Growing Up a Room...for a Young Woman

Today is her 21st birthday!  C still lives at home....it just isn't in the cards for her to go away to college, so she is living at home and commuting to a local college.  As hard as it must be to send your children away to college, I think having them stay at home is hard too.  Finding that agreeable place where the rules of home are not suffocating to a young adult who naturally wants her freedom, allowing her to find her own way, supporting her choices while some are not choices I would make if I were her, worrying about where she is, is she safe, is she making good choices....HARD, I tell you!

After her sister got a slight room makeover, C made it clear that her room was just a little on the immature side.  And she was right.  She was going to be 21 and I knew her room needed to be updated.  But I also knew she will not be living here forever.  I wanted to create a room she would love, and at the same time one that I could easily transform into a guest room once she leaves.

C wanted to contribute to her room because she did not like the furniture, which I inherited from my great-grandmother.  Since I wasn't planning to spend any money on new bedroom furniture, she saved enough money to buy her own bed and some other pieces from IKEA.

So here is what we began with....

In high school, when we got the traditional cherry furniture from my grandmother, we did blue, pink and brown.  Her bathroom was a hideous shade of pink that I never liked.

And my love of gray is still driving the choice of colors for my home, so we began looking for bedding that had gray, yet still offered a fun, youthful pattern.  C wanted her room to be more cosmopolitan than traditional.  We found a quilt at Target, that I have seen many others using in my research all over blog land.  It is by the DwellStudio line for Target.  And this is what we ended up with.....

The bed is from IKEA and very understated.

This dresser is one we had from before her room had grandmother's furniture. It was a creamy, beachy looking dresser, and  I painted it a darker shade of gray and added some sleek new pulls from Lowes.

She bought a cube shelving unit from IKEA for her TV, and I got the gray curtains there as well.  For clothing storage, she had to keep the chest from grandmother's furniture, which we were able to put inside her closet.  The only problem was the doors got in the way of the drawers opening, so we just took the closet doors down and added this curtain!  Problem solved!

We LOVE this IKEA chandy!  I wouldn't buy it for her, and she decided to buy it herself!  Only $40 and is a big statement in this room! The curtains you see here are also from IKEA.  $20 bucks for the pair!

I bought her two of these metal office file cabinets, also from IKEA, to use as nightstands.  They were $40 each and the sleek look just adds to the look we were after for her room.

These FUN ruffle pillow shams came from Urban Outfitters.  They were a splurge, but both C and I fell in love with them....so I got them, along with another little ruffle surprise (see bleow).  I bought two canvases with other plans and C came up with the idea to splatter paint them.  So she painted the background the same dark gray as her dresser and used a variety of grays and yellows and just splattered away!  They are perfect for the style of this room!

We found the white armless chair with ottoman on Craigslist.  We looked forever and finally found this, which she loved and I could afford, so we snapped it up!  Only $60 bucks!  I am not crazy for the lamps.  They are from Lowes and C insisted on them.  I choose my battles. :P

The bathroom was next.  It got a fresh coat of gray paint and updated accessories.

This chalkboard got a new life and is the perfect spot to remind my sweet girl about where real beauty can be found!

This shower curtain also came from Urban Outfitters and this was the REAL splurge!  I just LOVE it and so did C!  I also covered two canvases with yellow and white damask fabric (you can see on the left) to bring in a little more color.  Cheap!

We are so pleased with how this facelift turned out!  It is a room for our young adult and reflects her grown-up personality so much better than her previous "teenage girl" room!  One last look....

I am linking up to these great parties:

 

A Room Fit for a Teen

When we had the water damage in our house, we decided to have hardwoods installed in the living and dining rooms since they were the only rooms on the main floor that had carpet.  A's room needed new carpet badly, and her room is directly above the living room with the same footprint.  It worked out great to install the living room carpet (which was barely ever walked on) in A's room.  To do this, we had to empty out her room....HUGE mess!  If any of you are ever even slightly thinking about replacing carpet....think looooong and hard and only do it once!  It basically means you have to move every. single. thing. out!

Anywhoo....when we got everything out of her room, it was easy to see the walls were in dire need of paint.  Here is what A's room looked like before:

All her furniture came from Ikea....and it is a room full!  I loved the apple green wall color, but she was ready for something a little less child-like.  I never liked the placement of the bed, as I feel strongly that the bed should be a focal point when you enter a room.  And her room was very chopped up with the large pieces of furniture.

We decided to go ahead and paint the room while all the furniture was out.  And since I am on a HUGE grey kick right now, I immediately knew what the new wall color would be!  This is Vintage Grey by Valspar.  I was seriously contemplating using this in my master bath reno, but went with a lighter shade. 

So here is what we ended up with after the paint and moving the furniture around.  I don't like that the bed is in front of the window, but it reeeally opens up the room!  

