Girls' Room Re-do

So we decided that the bigger girls sleeping together was not working out.  Well, it was okay, and they had tons of fun, but perhaps not tons of sleep.  More importantly, their queen mattress got ruined during the stomach virus and so they were sleeping on a queen bed frame with a double size mattress.  Not exactly safe.

Plus I think both M and I (simultaneously) reached a breaking point over home decor and suddenly snapped in our feelings of stress over our house looking sloppy and bare and mismatched and like we just moved in two weeks ago.

Commence spending splurge at Ikea.

Really, it wasn't a spending splurge.  I consider what we spent a bargain for the amount of stuff we got.  I'll tell you what we did with some other rooms once I show you the girls' room.

So here's the before picture:

It doesn't really show you the whole room, but you get the idea... bare windows, bare walls with a few pieces of paper artwork taped up with masking tape.  Mismatched blankets.

Now I'm going to show you the new room, and don't expect exact matching up of colors, because the girls did assist us in choosing the decor, but I think it turned out pretty cute despite things not being exactly matched.

L's side!

1) new bed (yes we bought an exact copy of C's bed for both older girls)

2) "L" painting from Piper that was a Christmas present, finally hung!

3) Preschool awards/birthday pictures framed and hung

4) new curtains

N's side!

1) new bed

2) "N" painting hung

3) some artwork and special photos framed and hung

4) I should have mentioned... along with new bed came new sets of sheets, and plastic mattress protectors for both beds so our stomach virus incident (and any night-time accidents) will never slow us down again!!

Zoom out:

I'm not thrilled about the flowers rug since it does't match anything, but it was a hand-me-down from a dear friend and the girls are having trouble parting with it.  We shall see.

I also gave them my old night table and alarm clock, since I use my phone.  This clock projects the time on the wall so they can tell when it's morning.  The night table drawer provides storage for books and other trinkets.

Oh, see the backpack hooks on the far left????  My favorite part.

The girls can now hang their own bags and coats, instead of our old system of keeping them in the hallway coat closet where the hangers are too high for them to reach.  No more excuses for throwing backpacks and coats on floor when coming home from school.

Oh and see the little toy chest right below???  My other favorite part.

Not only is it a cute little treasure chest (and a nice seat for C) but now I can call out, "Time to pick up toys!" before bed, and girls are actually excited about picking things up because they get to stash them in here.  It serves as a nice catch-all for small trinkets and things we've brought up from the playroom, and when it gets too full we just bring some stuff downstairs.  Nightly cleanup is now effortless-- the girls don't have to worry about different things going in different places.  It took two minutes tonight.

Oh and did you notice the mirror??? My third favorite part.

Morning grooming is now made simple with this nifty treasure chest mirror that has pockets inside for their hairbrushes, bows, de-tangler spray etc.  We've even stashed a few flossers in there.  (Behind my head you can see N's Olympic flag banner that she made-- it's hanging above their dresser.)

No, Ikea has not paid me to write this post, but how can you help but promote them?

There are a few tweaks yet to be made... the curtains are floor-length and I'd like to remove some of the length, re-hem and make tie-backs with the extra fabric.  Right now it's pretty dark in the room with those curtains just hanging down, even in the day.  And there's also the rug to consider... finding a cheap new one may be the solution.

But for now... the girls are thrilled and love to spend hours playing in their "new room".  And when I go in, I breathe a sigh of relief that it looks halfway decent.  Not HGTV or anything, but definitely an improvement!

This room re-do is brought to you courtesy of February Vacation Week (which M had off from work), in which we had some extra time for home improvements.  The end!