Tween Girl Room

It's the tween bedroom reveal!  One kid down, one to go.  Do you know my kids get along better now that they have their own rooms?  Maybe that was given.  Let's go way back to the blank room.  Blank fitness looking room.  When we moved into this house, we moved in as renters and the landlord said I could paint the walls any color I wanted.

Chocolate brown and lime green seemed low-risk...as in...I can move when I get tired of the paint color.

Rather than moving, I ended up buying the house.

The wall sat empty chocolate brown for a couple of years until I decided what I wanted to do to brighten it up a little.  I really only used the room when it was dark anyway to ride the bike on the trainer after kids' bedtime.

After building a hinged storage bench for lounging, the room was becoming more livable.

The vinyl tree & bird decals and turquoise painted mirror made it more inviting, and that's when I moved my yoga mat into the room.

Initially, I thought we'd squeeze a twin headboard between the wall and storage bench.  There was enough room and we even picked out a twin bed frame online.  Then a friend suggested we just use the storage bench as a bed, "She's small enough."  Hmmmm.  I didn't like the idea of using the tri-fold mat as a mattress, but considered ordering a custom sized mattress.  That would save a lot of bedroom space.  Turns out, the twin mattress was 3 inches shorter than the tri-fold mat and only an inch wider.  Only a hop, skip and a jump to get into bed now.

By not adding a twin bed to the room, there was still enough space to accommodate Tiny.  Tiny sits in the corner on top of the tri-fold mat as a comfortable reading nook.

Opposite of Tiny is the bookcase holding my voracious little reader's books.  The bookcase used to be a really dated white wash finish that I painted green when I painted the wall green.

Her favorite additions to the room reside in this corner; the butterflies and lamp.  I found the butterflies on a clearance endcap at Target for $10.  The lamp base and shade were sold separate from Target.

The roses are real!  They are so pretty and were marked down to $4.99/doz last weekend.  I kind of wish they were fake so they'd last longer.

The kids decided to switch dressers.  She had a 6 drawer horizontal dresser and traded for his 4 drawer vertical dresser.

"Where should I put my Legos?"  I'd like them to be put away, but my kids like to display things.  It seems to go against the grain of my being.  My siblings understand (their spouses, not so much).  "Ok, you can put them on top of your dresser."

Here was the wall as the playroom.  The bookcase held the TV that was negotiated to my son's bedroom as a trade for moving the VersaClimber into a corner of his room.

Here is the tall dresser before a fall makeover in which I painted it the same brown as the wall color.  I guess it was destined to be in this room.

The green wall now.  We need to figure out what to do with the frame over the dresser.  I considered taking down the rest of the photo gallery, but it is mostly hidden behind the door when it is open and my daughter wanted to keep it.

On the other side of the bedroom door as you come into the room, is a white shelf with hooks for her purses and robe.

Here was the wall before we built out the closet into an office:

Same wall now.  See the bird perched over the light switch?  Another feature she adores.  She can flip the switch to turn on the closet light to read from bed.  

If you're new here, you may not have seen the closet turned into an office.  I'm not kicked out of the closet yet.

The curtain conceals a shelf on the left side and is open on the right side.  If needed down the road, we can remove the section of desk to the the right and use the hanging bar again.  Otherwise, she'll keep some of her hanging items upstairs in her brother's closet.

View from the closet as the playroom:

View from the closet as her bedroom:

So far I get to keep my yoga mat in here.

We ordered her bedding from Target.  She decided she wanted to wait to sleep in the room until her new bedding arrived.  I didn't mind.  It was going to take me a few days to settle into the idea of her sleeping downstairs all by herself.  Just like a tween, she now comes home from school, grabs a snack and then heads to her room and closes her door.  Instead of plopping down in front of the TV, she is reading or writing.  When I'm in her room, I tell her that I like it even better as her bedroom than as the playroom.  

Room sources:
-Room 365 Interlocking Circles twin comforter and two throw pillows from Target.com.
-Vinyl Decals from eBay seller coocoodecal.
-Wall Mirror from One King's Lane (originally black with gold) painted turquoise & white.
-Storage bins Macbeth Collection via Hautelook.
-Turquoise Bone Frame, Turquoise Clock & Turquoise Peacock Pillows from Joss & Main.
-Lamp & Shade, wall butterflies, small green laundry basket & brown pillows from Target store.
-Tiny & brown tri-fold mat are from Costco.
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