a twin size and is a little too short on the sides.  I tugged it down on the side you can see.  : )  We also still have more decor to add to the walls, but Hubs was rushing me out the door on this particular day so I only had time to snap a couple of pictures.  I'll take more once we get it all finished.

Over on this wall between the doors we hung this mirror.  It was a $3 yard sale find.  She loves to play dress up and I thought a mirror would be a fun thing so she can see herself in her many princess dresses.  The mirror is old and very heavy and needed to be hung on a stud.  The only problem was the stud wasn't centered...of course.  So I added in a couple of butterflies along the side to make it appear it that I had planned it that way and that it was supposed to be off centered.  The butterflies were a 50¢ yard sale find.  They used to be dark brown and I think just about every home had them on their walls back in the 80's.  I know ours did.  I simply spray painted them white for an updated look.

Another project for her room is to get her a ceiling fan.  Then we can do away with the ugly plastic oscillating fan on her dresser (which also needs redone).  This is Florida and you just can't sleep well without some circulating air!

She was SO very happy with her pink room and I'm happy to have another room checked off my painting list!

                                                              

Quick Little Before & After

I just wanted to pop in real quick this morning for a short little before & after post in my daughter's room.  

Last week I shared my Fun Friday Finds and showed you this collage of items I'd found for my daughter's room.

I put two of the things to use right away and just wanted to show you how it looks.

This is how her bed looked BEFORE.  When we bought our queen sized bed we gave her our double bed so that her room could also function as the guest room when we have company.  Of course, none of her twin sized bedding would fit so she was stuck with a red and tan bed skirt, and one of the many quilts I've acquired.  It didn't match the rest of her pink shabby chic style decor at all, so I've been on the lookout for some new bedding items for her.

I was so excited to find that pink ticking striped bedskirt for only $1 at a rummage sale!  I swapped it out with the old red and tan one, and simply flipped the red and white quilt over to it's all white side.  I folded here old twin sized patchwork comforter and laid it over the end of her bed. I also added in the "new" 99¢ aqua pillow.

Didn't it make such a big difference already?

Here's a little closer look at the old bedspread layed over the quilt and combined with the "new'' bedskirt.  

I love it!

A variety of pillows.

I still need to figure out what to do for another pillow sham so that she can have two pillows going across her bed instead of only a single line of them piled up.  : )  And hopefully we can get those ugly orange walls painted soon.

                                                                  

A Shabby Chic Bed Makeover

I've been focused on my Etsy shop and just life in general these past couple of weeks, so I don't have anything new to blog about yet, BUT...the other day I realized I have never shared my daughter's bed makeover here on this blog.  It was one of the first makeovers I did for her room and I shared it on our family blog last year, but hadn't posted it here since I started this one.

This is what her room looked like for her first few years of life.  

It was adorable and I loved it, but as she got older she was outgrowing the nursery decor and needed an updated room.  She love love loves the color pink and I eventually decided to go with a Shabby Chic theme that could grow with her for a few more years.

In my "hunting and gathering" phase of getting ready for this room makeover, I searched and searched Craigslist and thrift stores for the perfect bed. But it was so hard! Everytime I thought I'd found the perfect one either it was already sold, the seller never responded to my inquiry, or it was too expensive. Then I came across this one that an acquaintance was selling. I almost passed it up without a second glance thinking it was not a pretty sight.  But then I pictured it white, shabbied up, and with a little extra detailing to make it more feminine and realized that underneath that dark wood ugliness, it really did have great lines. Perfecto! At last I'd found a bed for her.

(Notice that original beadboard  we had in that house?!?  I miss it SO much!)

I sanded it down a bit, bought a $4 scrolly thing (that's the technical name) and epoxied it on. This was when we still lived on the ranch in Florida, so our nosy horses had to check it all out, sniff it, bite it, and knock it over while I was trying to prime it.  (I miss them SO very much too!)

All primed, but not yet "shabbied" up.

And here it is after some distressing with sandpaper. I decided I didn't necessarily want it to have a "discolored" aged look, so I didn't glaze it. I wanted it to be white and just have a shabby/chippy look, but I still wanted to emphasize the details in the scrolly thing a bit more. So I used a very fine paint brush with some black paint and filled in the lines here and there to make it stand out more.

