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| old bedding and clutter against the walls |
Since Bennett was 2.5 years old, she has had the same bedding. She started out in a full bed that has been in our family for over 100 years, but we eventually swapped her furniture to my old queen bedroom suite. Bennett has never complained about her room, but I knew it was time to get her new bedding and make it more grown up.
I began by asking Bennett what her favorite color is.....turquoise. So I looked in catalogs for cute bedding, and finally found some at Pottery Barn teen. They even had cute coordinating drapes with black-out lining.
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| Bennett wanted to get rid of Barbie house and kid table |
Since I have always wanted an upholstered headboard, I knew I had to have one made for Bennett. I met with a girl who started her own business making them several years ago, and we selected a beautiful gray tweed. I asked her to do the corner cut-outs and had pewter nailheads added to it. The finished product is just stunning!!
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| Dresser - before |
My decorator, Marianne, and friend, Kadie convinced me to recover a settee I got from my mother via her grandmother. After a little research, I found out it is almost 100 years old! It fit perfectly in her nook, and I knew I had to use it. Kadie brought me lots of fabric samples to go with the bedding, and after lots of consideration, we decided to use a lovely watercolor pattern as the anchor in the room. It has grey, turquoise, pinks, yellow and purples in it. Marianne thought the fuchsia on the settee would be perfect, and playful for an 8 year old's room. I must admit that I thought it was very bright upon completion, but seeing it in the room with everything else makes me love it! I went with a solid white on the rocking chair, and was lucky enough to find a pillow that matched her bedding perfectly!
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| After...new lamps, headboard, frames, drapes and bedding! |
I then started looking for white furniture to lighten up her room. Unfortunately I couldn't find anything that was quality made, that I liked AND could afford. So I decided to paint the pieces of furniture we already had....and what a transformation it made. The wonderful woman who painted it all was nice enough to come to our house to do the work each night, beginning shortly after we dropped off the kids at camp.
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| Settee perfect for our queen! |
As I began to see the transformation, I knew I had to paint the room (which wasn't originally in the plan). My decorator helped me choose a light grey (Repose Gray by Sherwin Williams), and I worked hard to put two coats on it Wednesday and Thursday.
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| Docky's old rocking chair |
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| Dresser (we still need a new mirror) |
It was a shear miracle that it all came together in just 6 days, but it did! The best part of it all was seeing how shocked and excited Bennett was to see it! She had no idea that I was making over her room, but loved the finished product. We still need to get pillows for her settee, add some artwork and buy a new mirror, but we are almost done!
Back in December I asked the kids what camps they wanted to do. I heard an overwhelming reply of "Camp Winnataska," so I coordinated with some of their friends and chose a week in June when they would go together. I try to send them early in the summer, before it gets too hot, however this year it ended up being SUPER hot the week that they went. Bennett was signed up for a week long stay, but Preston was only going for a half week.
By Tuesday, I knew he would want to stay. All of the pictures I was seeing looked like he was having a blast. He had three buddies in his hut, Christian next door, and Bennett across the grass. We can send emails to the kids, but can't get replies. So I eventually heard from the director that he definitely wanted to stay, so I packed him another bag, and sent it up with a friend. 
It was certainly tough not being to talk to either child for 6 days, but to top it off, Steve was away on business that week. So it was just Walker and me all week long. At first he was a little confused, but he eventually got used to the quiet and was my buddy. However, come Saturday morning....I was MORE than ready to pick up my babies and hear all of their stories! Thankfully they both had a blast!
