We're 2 days in and already we've been hard at work. Isabella wasn't going to wait any longer than she had to to make sure we fulfilled the promise to redo her room. She has had the same dresser since she was 2 and she was using our old guest bed that is almost 16 years old (after we stole her bed and gave it to Q 2 years ago) and the rest of her decor was mostly recycled castoffs as well. I did managed to have a fairly good theme designed room for a fairly low budget.
When Isabella turned 5 we had just moved here to California. She insisted on a certain Hawaiian bedspread that I had to special order from Pottery Barn. No other bedspread would do. It ended up being so expensive that it was her birthday gift that year from parents and grandparents. I remember her being miffed that at 5 years old she didn't get anything other than a bedspread.
As Isabella's honor roll reward we promised that we would redo her room for her. She has been drawing room sketches for almost 2 years now and always draws a "music" room as her main design. I figured I was going to redo her room anyhow at 10 years old (shhh...don't tell her that) so we'd reward her for honor roll with this too.
This weekend she wanted her room done. What an undertaking. Of course, I couldn't just make it simple by redoing the one room. I realized a couple years ago that I had made a mistake in room assignments when we moved here. I gave Isabella the room by herself AND the largest room. Sophia and Ava have been crammed into the smallest room with 2 beds and only one dresser. Ava's clothing has been in IKEA storage bins in the closet for 5 years and while that was fine when her clothing was sized 3T...these days it's not working so well for her.
Sooooo, first I had to clean out Isabella's room. I went through everything! Then we had to move it all out and into the hallway. After we moved it all out and had a HUGE mess. I had to move all of Sophia and Ava's things into Isabella's old room. Now, we had room for 2 twin sized beds, 2 dressers, 2 side table shelves and all of their stuff (well, not quite...somehow we still ran out of room for everything, they were really busting at the seams). Sophia and Ava were given the option to keep the Hawaiian wall decor and get new bedspreads or keep their butterfly room (yes, folk...the ever popular butterfly room is now almost 10 years old and still going strong) and I'd be willing to paint one wall (the surfboard wall). I'm really going to be sad to have to prime and paint over that surfboard I painted 5 years ago. They chose to keep all their butterfly stuff and make me paint. Well, I moved everything in, worked with what I had and I'll paint later. I'll also probably add some butterfly decals and whimsical saying to the wall over the teal dresser once that wall is repainted.
We went to the furniture store and Isabella picked out her new bedroom set. A twin sized bookshelf bed with storage drawers. Fortunately, I already have the matching dresser to this set as it was our former guest room dresser. It was shocking to find the style bed she wanted that actually matched the dresser I purchased 5 years ago available. Unfortunately, it wasn't in stock and it had to be ordered for delivery in 5 weeks. A LONG agonizing, calendar watching 5 weeks for Isabella. (I've included a picture of the style of bed, she went with something slightly more contemporary in styling and more of a high gloss cherry color).
So, now, Isabella is sort of room less. She is a bland, yellow painted, empty room with her bed on the floor, using Ava's old IKEA storage as a dresser and no artwork what-so-ever around her. She's jealous that her sisters got to move into their new room already and it's basically done.
Tonight, we went and bought the artwork, bedding and additional side furniture for her "rockin' music" room. She's happy it's coming together. We're still deciding paint colors and we've told that this 5 weeks is actually good timing so that we can paint the walls and get it all set before the new furniture arrives.
Work in progress....
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