Off to College!

This precious girl graduated from high school in May.

 

 

And we just sent her off to college.  I am always looking for a space to decorate, and her dorm room was no exception!  I had a vision for the space based on a few Pinterest photos, and I am so happy that my college girl saw and agreed with my vision.  So, welcome to University Village Suites at Kennesaw State University!  {Let me say up front....they don't make dorms like they did when I was in college!  KSU didn't have dorms until about 7-8 years ago, so these are "cadillac" dorm rooms.  She has a roommate, but each girl has her own room.  They share a kitchenette and bathroom as common areas.}

 This was so much fun....well, except that it was raining while we were hauling all this stuff into the dorm!  Luckily, we were allowed to use nails.  This made the "gallery wall" much easier to do! 

The gallery wall was inspired by Pinterest, and I began collecting thrift store items to use back in the spring.  We threw in a few other pieces, such as canvases, a great centerpiece frame from IKEA and several other clearance sale items to pull it all together.  I used several bright colors of spray paint to bring new life to the old thrift store items.  The repetition of these colors, along with the anchor color, black, made this wall a show stopper!  {And the high ceilings didn't hurt at all either.}  The curtains came from IKEA also.  We decided to hang them all the way up to the ceiling, and it really does help draw the eye upward....along with the gallery wall.  Since she is on the top floor, the ceilings are 3 feet higher than the lower floors.....worked out great to make this small space look larger!

One of the favorites for this room turned out to be this bench.  I found this at the thrift store and bargained to bring the price down to $15.  I painted the piece a nice shade of pink, added IKEA boxes to the opening and made a padded cushion with gray chevron print on top.  This is a comfy spot for visitors and the storage boxes add some great hiding places for a girl living in such a small space!

 

The rug is from IKEA.  While we both loved it as soon as we saw it in the store, I really struggled with purchasing it because it was a bit more than I wanted to spend.  The rug really anchors the space and adds more visual depth.  So glad we decided to get it....$80 well spent! :o)

 



The bedding is a hodge-podge from IKEA, Target and Pottery Barn.  We didn't want this room to look matchy-matchy.  And we didn't want it to look like a little girl lived there.  I think this combination of fabrics looks very "anthropology-ish" and very grown up.  The bed is a twin XL and Pottery Barn teen has a great line of dorm linens that were perfect!  Their sheet sets are a bit more than some other stores, but they fit perfectly and the paisley pattern worked perfectly in our big scheme for the room.  The polka dot duvet cover is from IKEA and it was not my choice.  My college girl fell in love with it, and there was no talking her out of it.  We were worried because IKEA bed linens are not made for twin XL beds, but it worked just fine.  I am very happy that she insisted on the gray and white polka dots....I really love it!  The pillows are from Target and IKEA.  We knew we wanted lots of bright colors and not matchy....the combination we ended up with really works well together!  And Puffy right in the middle of it all....just melts my heart!

And the chevron pirnt headboard was her daddy's contribution to the room. :o)  He used plywood and mdf that he had as scraps.  I covered the plywood with quilt batting and the great gray/white chevron print.  Daddy added some mdf legs and this headboard really gives her room a homey feel!

 The other side of the room is not nearly as exciting, but oh so important!  The desk area holds her computer & printer, her television and a very important new pet....Harry Potter, the beta fish!

 

And my college girl LOVES her new space!  She is loving college life and I am happy for her that she gets this opportunity.  Now....the true test.....can she keep it clean???

  

 

Linking up to a few great blogs:

 

 

 

 

Jennifer Rizzo Inspired Living

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: