Room fit for a High Schooler

Over the summer, we knew that we had to do something about Ashley's room.

Her childhood furniture was way too bulky and kiddish.  The night stand and dresser drawers looked big, but held next to nothing, I guess they were built with tiny kids clothes in mind.  The furniture took up way too much space in a room that could be bigger.  We live in a town house so our room sizes are smaller than the norm.

The furniture has these pretty little flowers on each piece which are sweet for a little girl, but Ashley was quickly growing out of them.  Plus, there was no room for a desk, so she was always doing her homework sprawled out across the kitchen table (which drives me crazy when I am getting dinner ready) or on our office desk which now hosts our computer.  The girl needs a desk!

The blue/green colors were ones she picked the week before our wedding, I scrambled to paint her room so that when we all moved in together, she would have a special place that felt like hers to help her through the transition.

It worked.  She loved this room and the colors.  But that was 3 years ago.  She was 11.  What you like when you are 11 is NOT what you like when you are 14.  In fact, I can argue that you do SO much growing up from 11 to 14 that you could be a totally different person!!  Her likes and favorites have changed so much ours heads are spinning;)

Fast forward to this year, and she wants PINK.  Like...PINK PINK.  Hello, I'm a teenager and I have dreams of being Pretty in Pink in high school and I need my Pink on...pink.

So that's what we did.  We chose the color.  We put the old furniture up on Craigslist and got $500 for it, the set went to a sweet little girl that lives in Baltimore city, who when she saw the set in person started jumping up and down and screamed, "That's mine!  That's mine!?!?"  It was adorable.  We went to IKEA the next day and picked out great pieces that are perfect for a teen aged girl.  I spent 3 days painting over the green and blue and all the trim and doors and making sure all my mistakes with the old paint (ceiling and window splotches - I was such a painting newb!) were corrected.  

Seriously, it looks like a pro painted up in the there.  It's flawless!  It took 3 coats, even though the Home D paint guy said "Oh with THIS paint, even with a bright color, you'll only need 2."  Yeah right!  Yes, it was great paint, the best kind with the best coverage and the primer...but it still needed 3 coats.  Oh well...live and learn.

1st coat.

2nd coat.

3rd coat!  It looks bright in that pic above.  It's called Candy Coated and its a Behr paint, I think.  She loves it.  It's really a GREAT pink.  This picture shows it a little better...

It's a happy, girly color.  Much better than the blue and green which I did like, but I love this one.

This is a close up of the duvet she picked out.  This is where we started.  I told her she could pick any bed stuff from Pottery Barn Teen. We've been looking at the website for months, pinning things she loves and she finally decided on this.  It is SO sweet.  From there, we brought up TONS of paint swatches and agonized over them.  As we were prepping the walls and cleaning things out, I did this.  All the colors she loves.  Yes, I went and spent $24 worth of little test pots of paint.  This is a serious decision, you know?  She has to live with this color for the next 4 years!

After she chose Candy Coated, things moved kinda fast...

I updated her closed with this really easy closet organizer.  It was about $53 dollars at Home D.  I want it for ALL my closets.  Seriously, I think mine and Dave's closets are getting an upgrade this weekend.

We cleaned EVERYTHING out...yes those are my feet!

We patched up a TON of holes and imperfections on the walls.  Our townhouses were build SO crappy, the walls are awful.  I need to move.

I sanded...

She sanded...yes I made her work for this!!!  But only for a day...then she went to her moms and I was on some sort of speed runner energy...

Oh yeah and our hallways/ extra bedroom looked like this!

Oh my!!!

Ready to paint?  Let's do this!!!  This is what I used for her trim, it's a general white, but it looks great.

After painting Dave put furniture together...and we moved it upstairs

I bought new faux wooden blinds which look GREAT (whole house upgrade coming soon!) and this darling white shades from Target.  With all that color in her room, the white looks awesome!

I went to HomeGoods and found tons of cute stuff to decor with, like this mirror.  The desk is IKEA and is seriously the most perfect desk for this space!

Here are the shades again.  The green bean bag chair will relocate to the basement eventually.  I want to create a reading, cozy space for her here, maybe with this chair from PBT and another small table and light.

This is her small dresser with a pop up mirror - the BEST piece of furniture for a teen girl, in my personal opinion, and a small media cabinet with drawers for her TV, the hammy ham, dvds, books etc.

She really wants a loft bed but we don't think she will love that in a few years, so we are using this bed for now that is a hand-me-down borrow from a friend.  It suits the space until we get her a new one.  I love this one from PBT but it's so pricey.  I think a day bed type would be awesome though, because I think teem rooms need to be a space to hang out in as well as a place for sleep.  The day bed gives it that "family room" quality!

I have done a few other fun things in here, like that gallery wall you see, that I have to post about but for now, that is her room upgrade.  It's been perfect for her so far, I think she is enjoying it.  There seems to be SO much more space in there, which I have yet to take a picture to prove that.  That's on my to do list!

Hope you love it as much as we do!!!  Cheers!