Lauren's New Room

Well, it's done! After the near catastrophes with the dog peeing on the new bedding and extensive searching for just the right accessories, Lauren's new room is finished. Well, except we still need to paint the headboard and put it on and a couple of other little things I may want to add. I'd also like to get her a new chest. Hers is just a $29 cheapy I kept in her closet at the old house since she was bunking with Kyle and their room was too small. We also plan to eventually replace her baseboards, closet doors and bedroom door. I LOVE it! It's now my favorite room in the house and I asked her if I can move in, LOL! She said yes ;)

Unfortunately, I didn't take any before pictures. It wasn't a horrible room, just very BLAH. There was dingy old beige carpet and dingy white walls and that was pretty much it. We removed the carpet to expose the beautiful wood floors underneath, just like the rest of the house. The rest was just paint and accessorizing. So without further ado, here is her new and improved shabby chic bedroom:

(You can click on the pictures to see them larger if you want.)

My tips from this decorating project:

* I got Lauren's ADORABLE shabby chic quilt at Homegoods for $40. Even if I had gone with something from Target's shabby chic collection, the twin quilt alone would have been about $80 or $90. A seller on Ebay was selling this EXACT quilt with a sham for $114.95. Homegoods, TJ Maxx, Marshalls, and Burlington Coat Factory are all good places to shop for discounted bedding and accessories. You just may have to go back frequently as they sell and get new items all the time.

* I got the bedskirt on Ebay. I couldn't find the white eyelet I wanted in the stores I'd been to and was tired of looking. This one is the kind that has the elastic instead of going underneath the mattress and it's SO much easier. It was about $20 with shipping. Plus, I went through Ebates and got a little cash back ;)

* Home Goods did not have the matching sham and the Ebay seller wanted as much for just the sham as I paid for the whole quilt! I figured I'd make do without it. I got a darling pink chenille sham from Amazon.com for $19.99 with free shipping. A similar chenille sham on Ebay was about $45. The gingham pillow I got at Home Goods, too, and is a good match to the gingham in the quilt. It was on sale for $7.00. The white pillow with roses is actually a chair cushion! Matches the rose pattern in the quilt almost perfectly. Got that at Marshalls. I asked them to discount it because it was missing a couple of buttons and one of the ties (which I didn't need anyway).

* Save things! I mean, don't be a pack rat, but save the good stuff. I saved the headboard from my twin bed when I lived at home. It's a beautiful, good quality headboard and all I have to do is paint it to match Lauren's room. I was thinking that I needed to find more wall hangings when my sister reminded me of the ballerina painting I'd saved from when I was at home, too. I LOVED that painting and never thought I'd have a place to hang it again, but I saved it all this time, and I hadn't even thought of it! I think it looks awesome in there. I also saved the things from Lauren's old room and reused a few of them.

* Some curtain panels don't come with tie backs. The ones I got for Lauren's room didn't and I wanted to tie them back. I just took some ribbon (which I have plenty of from my bow making) and a thumb tack. I tacked the ribbon to the window frame, tied it, and voila! Tie backs.

* If you can't buy it, make it! I wanted a shabby chic lamp shade, but even on Ebay I was looking at $15 - $25 (or more) plus shipping. For a LAMP SHADE. So my wheels started turning and I took a plain white lamp shade we already had from Lauren's old room and embellished it. I got some pink satin ruffle trim at Hobby Lobby for about $2 and some pink satin roses from Michaels. I hot glued them on and voila! A cute shabby chic lamp shade. And if you have something you like, but it's the wrong color, paint it (if you can). I have an old wall shelf that's yellow, but if I wanted to use it in her room, I could just paint it white.

So....what do you think?