Once we got moved into our current house I got all the bedding ordered and we were able to put it all together finally.  It was the perfect fit!

So that was my first furniture makeover for her new big girl Shabby Chic room.

I'm still trying to get more Etsy stuff done, but I'll be back again soon, I promise.  

                                                 

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Shabby Chic Tooth Fairy Box

You may remember last week on Facebook I shared how a friend and I were having a thrift store shopping day and planning to hit all the thrift stores in town.  Well, that morning before we left I was up early and had some extra time to do a little blog hopping.  I happened to visit Craftiments.  I've been on her blog before, but it had been awhile and I just happened to visit it again that morning, and found her post about the Tooth Fairy box she made for her daughter.

(photo courtesy of Craftiments.com)

I thought it was a really creative use of a box that I never would have looked twice at (which she says used to be a music box by the way).  I liked the idea of it, but I really didn't give it too much more thought, until......

Just a couple of hours later what should I find sitting on the thrift store shelf?

An almost identical glass box!  What are the odds?  I couldn't believe it!  So, since my sweet girl just turned 5 and will be needing the Tooth Fairy's services before long, I decided to buy it.  And bonus, all the glassware was half off that day so it only cost me .50.

 I wanted to change mine up a bit, so I taped off all the glass parts, and using paint I already had on hand I gave it a makeover.

We tucked in some reindeer moss I had leftover from my topiary project, and we nestled a sweet pink daisy on top.  

Now it fits in just perfectly in her pink Shabby Chic room.

I hadn't originally intended to "shabby" it up, BUT...see this section of chipped paint here?

It's the hinge area on the back of the lid and it was such a tight fit that no matter how many times I tried to fix it, and no matter how long I let the paint dry it still rubbed off.  There were other areas of white paint that had come off as well when I removed all the tape.  Instead of trying to fix it and make it perfect looking, which I never would have been able to do, I decided to use some antique gold Rub N' Buff to help the chipped up areas blend in a little better and give it a nice worn look without it being too "chippy."

So now, when she loses that first precious tooth she'll just open up her box, place the tooth right in the center of the flower, close it up and wait for the magic to happen.

The next morning when she wakes up.....

Her prize will be awaiting her.

I love being able to transform the old and the overlooked into something new and beautiful and unique.  

Since I had most of what I needed already on hand this was an El Cheapo project!  Just the way I like it.  The only thing we had to purchase was the gerber daisy, so that gave us a grand total of $1.70 for this Shabby Chic Tooth Fairy Box.

Seeing as she won't be needing it just yet, and since we have a 2 year old little hooligan with accident proned fingers running around, it's going to rest safely up on her shelf and out of reach for now.

Thank you, Kirsten, for the inspiration for such a fun and creative project.

So, now it's your turn.  

Have you ever made something to aid in the "magic" of traditions for your children?

I'd love to hear about it.

(If you'd like to see more of her Shabby Chic room you can look through past posts {here})

                                       

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FINALLY..........Curtains!

Finally, after almost 7 months of living in this house and poor Halie living with her windows looking like this...

I finally got her curtains made.  They make such a huge difference, dontcha think?  They just add to the soft, feminine look of the room and they provide a nice color balance to all the pink and white.

It took me this long because I was hoping the fabric would go on a 50% off sale at Hobby Lobby.  Y'all know by now....I'm cheap.  But every time I was there to check it was always 30% off.  So finally I just bit the bullet and used a 40% coupon.  (If you didn't know this already, you can forgo the sale price and use your coupon on the regular price of the item.)

I paid about $12 for the fabric, and I got the ribbon 50% off so I paid $8 for 4 rolls of that.  So, about $10 per curtain.  My sewing skills are beginner level at best, and these certainly wouldn't win any sewing contests, but I'm kinda proud of 'em.  I think they look purdy cute.

I even took the extra step of lining them!  Aren't I so professional?  I just used an old sheet I had in storage.

Once, again, purely for your viewing pleasure....

Before

After

Now....two more projects and I can consider her room D-O-N-E!

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