Bella and Noah's shared space...

In honor of Noah's second birthday earlier this week, I decided this post would focus on the bedroom he shares with his 4-year old sister Bella.  Since these living arrangements will probably only work for the next few years,  I wanted to make sure that the current decor "fit" the two of them but was also easily changable and relatively inexpensive.

It took me a little while to choose what color I wanted to use in Bella and Noah's room. I finally decided that even though green is the typical "go-to" color for gender neutral things, it did give me the most flexibiltiy.  The walls in their room were already painted a mossy green when we bought the house, but it wasn't quite the shade I wanted to use.  I painted quite a few sample squares of various greens on the walls before I settled on one called "Bare Branches" by Sherwin Williams (it's actually part of their now-discontinued Martha Stewart collection, but the formula was still in the computer when I asked).

Even though I wanted some aspects of their two sides to be the same, I didn't want Noah's side to mirror Bella's side completely. I knew the biggest matched item would be their beds. Since I wanted to keep expenses down, I started searching for a matching pair of secondhand beds.  Several weeks of stalking Craigslist (and all of the garage sales within 30 miles) left me empty-handed and disappointed.  After a bit of brainstorming, I decided to change my plans and jump on the DIY-upholstered headboard bandwagon.  My staple-gun and I have taken on our fair share of smaller projects, but the idea of headboards was a bit daunting.  I kept it simple and went with plain rectangle shapes and no extra detailing, but I am pretty happy with the way they turned out. 

Noah only had a couple months left in his crib, so I started work on Bella's side first. I broke a few of my "rules" while working on her bedding.   I usually refuse to buy multiple pieces of a set and I don't normally go for cartoon characters or animals in kids' rooms, but Bella fell in love with the Circo "Love 'N Nature" collection at Target. Since I have a major soft spot for owls (and birds in general), I gave in. We bought the quilt set, the coordinating sheets, an amazingly cute owl pillow, a canvas owl print, and an awesome tree lamp.  Once we made it home, I added in a few extra pillows that were left-over from Maddie's bedroom makeover.  Next, partly because I have an addiction to vintage (particularly mid-century) chairs and not enough places to put them all, I sat a fantastic Gunlocke chair next to the foot of her bed.  I scored this chair for free from a family member and had originally planned to try to refurbish it to use in our bedroom someday, but the awesome persimmon-colored leather looked so great in there that I changed my mind.

Finally Noah was ready for his "big boy" bed, and I could begin working on putting their room together.  I started with a khaki and brown plaid comforter, since it used two of the more dominant colors from Bella's bedding and went well with the headboards.  Next I needed some color to compete with the pinks, greens, yellows, and oranges that were also in Bella's bedding.  I had some trouble until I came across a favorite baby blanket that I was having trouble getting rid of, one side was a grid of brown, blue, yellow, and green dots and the other was a super-soft solid electric blue.  It was perfect, so I very carefully took the blanket apart and used the separate pieces of fabric to make two large pillows!  Then, because I still rock my "baby" every day, I brought his rocking chair back in and put it near the foot of his bed. 

All of my kids are avid readers, and I really wanted Noah and Bella to have some of their books where they could get to them easily.  I'd seen a few wall-mounted bookshelves online that would have fit perfectly next to their beds, but the prices were all a little steep.  Justin and I decided it was time for another weekend DIY project and built our own using some beadboard, pine 1 x 4's, and wooden dowels. 

Their room was now looking more like two distinct half-rooms than the cohesive whole that I had originally envisioned.  I placed my grandfather's dresser in the space between the two headboards, then stood back and contemplated the empty wall above.  I really wanted something that tied both the sides together, but had no idea what.  After a few days, I realized that a collection of things might work better than one large something.  Bella's side was easy: birds, owls, birdhouses, and flowers all worked well with her bedding and her personality.  Noah's side took a little longer, but I finally settled on a bit of a tribute to Justin's time in the Navy (and mixed in a few airplanes, since both father and son love them). 

Now Noah and Bella's shared bedroom is cute, sweet, and ready to grow and change as time passes by...just like them!

Maddie's pink pad!

When we decided to buy our new house and move across town, Maddie got very upset. She loved her school and did not want to leave her friends behind. We made a deal: in exchange for having a positive attitude about the new house/neighborhood/school/friends, Maddie would get HER OWN ROOM!  {Bella and Noah were young enough to share a room for a few years, at least.}

{this was taken before we moved in}

Before we moved in, we painted the kids' bedrooms. Maddie chose a pale-ish pink (Behr's "Scented Valentine"), and even got to help paint. She got two new-to-her beds (matching twin sized antique beds that my mom had bought at an auction years ago and never used) and matching comforter sets in a hot pink and white damask print. She was thrilled with the results, until we finished re-doing the kids' bathroom.

Maddie had fun helping me choose fabrics and accessories to use in their bathroom, and now she wanted to do something special to her bedroom, too. Since her eighth birthday was coming up, we agreed on a "bedroom re-vamp" as her gift from mommy and daddy. She was pretty specific about what she wanted: canopies, a new desk, and lots of pillows!

We chose to start with the pillows, and headed to the fabric stores.  Maddie is a major girly-girl, so we picked mostly flowers and polka dots, with a little bit of sparkle thrown in.  After a few nap-times worth of sewing, her beds were both overflowing! {The sequined "M" pillow came from Santa.}

The dresser is another one of my mom's antiques. Maddie didn't like the original brown wood finish, so we decided to paint it. We took our favorite piece of pillow fabric with us, and went to every paint store trying to match the beautiful shade of blue in it. I finally found Benjamin Moore's "Robin's Nest", and we fell in love! The dresser came out beautifully, and I am really pleased with it.

 
After finishing the dresser, we moved on to the desk. I searched garage sales and Craigslist for weeks trying to find something that fit the small space between her beds. After a lot of disappointment, Justin suggested that we just try to build a desk ourselves. We started at Home Depot and bought 2 table legs, a piece of plywood, and some pre-cut plexi-glass. With Justin's help, I built the desk to mount onto the wall in the back. Then we framed out the edges with some moulding that we found in our attic, and I painted it a combination of white and "Robin's Nest". Her chair was yet another hand-me-down, the desk chair that both my mom and I had used as children. It received a couple coats of "Robin's Nest" and a new seat cushion that I made out of left-over pillow fabric.

The canopies were made using simple, sheer curtains that were left behind by the previous owner..all I did was sew some hot pink ric-rac trim to the edges. Then we built the frames out of wooden shelf brackets and some scalloped moulding from Home Depot, painted them white, and hung them above her beds.

Finally it was time for the finishing touches. A nickel lamp and a nightlight that weren't being used got simple shade make-overs with some grosgrain ribbon. We used more ribbon to hang paper lanterns, DIY tissue paper pom-poms, and DIY tulle pom-poms above her desk. Wall letters covered with scrapbook paper make sure everyone knows exactly who the room belongs to. Our interpretation of butterfly collection (re-painted garage sale picture frames, left-over scrapbook paper, and a set of plastic white butterflies from Target) dresses up the long, empty wall above Maddie's bed.

Maddie and I had so much fun working together on her room that we're already coming up with new projects...little things to add in the future to make it even more "her".