Monday, January 12, 2015

Redecorating progress

Mariposa's been very busy, and I'm so proud of her efforts.  I know it's probably a little surprising that we're letting our 13 yr old daughter take charge of decorating her room.  Children could choose anything at that age, right?  Well, she had to present her plans to us for approval first. We haven't just let her jump in and "do what she wants".  Let me tell you how it all came about.

Her legs have been growing and she needed a new bed.  It was either going to be a king single or double. As I'm want to do, I scrounge ebay and op-shops for bargains over the course of several weeks or months (we'd done the same for Maestro a couple of years back).  Then, bingo!, someone was selling a double ensemble for $100.  It only needed a new top mattress, which we could happily deal with.  The ensemble is pine, and showing wear with scratches and some chipped board inside the drawers .. but totally fixable.  So, in August last year, we had the start of Mariposa's new-look bedroom.

She selected a colour accent (lavender) we said she could use for one feature wall, and took the paint swatches she'd selected with us to buy the bedding. Sheet sets were easy to find. Bedspread covers .. that took a bit longer because she wanted to stick to her butterfly theme as well as colour scheme.  You can see here what she decided to save up for:



A jigsaw puzzle also now completed, waiting to be framed. She was patiently working on this for a few weeks, waiting for the time when we'd unleash her on the paint.    There was a piece missing, so I made one with some card and watercolour pencils.  Can you spot it? (hint .. left side of a tree trunk)



Last week, she slowly took on the job of sanding the bedhead and side tables, then painting them up. An antique white in semi gloss works well, complimenting the lavender and not being too white to clash with the other cream walls.  She chose to replace the drawer handles for these cute antique looking ring pulls (with some help from Papa because of the new screws not being the right length).




She still has the dresser to work on, which will probably take another week.  I quite like her maturing taste and willingness to work on some restoration and decorating skills.

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