Whew! I'm tired!
Dan and I have been talking about moving Hattie to a "big girl" bed since she turned 2 back in March. For the first time, I don't NEED to move the baby out... because I don't have baby moving IN.
But that is a blogpost for another day. Sigh....
A few weeks back, I stumbled across an amazing bedroom set on Craigslist. While it needed a little "updating," the set was gorgeous, solid wood...and the price was right:
(I never thought to take pictures of the set BEFORE I removed all the hardware and starting sanding it. Duh!)
Anyway... my parents offered to take the girls up north for a long weekend over Memorial Day. This, coupled with our upcoming rummage sale, really lit a fire under both Dan and I to get the rooms all switched out. Most normal people would have simply moved Hattie from the crib to a big girl bed and been done. But... I don't work that way. I am not quite ready to take down the "baby room" yet. I have not given up all hope of there ever being another squeaky newborn to lay in that crib, so we had to have a Plan B. Our home is a 4 bedroom house, with the "baby room" being the smallest of the bedrooms, and our "guest room" being the largest (don't ask- it just is). The big girls share the third bedroom at the end of the hall- which was never really big enough for the two of them to begin with. So.... the plan was to move the TWO beds (and the 2 littler girls) into the large guest bedroom and redo THAT room into Maggie's new room. Confused yet?
The girls left early Thursday morning and were planning to return around dinner time on Sunday. Dan and I planned to have everything switched and moved by the time they returned as a huge surprise. Except I forgot to mention 2 little things:
* Dan worked on Thursday and Friday- which meant a lot of stuff didn't get done.
* My parents only took the two BIG girls, and left Hattie home with us- which also meant a lot of stuff didn't get done (or got promptly UNDONE)
The weekend prior, Dan borrowed a paint sprayer and painted the furniture. I had some big plans for it, but after seeing it a pretty, pristine ivory, I almost changed my mind. But then I remembered it was bedroom furniture to be used by a seven year old, and I knew the pretty paint job wouldn't last long anyway.
My main job while Dan was at work was to finish the furniture so it would be dry enough to polycoat and move back into the house by Sunday morning. Overall, I did really well... and am so proud of how the furniture turned out (see photos below) I simply rubbed a dark, walnut stain on each piece, then rubbed it off to give it an aged, antiqued look. Easy, but time-consuming. I was finishing the dresser on Friday evening when I dumped (no exaggeration) 3/4 of the quart of stain. Most of it landed on me. Some of it landed on the garage floor. It was a huge mess. My first priority was keeping Hattie out of it (while she ran around me in circles repeating the expletive I had just said when the stain spilled) I also had to stop the huge puddle from spreading to the newly finished furniture. Then, I shut the garage door, stripped down to my underwear, and went inside to shower. What. A. Mess. No amount of soap was helping. I had a huge stain from my hip to my toes. It was not cool (note- I have learned since that vegetable oil is AMAZING at removing stain from skin!) Hattie walked around confused, and kept telling Dan "Momma unnerpants in da garage!" Dan was absolutely devastated that I had to throw away a pair of my beloved yoga pants. (cough, cough)
Saturday morning was lots and lots and lots of painting. Two rooms, four colors. Too many coats to count. Oh, and did I tell you? I have (slight) ADD.... painting is possibly the most boring job known to man. I can handle the first couple rolls, and after that, I. AM. SO. BORED. Dan, however, is a meticulous and wonderful painter. My plan was to suck- a lot, and frustrate him so much that he'd just take over and I could move on to the next project. I didn't work that way. We just had too much to do and not enough hands (or time!) to get it all done. Blech. Did I mention how boring I think painting is? This might also be a good time to point out that we didn't bother to take any "before" pictures of either room. While we were cleaning up the paint, I mentioned that I forgot, and Dan said, "I was going to take some pictures, but I figured you already had." Grrr.
So. here are the pictures you've all been waiting for. Drumroll, please:
LUCY & HATTIE'S ROOM
The Ladybug wall! Hattie LOVES the "polka-lots!"
Lucy once told me that if she didn't get her own room, she at least wanted butterflies with the ladybugs. So... there are her butterflies! (she's helped me put up more since she's been home!)
Reading nook!
MAGGIE'S ROOM
Window treatments to come. I ordered the most AWESOME brown matryoshka (nesting doll) fabric. We're still waiting for it to arrive...
So... the paneling. The walls were half wallpapered. After we moved out of our old house and removed the most awful wallpaper from almost every room, I vowed I would never remove wallpaper again in my life. So... we didn't. We just covered it up.
Her dresser... all "antiqued" and stuff....
Found this print on clearance. Knew Maggie had to have it. Painted the frame to match the room... and Viola!
I'm not sure who was more excited about the owl lamp... Maggie.... or me!
Yup. It will look better with window treatments. I promise more pix when those are finished and up!
Her desk. I was on the fence about painting the chair to match the furniture... or this funky aqua. I am SO happy with how it turned out! (PS: I ordered enough fabric to do a seat cover, too!)
I was ridiculously excited about this hardware I found... for half price!!! It was a perfect match to her comforter... and really helped make the furniture a little more "young," don't you think?
I'm so proud of this dresser, I thought I'd throw another picture in here just for fun.
My favorite part of the room? This artwork that I made!
The heaviest mirror on earth. It's hanging up now- and she has a cute little "dressing" corner. I haven't found any dirty laundry on the floor this entire week! Success!
One more of the dresser, because, well... why not?
***UPDATE***
We've put a few more "finishing" touches on the room in the last few weeks. In addition, the fabric came for the valances, so we got those hung, too! I have also decided that we need to do some sort of moulding by the ceiling. That's next......
I knew I wanted some sort of quote above Maggie's mirror, but couldn't find something I loved... until a friend of mine pinned this on Pinterest- and I realized I was SO over-thinking the entire thing! What a simple sentiment... but so, so perfect. So- there it is... right above her mirror where she can see it and be reminded every day!
Nesting doll valances!
We had this wrought iron/wood shelf in our kitchen for the longest time. Last year, it made it's way into the garage when we bought an antique buffet instead. There it sat... until I decided to repaint it as a bookshelf. I'm still not convinced that I love it, but it's nice to have some additional space for all of her books (it's been filled up since this picture!)
I had to take a picture of Maggie's desk chair. I was planning to recover the seat with some of the fabric from the valances. Unfortunately, the fabric came oriented a different direction than we had planned, so we had to cut and use more than we had anticipated. About the same time, I happened to find THIS fabric at my neighbor's garage sale. SCORE! I loved this sooooo much, I *almost* changed my mind on the valances, too!
