I kind of thought Maevy’s room was done, but then I realized there were virtually no pictures of her or her family in the room. I was running out of wall space, but I thought the back door would be perfect. I decided to go DIY and did some research on how to make my own memory board. There are several different variations, but this one was by far the easiest and cheapest.

Step 1- Get a canvas. Again we had old canvases from some homemade art we had on our wall several years ago. I had 3; so I decided to make 2 for Maevy and 1 for Baby Brother.

Step 2- Adhere batting to canvas. I used some spray adhesive and only spent about $5 on batting material.
Step 3- Cover canvas and batting with fabric. Again, I used my accent fabric. Pull tightly and secure with staple gun.
Step 4- Make 1 big X with ribbon and adhere to canvas with staple gun. Add additional ribbon lines depending on the size of the canvas.
The end! I used Command Picture Hanging Strips to hang the canvases on the door. They’re pricing, but easy to use..and no holes in the door!

I think the final product looks good, and it’s fun to actually print photos!
Lastly- I enlisted Ryan’s design skills and free vinyl (from work) for Maevy’s door sign. She’s constantly telling us that her favorite colors are pink, purple, and yellow. We decided on pink and added a butterfly.

The hardest part was picking the right font. Now that she knows her letters and is slowing starting to learn to read, I’m very conscience of making sure letters are in the correct format. You’ve probably never noticed, but the majority of fonts in Microsoft use this fancy lowercase- “a”.  This is not how most American students learn to read or write the letter “a”. (Ugh- as I was writing this, I went back to read my last post and noticed that the Alphabet poster has the wrong lowercase “a”- ridiculous!) Sorry for the diatribe, but sometimes simple stuff like this bugs me.

Ok so here’s the final product-
And thus the end of the Big Girl Room Reveal. Next Up: Maevy’s old room gets a re-vamp for Baby Brother…due to arrive soon

Here are a couple pictures of Maevy’s (now) room circa 2008 when we bought the house. From within the room, looking towards the hallway- From the hallway, looking into the bedroom-

Clearly, a previous owner wanted to add some privacy to the room, but for some reason opted to put in a weird 3/4 wall, and no door. Maevy doesn’t really need privacy, but we did think finishing the wall and adding a door would be a nice upgrade to the upstairs. Plus it would help keep any noise from downstairs out.

Like all things in our old home, it was a “fun” project for a contractor because of the tight space, slanted ceiling, uneven floor, and the bathroom door. Typically the upstairs bathroom door is open (which you can see in picture #1). If possible, I didn’t want the bathroom door, when open, to completely block the doorway to Maevy’s room.

Here’s the finish product-I’m really happy with it. We’ve been keeping the bathroom door closed more, but even when it is open, it only blocks a couple inches of the doorway.

With the extra wall space, we installed the final art pieces and decorations.

1. Alphabet Poster- I wanted to give Maevy an alphabet poster, something that would help her practice her letters and let her start to associate letters with words. I found this cute Animal Alphabet Poster from etsy (of course). Maevy is currently obsessed with why some of the animals don’t “match”. I think she wants it to be like memory and there should be 2 of the same animal on the poster. Instead she picks out which animals are the same color.

2. Stuffed Animal Storage- In the corner, we installed this stuffed animal net. I think I’ve mentioned before that the stuffed animals were becoming an issue. Imagine Maev sleeping in her toddler bed/crib with all of these animals! She has a name for all of them, and knows when one is missing. I swear we did not purchase one of these! (Thanks family!) The second she moved into her new room, we told her she was allowed to pick 2 items to sleep with, and so far the transition has been very easy.3. Club Chair- I wasn’t sure what do with the toddler sized club chair. It’s cute and was a gift from Grandpa. For now, it works in the corner.

4. Name Letter Art- We made our own letter art from pictures we took around Nashville. Maevy came with us on the majority of our letter scavenger hunting.  It was impossible for me to find a frame with (5) 4×6 slots; so I ended up ordering a custom frame from ArttoFrames, which turned out great (and affordable). I ordered the 11×14 frame for the alphabet poster from there too. I was impressed that Maevy immediately recognized all the letters. She’s been practicing spelling her name.

5. Underneath- more hot pink storage boxes!!! Right now they contain-
- swim gear (swim lessons will start soon)
- shoes
- extra blankets and quilts (which will come in handy if/when she has to give up her big bed for guests and sleep on an air mattress6. Glow in the Dark Stars-  Finally, I picked up some glow in dark stars and planets from an art supplies store. I’m all for anything to encourage her to stay in bed. Again she likes pointing out the “matches” and the shooting stars.

That almost completes the tour. Next up- Finishing Touches.

Rather than buying several new accents, I decided to break out the glue gun and just “enhance” some existing items. I took Maevy’s quilt to Joann’s Fabrics to find the perfect accent fabric, and decided to go with this cute, turquoise/blue striped print. I used it to cover this existing lamp shade and part of the lamp.

I also covered the top of this night stand table that we’ve had for years (from Ikea). I found the lamp with hot pink lamp shade on clearance from Target. ($8)

I had some extra fabric; so I covered an existing black, mesh trash can. We don’t typically need a trash can in her room, and I guess it could be used as a hamper. Final use- to be determined.

Finally, I purchased the white, ruffled roller window shade from Country Curtains. I did a lot of online shopping and thought this was my best and most affordable option. The quality is decent and I do like the look- girlie, but clean and simple.