These letters used to be pink and they hung above her bed.  We spray painted them silver and moved them above her closet doors.

This...is...PUFFY!  Puffy came to live with us before A was even born!  He sat in the corner of her crib and somehow she found him.  We have lost Puffy at the mall, at restaurants and even yard sales.  I can't remember all the times we had to back track to find him!  After 17 years, Puffy is looking pretty raggedy, but he will always be wherever A sleeps!

I bought these white on white zebra curtains at Target a while back.  Now I need two more panels....any suggestions about where to find them???

 These are photos of A's bathroom.  It is connected to her room and picks up with the purple accent colors and black.

 Every teenage girl needs a place to keep all the essentials! LOL!  These baskets hanging above the toilet,as well as the jars on the shelf really do help with keeping "girl supplies" neatly organized.

 Ashleigh is in French 2 this year, and was just inducted into the National French Honor Society!  I am positive this is because of all she learned from her shower curtain! LOL!



So there you have a room fit for a teen!  A loves her space and I love her grey room!

I am linking up to these great parties:

Ruffles and RickRack

Two things I just love...ruffles and rickrack.  Last week, I found these dishtowels at Homegoods.  I didn't know exactly what to do with them until I found the ruffle fabric on clearance and jumbo rickrack at Walmart later in the same day.  It was a lightbulb moment.....the ruffles and rickrack needed to become one with those dishtowels! 

I started with my supplies and trusty old Mrs. White.

And turned it all into these little cuties.....

I already had the dish towel with the Easter eggs on it, so these two just made the perfect backdrop, don't you think?

Linking up my thrifty little project here....



A Home Tour

~I LOVE A PARADE!~

I've had such fun on the Parade of Homes tour this week!!  Poppies at Play held an event this week featuring four homes per day all week.  Since it is spring break, I have totally looked forward each morning to checking out all these wonderful homes!  Check out Day One....and from there you can go to each home in order.  Soooo much awesome inspiration out there!

Poppies at Play is also having a linky party for all of us "regular people" to show off our homes. While I know that there are many other homes I have seen out there in blogland that are just gorgeous right-off-the-pages-of-a-magazine-type-homes...ours surely is not.  My hubby always says I am never satisfied, never happy with how our house looks, always wanting to change things up.  And he is right. :o}

BUT.....I am so incredibly thankful, proud and BLESSED with what we have been given through the grace of God!  I told him about this home tour and he rolled his eyes....he has not come over to the dark side of blogging yet. :o}  I explained that I am very proud of our home, the one he and I have created together, and even though I will never, ever stop wanting to make it better, I want to share it with others.  While I know that there are plenty of other homes that will be far more worthy of being shown off, I hope that some of you will find inspiration in our home.  I know I cannot wait to visit all the others who come to the party!  So here we go........

~WELCOME!~

Our home was built by John Weiland in 1998.  We live in a swim/tennis community in the suburbs of Atlanta.  We have a corner lot, which gives us a HUGE front yard.  I like to think that our home has lots of curb appeal. 

~THE MAIN FLOOR~

The Foyer~

These black and white paintings in our foyer show all the homes we have loved in our 23 years of marriage!



The Living Room~

This room and the dining room (next photo) were carpeted until our master bath flooded causing damage to the main level hardwoods.  So we had hardwoods installed while the damaged floors were being refinished.  No rugs in these rooms yet, except for this little rug that will eventually go in the foyer....lots of brown...can't wait for rugs! :o}

The Dining Room~

The Powder Room Bath~

Recently painted this room a gray-blue color...jury is still out on that....

The Kitchen~

 The Family Room~
The kitchen and family room are really one big room.  And the rug in here was ruined with the water damage, so I am also patiently waiting for a rug here too!  Our built-ins and fireplace have changed drastically from what they originally looked like.  You can read more about that here.

~THE SECOND FLOOR~

Girl #1's Room and Bath~

Just recently made over....a blog post on that coming soon.

Girl #2's Room and Bath~

Blog post on her room, which was made over last October, also coming soon.

The Office~

Hubby works from home (when he is not traveling) so this space is not for show....it is a real working office!

The Master Bed and Bath~

Feeling the itch to update our bedroom...gathering ideas in blogland right now. :o}

Our master bath got a major overhaul last October due to an overflowing toilet....you can see/read more about that here.

We also have a guest room and our laundry room on this level....two rooms that are NOT ready for photos...both rooms end up being a dumping ground for laundry, out-of-season clothes, and various other junk...I mean stuff! :o}

~THE BASEMENT~



The Theater Room~

The Game Table/Room~

**Are you sensing a theme in our basement?**  If not....here is another hint....GO DAWGS!  :o}

The Kitchen/Bar~

The Bath~

The Craft Room~

This room is all mine and I LURVE her! We revamped this room in January. You can read more about it here.

I hope you enjoyed looking around our home!  Y'all come back now! :o}
Blessings to All~