Today I wanted to show you a girls bedroom makeover that I did recently for my little girl.
Creating a room that grows with your children is crucial in keeping your sanity, and them happy…
As such, I have shared as many tips and bits of inspiration that you can easily use as well next time you are updating your childrens rooms – enjoy!
My daughter is now 8 – going on 28…. I’m sure you can relate if you have a little girl of your own!
So, when I suggested over the summer holidays we would tackle redecorating her room, she was so excited as for her it meant creating a room that wasn’t a little girls room anymore.
Finally, she would have a ‘big girls bedroom’.
Here’s how her room looked at the start of this project: –
Pretty, pink, and very girly!
It worked really well for her, with everything easily accessible and on her (small) level.
She loved it – but it was time for an update.
Not only that, but I was looking to update out Guest bedroom at the same time (this will be in a future post so watch this space!) – so between us we decided that not only would we update her room, we would move her into the other room and start from scratch.
Excited? – understatement!
So – here’s what the Guest room looked like beforehand: –
It hadn’t really been touched since we created it with the extension we had a few years ago. It was painted cream and then left really, so it was about time to get it sorted!
TIP – When you move into a house or extend, paint rooms a neutral colour, because it will work fine with your stuff and it will give you time to live in the space before deciding how to decorate. You will be able to see the light in the room and how you use the room. Also, plasterwork tends to crack when it settles sometimes, so you give an extension time to bed in before spending a lot on decorating
The room worked fine – it had a bed and a few hooks for guests to use, but it had also become a bit of a dumping ground when we had any sort of project on the go (as you can see, I had loads of pictures waiting to be put up – another home project that I shall reveal shortly…!).
It just needed pulling together and making a really nice Guest room – so with the decision to move my daughters room into this one – we packed everything up and started the change….
But we had to do some thinking beforehand – what look did my daughter want, what was possible etc…. – so some brainstorming commenced.
TIP – A great idea for brainstorming interior design projects is to use Pinterest. There are literally thousands of pictures on there that you can use for inspiration. Simply create a board for your project, pin pictures that you love, and then you can see your ideas all in one place (you can even pin items from shops so you can easily buy them once you have made your mind up about everything…)
Here are some of the things that came out of that thinking – and that ended up on the wish list: –
#1 – Can It Look More Grown Up – And Be Easily Updated As She Gets Older?
We decided therefore to go for white walls and white furniture. She already had mainly white furniture anyway so this was easy, and the white walls would be a great blank canvas for any colour scheme she picked now and in the future.
TIP – any furniture we didn’t use was sold using eBay – and the money made was put towards the items we needed to buy for the new space.
#2 – Lots Of Storage
As children do, she has lots of stuff – toys, clothes, books etc…. and all of these needed to be stored in a way that it would be easy for her to grab herself.
We decided on a mix of open and hidden storage – so she had some display areas as well as practical storage for things she didn’t want to look at all the time.
Some things needed to be changed and added – for example – her old bookcase was pink and white and looked like a house – so we decided to update this to a larger white bookcase for storing more books – very grown up!
#3 – Bright And Colourful
Our house is VERY neutral, but with a few spots of more rich, jewel like colours as accents.
Her old room used pastel colours.
She wanted a change for the new room – one that was more in line with the rest of the house – to be more grown up I suppose!
Because we had picked white walls this would really brighten the space – and she wanted bright colours for the accents in her room.
TIP – Remember in kids rooms that their stuff is very colourful naturally – so work with these colours as well for a more cohesive look. If you have a very neutral room it won’t stay that way once their belongings are put into it…
#4 – A Bigger Bed
This was the big request – and it actually made sense to us for several reasons: –
- She would be able to top and tail when having a sleepover with a friend
- If we ever had lots of guests staying, a larger bed in this room would be beneficial
- We could get a storage bed and therefore there would be lots more storage available than there would be for a single bed
- As she grows up, a larger bed makes sense for comfort – she could use it as a day bed to chill out on as a teenager!
As such, we decided that a small double sized bed would work perfectly – the perfect compromise between allowing space in the room to play, and having a bigger bed for all the reasons above.
