My nieces, Anna and Elsie ages 12 and 8, have shared a room their entire lives and a queen bed for the past 6 years. It works well for them and their family of 6 kids. But lately, although their room was nice, they have been expressing to their parents (and to cool Aunt Julia ;) that their room no longer reflected them. We spent a day and a half working together, painting and making a few simple changes, including adding new bedding from Kathy Davis, and now their room looks like this!
Here’s what it looked like before; the pink walls and bedding started feeling “babyish” to them and not like the tweens these girls have blossomed into:
For this refresh, we partnered with The Kathy Davis brand, who believes everyone has the right to “Create a Life They Love” to help them update their room a little bit. We’re also giving away a bedding set at the end of the post! This was a timely project considering earlier this month, we did a podcast all about kid rooms (Episode 6 and it’s still one of my favorite episodes!). I firmly believe as kids grow, nourishing their confidence is so important. One way to do that is to help them create their own space at home, that’s reflective of who they are, a place where they can relax and feel inspired and be themselves and HAVE input. When I sat down with my nieces to discuss what they wanted in their room, they both agreed that the pink walls had to go, and they wanted to incorporate teal into the room.
We painted the walls a creamy white (Benjamin Moore’s White Dove) to really open up the room and they chose this pretty, light gray, Solitude bedding from The Kathy Davis Brand.
These girls love to read, so we swapped out their metal headboard for an upholstered one–which is a lot more comfortable to lean against. We were able to DIY it with mostly supplies we had on hand: An old piece of plywood, foam (this foam I actually had from a mattress topper) and we went and bought 2 1/4 yards of heathered teal fabric for 5 dollars and two frame hooks so that we could hang the headboard right on the wall.
Adding a few fun pillowcases is an inexpensive way to add pattern and personality to a room. The tree ones in the front are Kathy Davis Brand and I added another lightly patterned pillow behind it with a few fun decorative pillows in the front. A small teal, knit throw on top laid on top adds texture and another dose of their favorite color.
Another easy swap we made was switching out the knobs on the nightstands.
I found these gem-like knobs at Hobby Lobby for a couple dollars and it took less than 5 minutes to screw all of them on. It’s an easy way to give furniture, like these nightstands, new life.
The other side of their room, is where they stashed their books and whiteboard–which I learned is used more than any other toy they own. Above is the before and here’s what it looks like now:
We spray-painted the whiteboard’s frame with Rustoleum’s Gold Metallic Spray Paint and gave it a home on the wall. In the before photo, you can see they had three magnet boards above their bed that were filled with vacation memories, notes and schedules so I definitely wanted to incorporate that back in their room. They had this large magnet board in their storage with a teal frame and it felt too good to be true. (I don’t even own 1 magnet board, and they have at least 4? Haha) We mounted an Ikea Lack shelf below for their favorite books.
Now these girls have a room that they can feel proud of, confident in and appreciate themselves as they enter into their teen years.
Ready to get a jumpstart on creating a life you love by creating a room you love? Enter to win a set of Kathy Davis bedding through the widget below.
KATHY DAVIS™ & Chris Loves Julia Bedding Giveaway
SOURCES
Comforter and Shams: Kathy Davis Solitude line, Turquoise knit throw, Color-Block Pillow, Faux Fur Ombre Pillow, Area Rug, Aqua Touch Lamps, Colorful string lights: Target Dollar Spot, Mirror, Clock, Wood Block letters, Floral Bowl
This post is sponsored by Kathy Davis Brand, who believes that everyone has the right to “Create a Life They Love.”
How cute the girl’s room is! like what you shared
I liked the idea! I will definitely read your other blog posts!
Very informative post I love it from starts to end definitely bookmark this lovely blog please keep updating it in future also.
This brings back some great memories of sharing a room with my sisters. I am sure there were some not-so-great memories too. I love that the whiteboard is the most used “toy” — totally a girl thing. What a fun room.
This is great! How did you make the DIY headboard? Did you glue the foam to the plywood or staple it? I would love to see a post on that!
We just set the foam (no glue or staple) on the board and wrapped the fabric around it and then stapled the fabric to the back.