-->

Tuesday, July 26, 2011

While She Was Out... Again - Part One

Just like this same week last year, Han has gone on a beach vacation with a friend. Just like this same week last year, Han is getting a room makeover. Actually, she's getting a new room altogether. We'll be using her current room as the nursery for baby since it's right next to the room that will become the master bedroom. A lot of work for one little baby, huh?

The room that is being transformed for her is what we have been calling "The Cat Room" for the past few years. It's the only spare room in our house, and that's where we've been keeping the litterboxes and cat food/water bowls. It also acts as a dumping ground for any type of home item that I'm not using, but may need one day. Sound familiar???
I know I'm not the only one!

Here are some photos I took last Jan when I was working on
Kicking the Clutter. Although, I got rid of some stuff then, this room actually got much worse than what you see in these photos. I ended up putting all of these Christmas bins in there, and I started putting my pre-makeover Etsy items in there too.

A couple of weeks ago, we began to purge. So many items that still had Goodwill tags on them, went back to Goodwill, and probably 1/4 of my Christmas stuff went there as well. I still need to go back through my "keep" items and purge more. I seem to have kept more than I let go. Do I sound like someone on "Hoarders" or what?

Aside from some furniture painting, purging is about the extent of my involvement in this room. Charles is doing everything else. No painting or heavy lifting for me!

The difference between this makeover and the last is that we won't be finishing this while Han is gone. Turns out while I (and half of the blog world) loved her last room, she didn't. She said that she didn't get to choose anything and it wasn't "her". Grrr, right? This time, I'm letting her choose everything so she can't some to me in six months and say she doesn't like it. I have to admit, this is killin' me, y'all. I know it's her room, and I should let her have a room she loves, but it's driving me crazy!

Here's the paint color she chose. It's a Valspar color called Sea Wave.
I will admit that once Charles got it on the wall, it didn't look bad. I can live with it. Not only do I think I can live with it, I'm actually considering a lighter color from the paint chip card for the nursery.


The problem I have now is the bedding she's chosen. We've already purchased it, but I'm itching to return it.


It totally works with the wall color but, I want to return it because the dresser I'm planning to repaint for her room is a completely different style than the bedding. It's an old Broyhill dresser from the 70's (I think) and it's French Provincial. Here's one someone else made over. The dresser I have only has 6 drawers, but you get the idea.

image courtesy of Rethunk Junk


Not gonna match, right? I'm hoping I can find something a little more feminine that she'll agree with. I know I'm not the only person out there who has struggled with the dilemma of letting a teen design their own room, but wanting it to look good. Have any of you gone through this? How did you handle it? Compromise or give in completely?



8 crafty peeps said:

  1. Hi girly!

    Wow, Han is one lucky girl! She has her own interior designer! In answer to your question, both my girls designed their own rooms at that age. I figured I could repaint later (which I did). She had gone with a smurf blue...when it came to repainting- primer was my friend.

    Your daughter seems to have a great eye for color. I'd let her go with what she likes, even if the french provincial clashes- I'm betting you are the only one that will be bothered by that.

    suzy

    ReplyDelete
  2. I think you could add some of those fun colors from the spread to the dresser in knobs and/or some of the trim, or do the drawer fronts in one of the colors and it'll match better than you think. You could even sparsely paint onto the drawers some of the white-centered dots from the spread, having some of them break over the stiles between the drawers. Could be kinda fun!

    ReplyDelete
  3. As a mother of 2 grown up teens & 1 teen in process my words of wisdom are let her choose the bedding. even if it bugs the living daylights out of you. it will look fine with the dresser & it will make her feel like she took part in doing her room with you.

    ReplyDelete
  4. She didn't like it because you only left one of her Twilight posters up and it was behind the door. YOU CAN'T STOP TRUE LOVE!

    I ADORE the bedding! It's so cute and fun. I don't see how it will look terrible with the dresser at all.

    ReplyDelete
  5. I kinda like a mix of styles. I think a dresser like that would be super cute in one of the bright colors from the bedspread (like the fuschia or lime green) painted in a really glossy paint. You could always repaint it later to use elsewhere or in the same room with a different theme. Don't you love how I just added work for you? ;)

    ReplyDelete
  6. I think the bedding she chose looks great with the wall color, and even though its not the same style as the dresser, you could easily make the dresser match the bedding. The quick solution is to simply spray paint each drawer pull a different color from the bedding. Or, if you're up for more work, paint the whole dresser one of the bedding colors, like the lime green or even the orange if she wants something really colorful. I've seen the french provincial furniture in a solid, modern color, and they look totally updated and chic. -Go for it!

    ReplyDelete
  7. I would say that, unless you have to share the room with her, to let her have the final say in all aspects of the re-design. Not only will this give her ownership of her personal space but it will help her start to define her personal decorating style. You can suggest and teach but ultimely this is one of those "battles" that is easy to let your teen win. Both my daughters designed their own rooms when they were "tween" age and my oldest (now 24) has developed an amazing decorating style that is fun and unique (and we still tease her about the time she painted her room dark grey...can you say "CAVE"?) But those opportunities and mistakes were important aspects of her current style.

    Indiana Laura

    ReplyDelete
  8. I've been seeing around the blog-o-sphere about Gradient Dressers, I saw them on Red Hen Home's page, she sourced several different peeps

    http://redhenhome.blogspot.com/2011/07/gradient-dresser.html

    I also like the bold, glossy color idea too.

    ReplyDelete