Monday, February 28, 2011

From Sweet to Funky

Maddie asked to redo her room for her birthday.  Now that she’s reached the ripe old age of 11, pink walls and a sweet patchwork quilt were decidedly too babyish for her.  <sob>

Of course, since this isn’t a home décor blog, I  didn’t think to get any before photos.  Duh.  So I went through my old photo archives and found just one:

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Bubblegum pink walls with dot stickers, white sheers with little pink flowers embroidered onto them, and her sweet, lovely…babyish quilt. <sob>

First Maddie chose a new comforter.  She found a very funky patterned one at JCPenney.com (you’ll see that in a minute).  I found a lamp at Target which we glue-gunned with ribbon and buttons and I think it turned out pretty darn cute.

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Maddie also wanted some original Madeline Elizabeth artwork for her room, so I got her 3 canvases and some acrylic paints in her comforter colors, and she spent an afternoon penciling in and then painting her new artwork:

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Then she picked out her wall color.  She wanted a bright lime green to coordinate with the comforter, and bright lime green we got.   I got the room all ready to paint, and that’s when I remembered the dot stickers and the vinyl wall sticker with her name.  I wasn’t sure if I could paint over these stickers, then remove them leaving behind bubblegum pink circles, or if the paint would bleed under them.  I decided to remove all of the dots except those from her closet wall, and I also left the name sticker there.  I did get a picture of the dotty wall at that point, when I realized that people might be interested in whether or not you can paint over these things, but not the one of her name (duh):

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Then I painted.  The dots did bleed, enough that I almost painted over them with lime green, but then I remembered I had some of the pink paint in the basement from  5 years ago when I originally painted her room.  I slowly and carefully painted nice edges around each of those circles.  I am so glad I didn’t let the circles up on any other wall!

Here is the reveal!

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(Her vinyl name sticker came off beautifully with virtually NO bleeding underneath!)

Also new curtains:

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Maddie loves her new room, she loves that it’s more funky than sweet <sob> and she loves that she had a hand in making it all her own.

I am linking this post with Metamorphosis Monday at Between Naps on the Porch!

7 comments:

Deb said...

Awww, very FUNKY. And you can tell Miss Madeline Elizabeth that her artwork is awesome. (Do kids still say aweseome these days? Gnarly? Radical? Tubular?)

Julie @ Creating This Life said...

Wonderful job! I LOVE that shoe that Maddie is painting. How special that she participated in the makeover with you.

Wendy said...

Tell Maddie that my Maddie and Sarah love her new room! Great color choices and cool artwork :)

Karen said...

WoW! It looks great! I love that she made her own art, and it turned out super-cool (I am sure kids don't say that anymore!). We went through our own fairie to tween room transformation last year, but never found curtains. I am loving Maddie's choice, where did you find those cool pink dotted sheeers???

Beth said...

The curtains are from Target! Thanks for your nice comments, Maddie's loving them!

Jemsmom said...

So cute and she is one talented kid! Her artwork is awesome and how special that she played such a big role in choosing everything!

Jen said...

you rock- you're awesome great job