The Girls Room, Part I

I've been planning to redo our girls' room for a while now. I knew that after we moved would be about the right time to put our 2 1/2 yr old in a twin bed, and that was a good excuse to switch things up with the decor. I liked their old nursery, but I was bored of the muted colors and wanted to try something vibrant for at least our year in Delaware.

the old nursery in Boston
The sad, sad former state of the girls room in our new house.

A year or two ago I somehow I managed to buy on eBay more than 3 yards of the alabaster colorway of Schumacher's Chiang Mai Dragon. I know some people feel the print is overused, but I LOVE it. Plus, I paid $10 a yard and can cope with 'trendy' for $10 a yard. Aren't the colors so great?


While we were still in Boston, I found two upholstered headboards on Craigslist. This insanely rich woman who lived in an amazing Comm Ave. flat sold them both to me for $20. Isn't the yellow plaid unfortunate? The quality is surprising on these though - I'm sure she paid several hundred a piece back in the day.


Reupholstering the headboards was SO easy. I had to cut off the large welting so that the new fabric would lay flat, but that was honestly the hardest part.



I cut my 3+ yard remnant of Chiang Mai in half and that was all the cutting I did.


I like the idea of being able to pull the fabric pieces off later if I get sick of the headboards, but still want to use the Chiang Mai fabric for pillows or chair seats or other small projects.


The backs of the headboards look a little funny though because I didn't cut away the extra fabric.


You can't tell from the front though...


Cute, right?


Next project was to make some cheap (read "free") artwork for above the bed to replace the old Maurice Sendak prints:


I drew pictures of flowers from the Chiang Mai pattern and colored them with my trusty AD Chartpak markers while I watched Rachel Zoe suffer through Oscars week. (sidenote: After about the 50th time Rachel called Anne Hathoway "Annie", I threw said trusty Chartpak marker at the tv... so obnoxious)


I used some navy blue linen I had laying around as the make-shift matting for the new "botanical" prints. And while it's not real art by any stretch of the imagination, it sort of works for the room and my girls think the flowers are "SOoooOO pretty!!" Good enough for me.


Wow, this post is getting long. Okay, last project to share today -

I love the look of a pair of sunburst mirrors above twin beds. We all know how expensive sunburst mirrors are though. So, when I found these round floral tole mirrors at HomeGoods a couple months ago, I snatched up two as fast as I could. They were only $8.99 a piece and I think they look a lot like sunburst mirrors, but are maybe a little more juvenile (a good thing in a kids room, right?)


I almost painted them gold, but I had purple paint already, and I love how it plays off the purple in the Chiang Mai fabric.



Come back tomorrow for Part II. You're going to love how this room comes together...