Bright & colorful girl bedroom- small changes with a big impact

Let me start by saying, this post was ready to go yesterday… and then the internet decided to blow up for the day and I could not save this post. So, a day late, but still oh-so-pretty in the reveal! I am talking all about the Bright & colorful girl bedroom- small changes with a big impact. 

Now, this room makeover I did for my daughter Nora came about last minute and was not planned; at all, just how we roll on a Saturday. We have a guest bedroom in the basement and we need the space for an office for Dale now that he is working from home more, which meant taking down the bed in there to create the much needed office space. Dale wants his computer set up with three monitors, which I am just not going to have happen in the living room. That is a bit much for me and my decorating self, him and his monster computer are banished to the basement! Fun fact, this canopy bed that Nora now has in her room was what I had in my room as a teenager, and I was in lurve with it from the moment I saw the frame at Goodwill. I was shopping thrift stores wayyyy before it was cool to do. It was originally a dark green that I spray painted white.

Her bedroom before – 

Nora has always loved this queen sized bed and when she heard we were going to basically take it down and leave it in a corner in the basement she was not having it. She begged us to let her put it in her room. I mean, a 9 year old (who is honestly the size of a 6 year old, she is very small for her age) does not need a queen sized bed. But, when we realized that the two times a year we do have guests come over they can just stay in her bedroom, it made sense. It was either this or have my sister-in-law and her wife sleep in the boys bunk beds. Which is fun, in theory.

I revamped Nora’s bedroom about three years ago, with smaller updates occasionally. I added a requested window seat to her bedroom, that added some great storage for my book worm and her ever growing collection of books. You all think I am the big decorator in my house… psh…. you have not met my daughter. She has grown up around this stuff and has big ideas. I love that about her, and she has told me we can decorate her house when she gets married. Sign me up!

For this little Bright & colorful girl bedroom- small changes with a big impact aside from the new bed frame, which is at least 20 years old (we purchased a new mattress last year when it was a guest bed) and new bedding for Nora this room revamp used all of the same items in her current room. I simply changed things around. I wanted to share this room because it turned out so stinkin’ cute, but also to show how changing furniture around or re-configuring the decorations can have a massive impact on a room. No big overhaul is needed for a room refresh!

The newly refreshed bedroom –

Not even the paint color was changed in here! I did have to move the floor to ceiling bed curtains, since we changed the direction of her bed. The biggest way this space got revamped (other than the new bed) is I really fine tuned and personalized the wall decor. This is Nora’s bedroom, and she is perfectly imperfect. She adores drawing, creating comic books, listening to music, playing with her dolls, and reading; so much reading. I wanted this room to reflect and work for her.

The bed curtains now work in two ways. The floor to ceiling ones I attached to the ceiling the same way they were before, the tutorial to these can be found here.  With the new canopy bed frame the sheer curtains are hung on the bar, so she can open and close them. She sleeps with them closed and looks like the sweetest princess ever. If said princess was smuggling books and a flashlight under the pillow and is still smushed into a corner of her bed because of the pillows, dolls and stuffed animals which take up more room then her. Then yes, she is just like a princess in this bed.

Her pillows are a hodge-podge purchased from a few different stores over time. As of now she is loving the pink, green, and teal theme. It is so adorably girly I love it too. She has had some variation of a bug/butterfly theme since she was a baby for her room. I kept asking her is she was sure she wanted to keep this theme, I do not want to be one of those Moms. Yes I love decorating my home and I enjoy decorating my kid’s bedrooms as well. But this is their domain, at 9 years old Nora is allowed to have her own opinions on her space. I help flesh out the ideas, keeping in mind function and organization, but otherwise this is a room makeover run by Nora. She said she still loves the butterflies so they stay for now.

This little gallery wall by her dresser was a fun one to put together. The paper flowers in the frame were such a simple craft, that tutorial is here, along with a video tutorial that shows how easy these adorable flowers are to create. Her little hand print, I mean… you cannot get sweeter than that!

This dresser was Dale’s Grandmothers, we painted it white and put on new drawer hardware, it is now used for toy storage. This is a really easy way to de-clutter a child’s bedroom. She has small toys, barbies, and doll clothes in here. This is also where she stores any art projects or comic books she is working on. I do have to stay on top of her to keep these drawers organized, Nora is one step away from being a legit hoarder, she likes chaos and “stuff”. I try to reign it in because things get out of control and also I am the one she runs to when she cannot find that “one little note that I wrote a very important message on. Where is it Mommy?!!!”

I always add personal touches to our home, every room has something special to us. These two butterflies are the perfect example of this, the top one Dale made and painted in wood shop when he was little. The bottom butterfly I painted when I was younger, now they both reside on our daughter’s wall. It is the sweet and small touches that create a special space. The wood pallet jewelry wall display is a great thing to have for her, simply enough to just hang the items. No extra work has to go in to keep things organized with this.

Here is the previously mentioned window seat that is the stuff of my daughter’s dreams. Well, really she wants a big picture window that she can have her bed in, but the reality is this is what she has to work with. I made this by laying two tall and narrow bookshelves on their side, then adding the cushions that are just patio chair seat cushions. Easy stuff and zero tools needed to get this done! The cute little wall sconce was used for my kids art table, the light was not being used anymore, so it found a new home in here.

