Another room makeover

We recently had another bedroom makeover in our house. Kids grow, and needs change - just how it is.  Especially in a pretty small house, one has to think creatively.  You might remember the last room makeover for younger girls which is here.

Eldest girl decided to venture to a room downstairs, all by herself. The rest of us have bedrooms upstairs, and downstairs is a bit unrenovated, a bit dungeony, a bit dark (though not her new room - just the rest of downstairs), the ceilings are a little lower and look a little 'basementy' and it was a bit step to move downstairs far away from everyone.The walls down there are cement rendered in a 1960's, rough greek island grotto kind of style.

The room was used a a spare room, (VERY basic guest room). But we talked about the fact that it was a reasonably big room (MUCH bigger than her tiny upstairs room), there was a double bed which is fun for sleep overs, she would be able to sleep-in on the weekends because the noise of her younger sisters wouldn't wake her, and she has room to leave her saxophone out on it's stand, and leave her music stand up with music on it (neither of which she had room for before) and play til her hearts content without the rest of the family telling her to be quiet!

She considered all these advantages and we decided she should sleep down there for a month and make sure she liked it, and then I would make it a little prettier for her. Well once she got used to the new room size, she couldn't go back upstairs to her tiny room, so she officially moved down there. I painted the dark blue walls white, gave her my own white quilt cover, and bought her some new purple sheets and a cushion or two. It was darn hard to find purple sheets because apparently according to nice sales lady purple is not 'in' but I had a vision in my mind of orange and purple (much to nice sales lady's horror) and I went with it. I love the result, and so does the girl. She agreed to my ideas because it didn't feel young girly, and she doesn't like pink, yet it is still feminine, yet a bit more grown up.  Her Christmas present light cotton throw rug lives at the end of the bed, folded to expose the orange bit. There is a big white furry shag rug on the floor which we've had for years that is not in the photos. This kid can be with white. Middle child? Not so much.

A wall opposite the bed has a built in counter that we painted white and she uses as her desk, and behind this desk is a small wall that we painted purple, and there is another 1960's style nook, that we painted purple and white too. Photos all below.  There is a brick castle like archway into the room, which is actually very cute, and not 70's in style, so you will see that in the last picture which was taken before I painted the walls, and when I allowed her to have some candles in her new room for the first time - she felt very grown up. She sits in her new reading chair to read which we found in my sisters garage - when we mentioned to my sister we were going orange and purple she offered us this cute retro chair. The padded seat lifts up on hinges to reveal a secret storage box under those pleats. It is now used to house all her books. My sister also donated mosaic picture frame on the wall from her garage.

So yes, this was a makeover on a serious budget, requiring one can of white paint, a set purple sheets, and two cushions, one of which was $5. The bear on the bed has it's own story, and is on my list to be scrapbooked.

And the girl is happy. And sleeps in. And plays her sax. And has already had several sleepovers!