when 2 rooms become 1: before & after

there once was a room 

a nice size room

with great windows

and great light

it belonged to a girl

and had the smallest of closets

but the girl never did mind

for she herself was small in size

the room had four walls

that began as white

they soon turned butter in color

then the room lost its carpet

and revealed its lovely wooden base

not long after this

three walls were changed to a sort of light grey

that seemed to look light purple

and one wall was painted quite dark

we'll just call it eggplant

a few weeks ago

this room changed again

for the third time since the girl lived there

three walls returned to white

one a black chalkboard

and all the trim and doors were turned white too

then the girls' sister moved in

and they both loved the new room

and they all lived happily ever after

---------------------

sorry, folks, sometimes (especially late at night) this sort of free verse shows up & takes over. there's really not much i can do about it. 

hopefully, you have already gathered that i have, once again, painted my dear kennedy's room. this time we redid the room because big sister, emma, was moving in with her (for reasons i cannot yet tell you but will be telling you soon!!). yes, we were met with some hesitation (and downright "no's") regarding this decision but it needed to be done. i guess the promise of a room redo was all the chips i had to bargain with. soooo...the girls & i worked on what we would change. and what did they REALLY want?? a chalkboard wall. wow. we only have TWO other chalkboard walls already in the house, but okay. seriously, though--easy enough & honestly, i love a black wall.

my initial thought was using paint would be the easiest (and most affordable) way to manage a big change for the room. i didn't plan on buying all new pieces of furniture or a bunch of new decorations. i also really like the idea of "shopping my house" for objects that we could pull together for their room. no real theme. no real guidelines. pretty eclectic-because that's how we do.

our main goals:

1. maximize use of space (2 girls + 1 room = the more room to move the better)

2. minimize pieces of furniture/etc in the room

3. maximize storage space 

because i work best on a whim, here are a couple of (basically) before pics of her room. i was getting anxious (and a little aggravated) that i had not started on the room earlier in the summer, so i walked in one morning & just started moving stuff. it made me feel better but at some point i realized i never took (true) before pics, but i thought, eh, better late than never. so here they are...in all their real life messiness glory.

after deciding on paint colors i wondered...where are we putting 2 beds in this room?? the solution: bunk beds, naturally. emma already had bunk beds in her room but we really wanted to leave those in there & i didn't have money saved to buy new beds. luckily (thank you, God) our friend was selling her sons sturdy, well taken care of, solid, wooden bunk beds (which i immediately wanted to paint white...hubby said negative)! the bunk beds also came with built in drawers (perfect for kennedys clothes) and a built in desk (we eliminated another piece of furniture)!

now, emma's dresser from her old room was the cutest darn thing (one of my fav diy projects) & it was going to work great in her new room...until we moved it in her new room. hubs realized it was completely falling apart. poo. really didn't want to pay for a new dresser so i started scouring yard sales & flea markets. no luck. [press hold on that issue] 

so i decided to just start painting. 

and i cleaned out toys...clothes...shoes...trash...and some more toys. 

and then painted some more.

and kept painting...

and after the slowest painting job ever...we were finally ready to get them moved in.

(there's emma's old -broken & adorable- grey and white dresser...say your goodbyes now)

it was upon moving in & constructing this new bunk bed that we came across such an amazingly awesome surprise! apparently, this bunk bed purchase had also included a very nice matching...dresser! perfect to replace emma's old one! God had already provided & i didn't even know it, yet.

now, i know i said i had no luck finding a dresser while out picking and thrifting (obviously for a reason), but i did find a few other items that would work great for their new room. i found some great baskets to house dolls, toys & headbands. i found a couple of ceramic black swans & a textile that would be used as wall hangings. and i used some of my own (and their own) diy art on the girls' shelves (each girl got their own shelf & hooks). like i said, i didn't want to buy a bunch of new stuff to decorate their room, so by using what we already had it made this redo quite affordable & adorable!

despite a few initial threats, arguments & debates the girls have not had any issue with sharing their new room. actually, i'd say it has worked out great since each are somewhat of a scaredy cat...they can now keep each other company through the long, dark nights.