A Room to Call Her Own

I mentioned a while back that we were going to convert my craft room into a bedroom for my 12-year-old daughter. Like any and all projects that involve me as the head designer and my husband as lead carpenter, it took forever. Well, not forever, but ALL SUMMER. I promised my daughter that she would have her own room by the time that school started, and I kept that promise, although it just about killed me.

The job that took the longest was simply packing up all my stuff and moving it out. I'm a firm subscriber to the philosophy of "a place for everything and everything in its place." Unfortunately, subscribing and following through are two different concepts. I started out really well, culling and organizing and fitting a miscellaneous assortment of sewing supplies and scrapbooking tools and unfinished art projects into my new craft center. Then my antsy daughter climbed onto my back, and started pestering me to hurry it up. I hate to throw things willy-nilly into boxes, but that's what ended up happening toward the end. Oh, well.

BEFORE

After I FINALLY emptied the room, we were ready to get to work. I painted two of the walls a pale yellow and the other two a light green.

We found some beautiful Vermont maple wood flooring on clearance at the hardware store, and my husband installed it.

For soundproofing, as well as aesthetics, we replaced the flimsy hollow door with a solid wood door. We also replaced the "trim" (1x1 strips tacked on as baseboard) with proper molding that we painted a glossy enamel white. Per usual, when I say "we," I mean my husband.

Next "we" put together the bed, which we bought unassembled from a warehouse to save a little money. We'd gone round and round about what type to buy, since we don't believe our child is a princess entitled to a fancy suite of furniture, but we did want a bed that an adult could sleep in comfortably, should we ever have a house full of guests and need extra space.

We almost went with a twin bed and trundle, but then we pictured Grandpa Christopher trying to roll over on a twin mattress, had ourselves a good laugh, and selected this full-sized bed with storage underneath.

We removed the bifold closet door and hung in its stead a sheer drapery panel
that I found on a clearance shelf for 60% off! Booyah!

I made some inexpensive curtains. Excuse me, window treatments.

Okay, kid. You got your own room . . . now stay in it until your homework's finished.

Dinner last night: chicken pot pie

Exactly one year ago:

Country Road

Exactly two years ago:
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