Ella's Room Take 3

A few weeks ago we sold Ella's bed on Craigslist. If you remember we made a loft bed for our imaginative daughter, thinking she would love the extra space underneath for play and craftiness. The space ended up being her junkyard (she is a packrat!!!) and the bane of my existence whenever I caught a glimpse of her room. She also recently took up sleeping on the floor so we decided the big, bulky bed could go the way of Craigslist if she promised to always remember that her parents built her a bed. She pinky swore and the next day her bed was up on Craigslist. A day later and we were a $120 richer- and had my exact budget for redoing her room. Oh how I love a challenge!

First we decided what she really needed; a bookshelf, a desk and a bed. With the big bed gone there was also a lot of wallspace that we didn't have before so we needed to fill that somehow. All this for a $120. I did it! With only going a little over...Just a little!

And here it is...

My first find was this amazing desk at Value Village. It's on my way to work so I stop in often to check out the goods. I was on my way out when I spotted this beauty- solid wood, mid-century goodness for $35. Aww, yeahhhh. I wiped a little stain and wipe on poly on it and it looks fabulous. The red acrylic chair is from Hold Everything (R.I.P.) and was in our garage until it could be put to use.

Next I found this Jenny Lind style bed on Craigslist for $50. I just saw the exact same bed at an antique store for $215!! Again, it was solid wood so it was a keeper. It was a maple/amber stained wood and I painted it white with leftover paint and sprayed polyurethene on it. I love how it turned out. We used her same bedding and color scheme to keep the costs down of course.

Last, but not least I found a bookshelf at D.I. for $8. It was a garish red so I spray painted it white. I wanted all of the furniture and walls to remain neutral so they were timeless AND because my darling daughter can let things get a little out of hand...it helps to have things pretty stark so her messes/creativity seem less disturbing (?!) to me. The bedside lamp is from Ikea ($5).

To fill up the now empty walls I found a few prints on Etsy. This one from Persimmon & Pink and this from LuckyBluebirdArt. They are perfect reminders for the unique, sensitive soul that she is...

Lastly, we started a picture collage on her biggest wall. I looked through our photo files and sent a bunch to my local Costco to pick up. I printed some of our house and friends from back east, Ella with family and as a little girl, etc. She loves looking at them all and the collage can just grow with time. I used 3M poster strips to attach them to the wall so rearranging is a breeze.

I also found a frame at D.I. for $5 and spray painted it aqua. I had a custom mat made for it at my local framing shop ($10) and put one of my all time favorite pictures of her in it...Can you see those curls in the picture?

Part of the budget went to 2 packs of clear, plastic shoe containers (set of 14 for $15 at Costco) for storage in her closet. We sorted through all of her stuff and ended up filling 20 some bins with her various collections and treasures. They are all labeled and stacked neatly (most of the time!) in her closet. We moved one of her Malm dressers into her closet and one into the boys' closet (it also got a makeover...it was taken over by Christmas legos and playmobil items).

She loves her room and does a much better job at keeping it neat. Eventually I'd like to add FLOR tiles to both of the kids' rooms to warm the floors up a bit. Hopefully this makeover will last a while longer! We've redone her room 3 times in the past 2.5 years...

PS So sorry for the horrible, grainy photos. I need help in that department...