Turning a Little Girl Room into a Big Girl Room

Two weeks ago I mentioned I was part of a cool DIY project/contest/challenge with some amazing bloggers.

We all know each other and have met in person.
And we STILL really like each other.
You can read my original post for the rules here.

So we had two weeks to get our crap in order and create something cool.
I chose to re-do my Ellie’s room instead of the laundry room because mom guilt won.
But I plan to overhaul that laundry closet some Saturday mid winter when I am in a funk and the only thing that will make me better is more cowbell.
And less Downy dryer sheets.

Here are the before pictures to remind you:

Now I realize that this is not an awful before but it was more of a request from the tenant of the above room.

She said, and I quote, “I want a big girl room. Big girl rooms aren’t pink.”

And sadly, we lost a friend while doing this renovation.
Goodbye Ikea dresser.
You were good to us.
We purchased this dresser for Annie’s room while I was preggo with Ellie.
It lasted through a 7-11-year-olds’ wrath then lived with a 4-5-year-old traumatizing it.
Until it came apart at the seams, literally, while we were painting in here.
Goodbye, old friend.

So my goal was to spend less than 50 (ideally 25) dollars while making my five-year-old’s room less girly and more…big girly??
This is what we ended up doing to transform Ellie’s room:

– painted her walls a light purple (her request)
– got rid of the Ikea dresser of death
– put up new curtains
– new bedding
– figure out what to do with all the clothing that was in the Ikea dresser of death
– bring in some furniture from different rooms

And here is the after:

Less little girly?

And the weird thing? Purple seems like it is darker than pink, but this room looks lighter!

The exact color is Lavender Verbena by Martha Stewart.
But I totally didn’t use Martha Stewart paint…NOOOO.
We used Glidden, which is a lot cheaper.
And Glidden doesn’t talk smack about bloggers.

That nightstand used to be downstairs in our living room so I switched it with the nightstand she had up here, which fits in much better downstairs.
Did that make any sense to you?

Angel watching over her.
Aka- my gramma, who we named her after.

That desk was a hand-me-down from Rebecca’s daughter’s room.
First, it was in Annie’s room for a few years, then banished to the basement.
It now has a home in Ellie’s room, which is perfect for a girl who loves to draw and color.
I did nothing to it but have plans, eventually……

The only change I made to the desk is I painted this Ikea chair from Annie’s room purple.
It has been at least five different colors over the past six years.

I am thinking of painting this desk ivory and leaving the cool green knobs.
Again, saving this project for the dead of winter.

Oh, and just so you can see how rinky-dink I am here at the blog, THIS is what I used to give extra light to a room that is hard to photograph.
A floor lamp from my family room.

Here is the price rundown:

– one gallon of paint (which we didn’t entirely use) = 22.00
– bedding (on clearance at Target) = 25.00….I am so excited about this because 25 is amazing for a comforter, sheets, pillowcases and all!
– rug (on clearance at Target) = 10.00
– curtains (on clearance at where else….) 14.00 for both panels
– accessories- free…already had them before or were from Annie’s old little girly room!

Grand total-$ 71.00

….ok a little over what I really didn’t want to spend but not bad to transform a little girl’s room and her reaction was priceless.
Since I don’t show my children’s faces here on the blog, let me re-enact it:

Yes.
Exactly like that.

Oh, I ended up putting all the items that were in the IKEA dresser of death into bins on her closet shelves.
I know you were on the edge of your seat waiting to hear! 😉

Head over to Julie’s blog, Chrissy’s blog and Katie’s blog to see what they created!