BUT….it let’s a lot of light in. I like it dark when I sleep and since Maevy is still taking naps, I wanted to make sure it would be dark enough for naps. We were babysitting one of Maevy’s friends during naptime, and realized that because of where the bed is, sun was shining through the corner of shade right in his eyes. So…I went very DIY,  bought some black out fabric and a suspension curtain rod. I measured and haphazardly cut the fabric to fit inside the window frame. Then I used safety pins, yes safety pins- no needle and thread, to make a slot for the suspension rod. I didn’t see a reason to make it look pretty or perfect. You can’t see it and I will rarely need to do anything with it. What’s my plan when we do want some light to come in?- binder clips! Clip it up, then roll the pretty shade up to the desired length. It works, right?Next up- Major Construction

Next up is Maevy’s Artsy Corner.

It’s a pretty simple corner. Chalkboard paint on the closet door (and we replaced the shiny gold door knob with a nickel one).

Ryan had a couple new canvases laying around; so I made 2 Melted Crayon Art pieces. This idea is all over Pinterest. I thought it was cute, easy to make, and a great way to add some color to the room. (I didn’t bother removing the crayola wrappers.) I don’t know if I have a weak blow dryer, but it does take a while. It probably didn’t help, but I did it outside on a day when it was pretty cold. It took around an hour to do both canvases.
Finally, I used some Command Picture Hanging strips to attach both the eraser and the chalk holder I found at Michaels, which is actually a metal chinese take-out style box with the top and handle removed.

Next up- Accents and Accessories!

Next up is the Reading Corner. My idea was to get a comfy chair and bookcase and create a little reading nook. For a while now, the rocking chair has been too small for comfy reading, and we’ve been reading books before bed on the floor. It also doesn’t help that Maevy usually insists on sitting on your lap, right in front, which is becoming increasingly more difficult because of Baby Brother.

I found the inexpensive bookcase on Craigslist and we (Ryan) painted it our accent green color. Grandma hooked us up with one her recliners. I think she’s on her 3rd, maybe 4th recliner, so they had a couple extra to spare. (Thanks, Mom!)

To add a little decoration and to ensure everyone knows – this is the Reading Corner – we painted and hung the wood letters (READ) over the book case. Plus, Maevy is really into recognizing her letters/in the very beginning stages of stringing together letter sounds; so why not give her more letters to practice.

Other Reading Corner items:
Rainbow afghan: Baby gift
Lamp: This was already in the guest room. I picked up some accent fabric from Joann’s and covered the shade and part of the lamp. I’ll post some other accent fabric projects soon.
Pink Piggy Bank: Baby gift- Once she saw the Curious George episode where he has a Piggy Bank, Maevy has been all about putting money in hers.
Pink Storage Bins: We have a ton; so I put a couple on the bottom shelf for miscellaneous items.

Next up: Artsy Corner.

Maevy’s big girl room is almost done. Just some major construction, and then we’ll let her move in. No biggie, right?

Here’s the big reveal Part 1-

I would put myself on the low-end of the creativity scale, but one of the fun things about having your own house is getting to “design” rooms the way you want them.  It’s no secret that our downstairs has a lot of color. We don’t plan to stay in this house forever, and sometimes I have nightmares about our realtor telling us that we need to paint the downstairs neutral colors for re-sale. Umm..no thanks. I kind of hate painting.

In contrast, we have kept the upstairs pretty basic. We hadn’t even touched the bathroom or the guest room because I didn’t really see the point. Maevy’s current room is pretty basic- one green accent wall, white everywhere else.

I decided to keep things simple in the big girl room as well. So simple, that I decided to do the same exact thing- one green accent wall, white everywhere else.
I have a million of those hot pink storage boxes, and figured why not keep a similar palette- white, pinks, greens, etc. Plus we had enough green paint leftover, we didn’t have to buy more. Sweet!

Like with everything, I need some inspiration- enter the bedspread/quilt.
I found this colorful and girlie quilt at TJ Maxx. I thought it was perfect- pinks, greens, and even some turquoise.

The bed set-
After a lot of thought, I took my parents up on an offer to give Maevy my childhood bedroom set. Purchased in the 80s, it’s actually a quality-made bedroom set, really heavy, but also nice. For now, we just have the bed frame and dresser. (There’s also a desk.)

I made things a little difficult by wanting to keep the queen mattress set. (I definitely don’t think any 3 year old needs to sleep in a Queen bed, but this bed will still be used for guests. Sorry, Maev.) The bed frame is actually for a full sized bed. We could have easily just put up the headboard and called it a day, but the foot board is cute…right?

So instead, my dad and Ryan spent a weekend attaching 2x4s, maybe not 2×4, but 2x somethings, to the headboard and foot board, essentially creating a new bed frame. It worked out great, minus an extra “oops” hole in the foot board. The bed skirt easily covers up the 2x4s (I’ll keep calling them that.) and added bonus, the 2×4 gives Maevy a little step to use to climb into bed.

One last fun project- head/foot board polls. The bed actually has a canopy which I occasionally had growing up, but for the majority of my life at home, I lived in a room very similar to Maevy’s with slanted ceilings. Every few months, I would change up the design or lay out of my room, and more times that not, I could never use all 4 of the polls because of the slanted ceilings. The polls were just too tall.

So I asked Ryan if we could cut them down. After getting plan approval from Ryan’s Home Depot buddy, he cut the polls down to the desired height, drilled holes, and wood glued a new dowel into the poll. It worked out great, and I love the new, complete look of the bed and bed frame.

Other items for the bed-
Pink sheets- TJ Maxx
White quilt sham cover- TJ Maxx
Turquoise accent pillow- TJ Maxx
White eyelet bed skirt- Bed, Bath & Beyond

Side note: We haven’t begun to address the stuffed animal issue. I’m hoping to limit the bed to 2 stuffed animals. I have plans for the other ~15 that Maevy is currently sleeping with.

Next up: The Reading Corner