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: