We have sort of completed (you'll see why I say "sort of" at the end) our first room renovation in the new house. We chose to do Quiet Tiger's bedroom first simply because she has less furniture to move around.
Here's a very early BEFORE picture because this was taken before we even closed on the house. I just realized that I never took photos of the house before our furniture arrived due to the timing of our botched closing. Also, I would be remiss if I didn't add that at first, the boys were using this room. This room has a much bigger closet and with 2 boys sharing a room, I thought they deserved the bigger closet for twice the clothes and twice the toys. But their bunk bed did not fit well in this room. We did a little room swapping in July on a temporary basis before we painted and decorated to see if we truly liked the switch.
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| BEFORE Interestingly enough, in my TX contact, I had to fight to take all my curtains with us to MN. I had to leave the curtain rods in TX. I guess here in MN, they took all their curtains and rods with no regard to the contract. Oh well. I didn't like their curtains or rods anyway. |
I brightened up the ceilings by painting them Ultra Pure White Ceiling Flat from Behr Premium Plus Ultra (that's a mouthful!). In Minnesota, builders love their popcorn ceilings. Not my favorite, but definitely livable with a fresh, brighter coat of paint. I watched numerous YouTube videos on how to properly paint this type of ceiling and all it needed was 1 coat. The new brightness was noticeable immediately!
I took a little fine sandpaper and sanded down those black stripes near the baseboards. I filled the zillions of nail and hook holes and sanded them down. I also sanded down numerous paint drips the previous owners left running down the walls.
I painted the walls in Stone Harbor. It's a Benjamin Moore paint color, but using Behr paint from Home Depot and having them color match. I love Behr paint, especially their paint and primer in one! One coat and the walls were covered beautifully. Oh, and I happily chose an eggshell finish for the paint so that we can wipe it down lightly if need be. My old house in TX had flat paint which I hated with a passion.
I painted 1 wall with some fun accent polkadots using just a basic white eggshell finish from Behr with no tint added. Sure, I could have done the decal circles, but with a very destructive daughter.... well, need I say more? No. No, I don't.
She desperately needed blackout curtains so she could sleep during the long light hours of summer (it's bright well after her 8pm bedtime, here people). My mom and I hung the curtain rod and hung the red curtains from my master bedroom in Texas. We may or may not keep the red in there permanently.
I repurposed the hooks I removed from our master bedroom walls and created a little dress-up area. I'm tempted to spray these hooks black or silver, but for now, they are the original brass color, of which I'm really not a fan.
The makeover isn't really done, it's only 2/3 done. But for now, this is all the updating we have and we consider her room done. Here are your AFTER pictures.
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| From the doorway. My mom will lengthen the hem on these curtains should we decide to keep them. A big girl bed will one day go where her crib mattress lies. |
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| "Pokey Dot" accent wall. |
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| An area for playing dress-up. I repurposed the hooks we had on the wall in our master bedroom for her costumes. I have a second set of hooks that I could add, should her dress-up wardrobe increase. I have a few more accents to hang here, but that might wait a while. |
Future improvements to this room include:
>>> A big girl bed. Right now, Jay and I are sleeping on a mattress on the floor too, so I think we get the priority for who gets a new bed first. If I happen to find a nice bed or headboard at a resale shop though, I'll certainly grab it and we'll put a twin bed on the angle where her crib mattress currently lies. Then we'll get some fun bedding to complete the room.
>>> A ceiling fan with lights. This room faces west and gets all the afternoon sun. It's a very hot room and we desperately need some air movement up there!
>>> Blinds for added control of the sunlight.
>>> Removing carpet and installing laminate and laying a big fluffy throw rug.
>>> Painting the closet to clean and brighten it up.
There you have it. One "Pokey Dot" room for my "Pokey Dot" loving girl.
PS... It will be a very sad day when she stops saying "Pokey Dot."