So – with all that thinking done, we went ahead and painted everywhere white and bought the items we needed.
The bedroom makeover had begun!
Once this was done we started to add in all the furniture and her stuff – and we are really really pleased with the results…
And here’s the bedroom makeover reveal (although you probably got a quick look with the title pictures on this post already!): –
The main features in the room are as follows: –
- The Bed was placed against the wall to create a day bed – perfect for a child to relax on! (no headboard means it looks more balanced on the wall as well)
- Lots of cushions on the bed adds colour (she loved collecting them!), and can double up as headboard if necessary. These came from several places, including Next, Marks and Spencer and Amazon.
- A ‘J’ wall – the rest of our house has lots of word art and letters, so it was great to be able to add in a wall for her that she really loves! These were picked up at various places over the previous few months, including TK Maxx and a Service station (honestly!).
- Having the bookcase on the far side of the bed means that as she grows up there will be a place to put her books / homework / and possibly entertainment like music player or laptop etc…. within easy reach of the bed where she will be sitting. For now it houses her trinkets and toys as well as her books.
TIP – Always secure a bookcase and other large furniture to the wall to prevent it toppling over and causing harm…
- Keeping the windows really plain with just shutters makes the room feel spacious, and the shutters work brilliantly for privacy and being able to decide how much light comes into the room.
- We used a trolley that we already had in the house for keeping her stuff tidy. This works great for clothes she has worn and wants to wear again (after school etc…), toys she is currently playing with, and bits and pieces that would otherwise be strewn around the room eventually. It is also great to be able to move it easily around the room and I can imagine it will be used a lot for next to her bed!
- Look really carefully, and to the right of the radiator you will see a small pink dot – this is her fairy door. It means the tooth fairy and Santas elves can come into her room easily… (you have to keep a little bit of magic, she is after all, still only 8!)
- Lots of clothes storage – we used the chest of drawers that was already in this room as it worked really well, and added her little wardrobe. As she grows up we may have to change these but at the moment they work really well.
- A basket is a great extra seat, and also provides loads of storage for cuddly toys!
- Hooks on the wall make it easy to see what to wear each day, and provide a little shelf for toys on top!
- Pictures as you come into the room add a touch of colour (and that more grown up word art that she wanted) – the “Rules to Grow By” was a Christmas present last year, and the other picture was a Roald Dahl print that she loves, with all the characters in it). I framed these in IKEA frames, so as she grows up we can change them for other prints easily.
- Her IKEA cube shelves work brilliantly to create a bedside table, dressing table, and storage all in one
TIP – You don’t need to have lots of different pieces of furniture in a room – try and use them for multiple tasks to keep things simple.
- Large mirror – this makes the room feel brighter and spacious – and creates the feel of a large dressing table which is getting more and more needed as she grows up…
- Lighting – she wanted a girly shade for the ceiling light and we found a lovely crystal style one which was a bargain!, the bedside table she chose had a black shade to match some of the other black in the room (again, trying to be like the rest of the house, where black plays a big part).
- We also added more word art by her bed with this lovely quote I found (see picture below), a gorgeous colourful print that is exactly the type of thing I want her to read and believe as she grows up.
TIP – When using frames in a childs room, use ones with plastic rather than glass, so it’s safer and lighter. I went for the letters above her bed because these wouldn’t hurt if they came off – safety first!..
And lastly – this is a peek inside the bed. We (of course!) got a storage bed (I’m slightly obsessed by them!), and it has plenty of space for all her board games, larger items, spare bedding, a fire escape ladder (as her room has the fire escape window), and clothes that she has grown out of or that are waiting for her to grow into.
Perfect!
I hope this has given you some tips and inspiration for any bedroom makeover that you do.
It really was simple to do, and if you only do one thing from this – then I suggest it would be to paint the walls white – a fantastic blank canvas, easy to touch up if marked, and really bright.
PS – If you have no plans to decorate your childrens room any time soon – why not take a look at these tips for organising it instead – there are loads of ideas that are simple and quick to setup and could make all the difference…