Driven by Decor

Today is One Room Challenge reveal day and I’m so excited to show you guys my daughter’s newly made-over bedroom!

Let’s quickly jump back in time to where things started – this is what the room looked like when we moved in two years ago:

and this was her room right before the makeover – we hadn’t done a thing to the space other than moving in her furniture and accessories from our old house:

Our makeover mission? To give the room a more grown-up feel using my daughter’s favorite color combination of blue and white while mixing in some fun touches that I knew she’d love. The jumping off point for the entire room was this gorgeous handblocked duvet and pillows from Kalyana Textiles. I love how the duvet reverses to a different pattern on the opposite site so we can flip it over for a whole new look. And shouldn’t I get some kind of award for managing to only have four decorative pillows on her bed? It’s definitely a little more sparse than my usual bedroom-pillow-overkill but my daughter requested that I dial the number of pillows on her bed back a few notches. Wish granted.

Above the bed are a pair of Taylor Swift song lyric art prints from Designs by Spec on Etsy hung in simple wood frames. I’m always paranoid about hanging things over the bed in kids’ rooms so I mounted the prints to foam board cut to the size of the frame and put them in the frames without any glass:

And did you notice the beautiful blue textural goodness on the walls? It’s grasscloth wallpaper from Walls Republic and wow, did it ever make a night and day difference in this space! I had gone back and forth on using grasscloth vs. painting since grasscloth is obviously the more expensive of the two options but I’m so glad I stuck with the grasscloth – it was worth every penny!

My wallpaper escapades are long enough for a post all their own but let’s just say that it proved a bit trickier to hang grasscloth than I expected. I was getting the job done but was slower than slower and was gratefully bailed out by the kindest and most talented of wallpaperers (whose name & number I’m happy to pass on to any of you who live in the CT area!).

At the side of my daughter’s bed is a single nightstand with a fillable lamp that I decided to leave unfilled until she decides what she wants to do with it. I passed on all of the awesome ideas that you guys gave me like using marbles, blue & white pottery shards, sand & seashells, or photos and other momentos. It will be fun to see what she ends up going with!

Taking center stage in the room is a beautiful new brass chandelier from Shades of Light. Instead of regular candelabra bulbs, I used small round ones to give it a more modern, chic look:

Looking across the room, you’ll see that her closet doors got a much needed upgrade:

Do you remember what they looked like before? Flat and yellowed with teeny tiny cabinet knobs for door handles and rusty hinges:

I added wood panel molding (I finally broke down and bought a miter saw to whip this little project out!) with corkboard inserted into the top two panels – a post with the DIY how-to is on the way. I’m sure that within the week, these boards will be filled with pictures, notes, and all sorts of other fun stuff:

We kept the same IKEA desk in the room that we had before but got a new, more comfortable chair and a desk lamp:

The new chair is a slipcovered IKEA chair that I had local monogrammer add my daughter’s initials to – so inexpensive for something that’s now a custom piece!

Eventually I’ll hang some shelving over her desk for her sports trophies and medals but I didn’t want to put any holes in the grasscloth until I was 100% sure of my design. I also plan to find some art to hang on the wall in this little niche where you enter her room:

Oh, and did you notice my DIY board & batten? The chair rail and baseboard were already there so all that I had to do was add some lattice strips and paint it up (tutorial to come!).

At this point you may be wondering where the heck all of my daughter’s stuff is – the room looks too clean, right? Well, that door to the right of her bed leads to a huge second closet with shelving galore for storing stuffed animals, games, etc. Also, her books and several other bits of stuff normally sit on the shelves of her hutch which I have styled up ever so awesomely for you guys:

Hmm…maybe not my best work? This last little part of her room is obviously still a work in progress – I’m not loving this chest/hutch combo in this room so I’m debating between painting it or getting rid of it – more to come on that….

That wraps up my One Room Challenge Makeover! Did I tell you guys that this whole “reveal” was a big surprise for my daughter? I kicked her out of her room a few weeks ago and she shacked up in the guest room while all of the DIYing was getting done in here. Just yesterday she saw it for the big reveal and was so, so happy with her new space (which of course made me so, so happy too!).

Thanks so much for stopping by! If there’s anything in the room that you were eyeing, I’ve included a source list below with the deets on where everything came from. Also be sure to check out the other room reveals! The twenty main participants revealed their rooms yesterday (so many good ones!!) – you’ll find links to those {here} – and you can find links to all of the linking participants {here}.

XO,