1 In Farmhouse Renovation/ Home/ Home & Garden

The Girls’ Room “Grows Up” into Comfortable Room for Guests

Over the past month, we have renovated our daughters’ room using some fresh and colorful wallpaper as inspiration. Now it is welcoming to both guests and the kids when they come to visit.

Since we added it onto our house more than 15 years ago, this large bedroom has been “the girls’ room”- housing all three daughters and all their stuff! The oldest two have homes of their own now, and baby girl had it all to herself (more or less) since Annsley went away to college in the fall of 2014.

A few years ago, baby girl Emma, always the Bohemian/free spirit of the family, took it upon herself to paint her walls black. I hated it, but it was one of those times where a mama “picks her battles.” We added some pallets for a bed platform, funky hanging paper lanterns, some succulents… and made it her own style.

Same room with black walls in January 2020.

But! Now she’s a junior in college and the days when she spends more than a couple weeks at home are growing fewer and fewer.

The walls seemed peacefully clean, but a little bare, so I hung some of my favorite portraits of the girls in my beloved Organic Bloom frames. I am a big believer that you should be able to tell who lives in a place; so , lots of pictures throughout my house.

I decided to take back the room!

Inspired to add character and color with removable wallpaper

As my inspiration, I chose this fun and colorful wallpaper. I’ve been drooling over the fun, colorful decorating on At Charlotte’s Place’s Instagram and was excited to jump on the peel-and-stick wallpaper bandwagon! It gave me some design and color direction.

The biggest challenge I anticipated was covering that black paint, but some good primer did the job a lot better than I thought it would! We then painted the walls a good neutral off-white, painted the dingy ceiling a flat ceiling white, and refreshed all the trim paint, too, with paint from our local Fairless Hardware.

Daughter #2 Annsley helped me put up the wallpaper, and it was pretty easy with her help. We ran out, and I put up the last two pieces by myself, with no difficulty. It really adds so much personality to the room!

We updated the family antique iron bed with a memory foam mattress, and I highly recommend it! To save a little, and because they are so cozy, I had always planned to keep the relatively new white quilt and shams, but added a cozy navy cotton blanket and a navy velvet pillow. I need some accent pillows in the other wallpaper colors, but I’m still looking.

I made curtains from cotton dropcloths for a simple, but warming touch around the windows. Thanks to Farmhouse on Boone where I learned about the versatility of dropcloths for slipcovers and curtains! You may have noticed the slipcover I made for the settee in the room – that is also inspired by Lisa at Farmhouse on Boone.

I may try to dye the curtains navy, but will have to run some tests on that. What do you think? I love the way they turned out.

New life for an old, but favorite dresser

I’ve had this dresser since college, and it has been a good one! With a little TLC, a coat of navy paint, and some new silver hardware, it has new life!

I didn’t want to add more furniture, since, when they do come home, the kids manage to cover the entire floor with all their stuff. So I made these nightstands with old pine boards we used for the wood shelves and countertop in the kitchen. I used similar brackets to the kitchen ones, and I think they are the perfect size to just hold your phone or a book overnight, and I saved a good bit.

They are lit with some sconces I ordered from Overstock. They just plug in – are not hardwired – so they were easy to install and add much needed beside lighting. I will definitely get different lightbulbs – these cast a really yellow light!

Keeping her memorabilia

I kept Emma’s personal items on the shelves, but organized them better with some baskets. I also drilled a hole for cords in the shelf behind the TV, as cords hanging everywhere were always a problem. We have had these two bookcases in the Girls’ room since they were toddlers! I think they came from Lowe’s more than 25 years ago and have proven to be very good quality!

I pulled all the “tomato red” books from the rest of the house to add pops of that hard-to-match red from the wallpaper!

The rug is from Boutique Rugs – I was just looking for something neutral, and they are THE BEST at delivering them QUICKLY!

Here’s a great hint I learned from my decorating queen of a stepmother: add a carpet pad under area rugs! They feel SO much more cozy!

I’m so glad we made this change, and that it is done in time for Thanksgiving, when ALL the kids are coming home! Let me know what you think, and, heck, come see us; we have a cozy guest room ready!