Teen Daughter's Bedroom Makeover - Sneak Peek

I am truly bursting at the seams with excitement to show you what I have been working on for the last week!

As I posted here, I decided to re-do both girls’ bedrooms while they were away visiting their grandparents. My plans didn’t include anything too complicated, I wanted to just give the walls a fresh coat of paint and change the look of things a little bit, and mainly using things I already had. If you know me, you are probably giggling, because you know that I don’t know how to do “simple”. I’m a sucker for over thinking things and making them as complicated as possible.


Natie’s Room took a lot more effort than I had intended and set me back a whole week. Once she returned, I was not able to continue putting every free minute I had into the “project” so I found myself with less than two weeks to pull off Kaitlin’s room. I wasn’t too worried because I thought I had things under control. I knew the paint color I was going to use and the furniture pieces I was going to get.


A couple trips to IKEA and Lowe’s and I had the room painted and the (very heavy) furniture on the hallway waiting to be put together. I also had a hands me down bedding set I was planning on using and a cute desk and chair I found on Craig’s list. So it was just a matter of putting everything together and getting it done, right? WRONG…


The trip to IKEA did me in. My eyes were opened to all the beautiful possibilities and my imagination started going into overdrive. Wouldn’t it be nice to find a cute bedding set with brighter colors than what I had planned on using? And this is when I made the first slip-up… I went to the Pottery Barn Teen website looking for inspiration. Big, big mistake! Once you look at a Pottery Barn catalog, everything else pales in comparison.

I was stopped on my tracks! What do I do now? How could I go back to using this bedding?

It was at this point that I made the worst mistake of them all… I sent my teenage daughter a link to the Pottery Barn website and asked her opinion as to what things attracted her. Of course, I also included the disclaimer that this didn’t mean I was going to get one of those sets; I was just looking for ideas as far as color combinations and styles she might like.


Her response surprised me. My normally subdued daughter was thinking in brighter colors than I would have thought she liked.

And so the hunt began, for the perfect bedding set, and the perfect bedroom look, all within a not so perfect budget. In the midst of this all I was blessed with a visit from my interior design muse. Unfortunately,she was also my enabler [grin]. Many shopping trips later and several additional visits to the ATM machine, it all came together. I am so pleased and excited for Kaitlin to see it! I still have to put a couple finishing touches, but for the most part it is done!


Without further ado I present to you the BEFORE shot.

Here are some snapshots of the new look. I don’t want to show the complete room yet because she reads my blog and I want her to at least be surprised as to how it all looks together. She does not tolerate surprises well, so I have shown her bits and pieces of the transformation, but she will at least have to wait to see how it all looks together.


Here is a peek at the new bedding set.

Her new dresser area.

One of my favorite spots in her room, her desk area.

I love how this wall area came together.

After the room resident sees it I will make sure and post a picture of how it all looks together. A BIG hug and thank you kiss goes to my cousin for her creative contributions, the endless hours spent hunting for just the perfect accessories, and the long nights helping me put it all together. H, it wouldn’t have come out this great without your help.

Bedroom Makeover

For the last two weeks I have been childless. I had such great plans for this time! My husband and I were going to spend lots of quality time together, every room in the house was going to get cleaned and organized, and, because I like a good challenge, I decided I would re-do both of the girl’s bedrooms.

You probably know where I am going with this. On Monday, I found myself with less than a week before my youngest comes back home and nothing had been accomplished. So the last three nights have been spent laboring over re-doing her room.


The bad news is I have been going to bed around 3AM for the last three nights. The good news is that the meds seem to be working. I was able to move faster because I was not obsessing over things being perfect [grin].


My goal was to spend as little as possible. I knew I wanted to re-use her bedding and curtains and that she needed additional storage. Other than that I did not really have a plan as to what I was going to do. 

Here is the BEFORE picture.

I went to Lowe’s to look at paints and came out with three gallons of pink and green. I had to give the walls three coats of paint because the colors were so much lighter than the one on the wall. I should have primed, but you know… I was trying to not be so perfect.


After looking around without success for a small armoire that would fit in her room I decided to use the old dresser I had used as a changing table when she was a baby. It had been stored in my dad’s garage for over four years. A few coats of paint later and new hardware it was looking much different. Not perfect [grin], but good enough.

My sister lent me a bed her boy is not using right now. My brother-in-law made it out of solid wood and I can attest to its “solidity”. My back felt it all the way from their basement to my house’s second story as I carried it and transported it all by myself. I also had to bring the dresser up by myself, so after this week I need a really good chiropractor to put my spine back in place.

I did have to re-do a couple of things. At the last minute I found in Target some cute flower wall decals. Last night, after finally putting everything together and vacuuming, I decided to try them out. I started with a couple here and there and just kept sticking and sticking like a robot. Then I saw the ties from the crib bumper I had just cut up, and my drowsy mind just thought it would be so cute to add them to the dresser pulls. I went to bed and when I woke up this morning I went into the room to take a picture of the finished product and it looked like I had taken a bucket full of flower stickers and just thrown them on the wall.

 I sent a picture to my “interior design mentor” and she agreed it was a little too much. In addition, she likened the green ties on the dresser pulls to “eyelashes” [grin]. So today, after work, I hurried home and pulled all the stickers out.  It definitely improved the look.  Here is the finished product.

As always, I ended up spending much more a tiny bit more than I had wanted. But I am very happy with the results. Here is the rundown of expenses:

$100 for three gallons of “Limish” green and “Pink Wink” paint and three cans of white spray paint.

$120 for new dresser pulls, picture frames, mirror and bulletin board

$35 for the stripped rug and cute piggy bank

So for roughly $250 I achieved a totally different look using a lot of what she had before.

My favorite part? It’s a tie between the flower frames I made from her old crib bumper and the cute piggy bank I found in Target.

 Now we have to see what the room resident thinks of it. I hope she likes it and maybe will make her want to sleep in her own room and stop interrupting my sleep visiting me every night.

She is coming back Sunday evening. I can’t wait to see her reaction!