In the bookcases there is small trinkets that are special to Nora. The books are as organized as they will ever be. We already have plans to do a big closet overhaul for her, adding even more shelving. Obviously she is outgrowing this bookshelf already.

I propped up a few of her notebooks that she uses a lot with these wrapping paper wrapped vases.  I simply added some rocks to weight them down enough to be bookends.

My daughter is a wonderful 9 year old, wise beyond her years, crazy intelligent and very mature. But this girl loves her dolls still, which makes me so happy! She has such a big imagination and these two dolls Hazel Grace and Fern Hope respectively are always dressed and ready for the day, a lot of times even before Nora is. On a side note, we have plans to visit an American girl store for the first time this spring and she is excited. We plan to have lunch at the restaurant and everything, and I am prepared to take out a second mortgage for this trip which is what I heard the cover charge is for this store. Wish me luck!

This butterfly canvas wall art was in her “before” bedroom and works perfectly with her new bedding.

Aside from the new bed, this is where a lot of time and attention went into. Nora wanted a big and personalized gallery wall like her brothers have in their bedroom. I made her name letters when I was pregnant with her and I may or may not (probably) require her to take them to put on the wall in her college dorm. The other items for this is a cute sign that is so her, a frame with butterflies she got from a museum on vacation, her schools flag, and a bunch of art work. I feel like a gallery wall is best when it is personalized, having one with personality and memories is what makes it stand out.

I do have plans to organize her art supplies better at her desk, hopefully I can get to that soon. I am always on a quest for more function and this desk can be improved upon with that. Nora has hoped to work for Disney as an animator one day and is either reading or drawing 90% of the time, so this desk space is a must for her! Did I mention she is awesome and wonderfully unique? When I grow up I want to be like her, 🙂

The black frames I purchased years ago and I think they were maybe $5, they were dirt cheap because we had no money then. The nice thing about these frames is they are no fuss and easy to remove the backing from. So changing them out with new pictures Nora draws is really simple to do. I have zero rules when it comes to the art that goes in there, they do not have to fit the “theme” of her bedroom. This is all child led, just like it is in my boys’ bedroom. Whatever they create and are proud of to display is what goes in these.  Since I took all of these pictures this weekend two of the art have been replaces already, one with a Pokemon character drawing and the other a poem she wrote. I think a child’s room should never be 100% perfect, childhood is messy, and creative chaos. Their minds are constantly moving and changing, so this gallery wall will forever be a little messy. Which is perfect.

This desk is another piece of furniture from my childhood. When I moved to Wisconsin from California at 19 all of my stuff stayed at my Grandma’s house,  where I grew up. When we purchased this house we hired movers to bring a truckload of my things here, and this desk was one of them. I painted it pink, and I found the chair on the side of the road! I redid it with a curtain I found from Goodwill, and zero sewing was needed to transform this chair!

I drew the little girl on a swing in the frame, and Nora insists on keeping it in her room. My kids all made the cute hot air balloon art that is on this wall. Caleb and Gavin have theirs in their bedroom. Little touches like this with my kids artwork is just one of the many ways I encourage my kids to be creative and help create this home of ours. The pride they have when their work becomes wall art in our home, it is so sweet to see.

Oh guys, this bed is sooo dreamy! Nora and I have plans to have a girls sleepover with this, and Dale will have one with the boys. Dale has already called top bunk in their room for that fun night.

These curtains are so sweet, I love the simple print on them and the tiny pop of green with the bird. At the bottom of this post I will be sharing any products with links to purchase them for anyone wanting that information.

I love the creases of the fabric for these curtains.

Letting them still be floor to ceiling adds a great touch of drama to the sweet and whimsical bedroom.

Can you ever have too many pillows? I don’t think so and neither does my daughter, she got it from her Mama!

Here is my girl! She is in love with her new bed and told me she has butterflies in her room and in her belly because of the new bed. It was fun to do this with her. She chose the comforter, she wanted something fluffy and simple so she could change the decor in her room and still have it fit in. She wanted lots of pillows, and we set out the wall decor on the floor, then moved around each piece until we found something that worked. As she gets older I get a front row seat to her coming into her own and she has become one of my favorite people on the planet, easily my favorite girl to ever exist.

In all, this room got such a different feel to it, with minimal new items. To be honest, I adore the results of this room because this is perfectly Nora. But for my own taste it is a little too cluttered, I take the less is more adage. However, this is her bedroom and I really want to encourage her to find her own voice, her opinions matter and I am not going to take over her space. This is where she will giggle with friends, play with her brothers, have sleep overs, maybe talk on the phone to her first boyfriend… so many special moments have already happened in here with even bigger and better to come. This is her place to be her perfectly imperfect self. She is slightly chaotic, always thinking and creating, she liked the clutter and this is how her room should be.

We took a few of my furniture from when I was little and turned them into what works for her. She is now the smallest 9 year old we know with the biggest bed. This Bright & colorful girl bedroom- small changes with a big impact was a fun redo. It was last minute, not planned and such a special time. Quality time with my daughter and helping her create her room, letting what she likes shine and how she uses her room to be the priority for this. Also pink, so much pink!

Do your kids like to decorate their own rooms?

         

**This post contains affiliate links, I may receive a profit from the purchase**