A very organized corner

Emma's room reorganization project, for the most part, is done.  3 large trashbags later (black, not the see-thru kind- I'm no fool), plus more trips to the basement and garage than I can count, it is finally a calmer, more peaceful place for a 7 year old girl.  Thanks for all the suggestions on my last post, it really helped me to get geared up for this. I did decide it would be best to take out all the stuff that needed to go when she wasn't around.  So far, nothing has been missed.  Actually, a few favorites have been refound.  She seems thrilled.

The bed is now closer to the window, all ready for some serious fairy-watching out the window when warmer weather finally comes.  I have never loved this bed, but it works for now.  Emma did that unicorn oil painting two summers ago, when I gave her an artist's stretched canvas set on an easel and let her use Dad's "grown up paints" (translation- big tubes of acrylics).  When she's laying in bed she can now gaze at this.

On the opposite side of the room, she now has a reading nook, where she can read her favorites away from the whirling dervish known as the little brother. All of the decorating in this room was done on the cheap, mostly from IKEA, with hand-me-down furniture to supplement.

The tooth pillow she embroidered herself has been used alot recently.



Her lamp is one of those white paper shade ones from IKEA.  I cut circles from colored tissue paper and mod podged them on to add some color.

The custom artwork below is an IKEA dishtowel, and I would love to have bolts and bolts of this in fabric form.  I bought a set of two- one became art, and one was sewn up to create a cover for Emma's stool in the second photo from the top.  The blue shade in this seems to tone down the pinkish-ness of this room.  I also painted the inside of Emma's white bookcase this same blue.

Two of Claire's sweet illustrations, framed up (I still need to frame the third one).  They look like they were meant for Emma's room.

Emma has had much more say in this room than in the one she had in our previous house (partly because back then she couldn't talk...or walk)  I miss that old room sometimes.  Pale aqua walls with red/white checked bed linens, and Tin Tin prints on the walls, always with his dog Snowy.  It was such a sweet room.  But I'm liking this room a lot right now.

Did you guys move your bedroom furniture around a lot when you were a kid?  I did, every couple of months I would reconfigure my little space.  I had my childhood bed in every single spot it could have possibly been in.  I remember I found about 20 Vogue magazines from the 70's at a yard sale and tore off the covers and hung them on the wall behind my bed.  The fabulousness!

I'm completely on Adriana's Spring cleaning bandwagon.  March seems like the perfect time to do it.  I'm pining away to work on this, but I knew that it was going to get pushed aside from time to time, that's why I gave myself a deadline of May.

When I have had time to look at the internet, here's what I'm really loving-

This little dress (anything orange at the moment)
this collage
the sweetness
Spring is coming
this beautiful birch

Spring is in the air in the blogging world.

Comments

[Adriana]

Wow! That room looks amazing. Definitely fit for a princess.

Compared to your first Spring Cleaning project, my organising of the house paperwork seems silly...

Oh well, at least I got the not so inspiring bit out of the way now. On to more exciting things...

Excellent job. Congratulations!

[sally]

What a beautiful room. Emma is so very lucky! I love the reading nook!

[Krista]

I just have to delurk to concur with you.... I think I drove my parents nuts, I must moved my bedroom furniture around weekly for years. Then they got us all waterbeds and that drove me nuts because I couldn't move it! You made me chuckle to myself reminding me of that.

[Edwina]

I love the stool cover and the matching picture. It's a great idea, very creative.

[Megan]

What a sweet room! Now I'm motivated to do a little Spring cleaning myself.

[joleen]

This turned out great. I especially love the little reading nook!

[rebecca]

Emma's room looks great! Parker's room is the one in our house that is a complete disaster right now. It stresses me out so much to walk in there. For some reason it always takes a long time for me to gear up for a major re-organizing project -- don't know why since the happy/relaxed feeling at completion of the task is so wonderful.

[Jen Leheny]

I love her room. That green chair is just GORGEOUS. I would love a reading corner like that. Lucky girl! Great room! :)

[Erika]

Wow! How great! The room looks beautiful! I especially like the Unicorn painting and the stool. Don't you just love a newly cleaned & organized room?

[lyn]

What a lovely room, I love the pink/blue combination, and that lampshade is fab too.

[autum]

That Ikea dishtowel artwork is lovely. I really like the colors you used, the soft pastels with pops of bright accents. Perfect for a 7 year old princess. What is the window treatment beside her bed?

[Sandrine (alias Didine!)]

It's sad that we can find the same fabrics in our store here (you already know that I'm a saler in Ikea Belgium ??!) I must ask my boss !!!

[Amanda]

Thanks for this look at Emma's room. It's so beautiful and welcoming! I bet she loves spending time there. If not, I'll come over and curl up in that chair for a while!

[glenne]

What a sweet sweet room! Did you make the window valance? If so, how did you do it?

[Gina L]

Her bedroom is very cute. Does she dance in it? After I had to start doing the big clean -if you don't pick it up or play with it, it goes to a different home, several bags full gone type a clean, which they don't mind at all now. But she started saying "I really like my room, it makes me happy" and would jump and flip around.
I love that fabric from IKEA, your dishtowel artwork looks great on that wall.

I'm going to look into the spring cleaning bandwagon thing. I'm really needing to clean out a storage room, so I can turn it into a craft room. And I'm going to need all the help I can get....LOL

[stephanie]

Blair it's beautiful! I love it! Great idea about the Ikea print and stool! I remember moving around my room too! I was very tiny, but i managed to move large pieces of furniture all over the place. I bet Emma is thrilled!
loves!!

[mom]

You did a great job in Emma's room. Looks beautiful. Bet her eyes got really big when she saw it.

[Toni]

What a cute room! Love the creativeness with the dishtowels (eek!!!) and the tissue circles on the shade. Reading corners are one of the best things in life!! Do you think she would mind if I squeezed in with her? :)

[mom]

Reminds me of when you were a little girl. You were always either redoing your room or changing clothes. Ah - memories!

[beki]

Her room is so beautiful! What a lucky girl.

[risa]

the room is gorgeous! what a lucky gal! when i was little i used to cut out all sorts of pictures and tape them all over my furniture...bands, paintings, illustrations. my room looked like one giant collage!

[denice]

What a great room! The details are amazing (framing a dish towel?? adding the color to the lamp?? more and more...) Awesome.

[gkgirl]

ok...
#1. i rearranged my room on a constant basis,
the magazines i put up were torn from hit parader and heavy metal magazines...heh...

#2. i LOVE emma's room...i wish my emma was still at the "cute" room stage...however,
she is her mother's daughter and is full of
ac/dc and avril lavigne and pink floyd...

#3. adddddoooorrringg the little quilt on the back of that chair...so sweet!

[Claire]

It's so beautiful Blair!! I would love a room like that. That IKEA towel is so beautiful, I would have bought a few myself. I'll have to go have a look. I'm so proud you framed my artwork!

[molly]

way to go blair!! You're inspiring and as I think of my MESSY, messy downstairs, I realize I need to walk away from this computer and create a little clean peace down there....I love how emma's room is decorated...but my fav is her own artwork above the bed (and the cagelet for gazing, too)...it looks so peaceful, just as you said. xx.