Catherine's Birthday Surprise Bedroom Makeover

As I mentioned yesterday, I have been working on some spaces with a local blog reader, Becky.  She and I had such a great time making over her dining area and living room, that I was blessed to be invited back to help her in surprising her daughter with a bedroom update as well! 

Seriously?  A little girl's room?  I. Could. Not. Wait!  And the fact that is was a birthday gift was the icing on the cake!

The room was previously being used by their son, but it was soon going to be Catherine's new personal haven.  Here is the blank slate I was given to work with:

Catherine already had a lovely white bed frame and I was given some fabric swatches her incredibly talented grandmother was using to make her new birthday quilt, which is what I used as inspiration for the entire room.

The plan was to paint the room a super light and airy neutral {I selected Behr's White Truffle}.  This was beyond my comfort zone as I typically want to add boatloads of color to a space.  However, my goal was to give her a room she could grow with, so neutral was the name of the game.  To give the walls a little extra interest, I proposed a stripe focal wall {painted in Behr's Ocean Pearl}.  A simple valance would have to do the trick, since the window would be tightly framed with furniture due to the overall size of the room.  A gallery wall of frames filled with the fabric swatches would add some life to the walls, as would a large tree decal combined with 3D wallflowers.  She already owned a desk and chair, I just proposed the desk legs be softened with some twine.  The light fixture was still builders grade, so I envisioned a simple drum shade to replace it.  Finally a decorative mirror, floral pillow and baskets for the closet would finish things off.

Here is the kicker.  Because we wanted to surprise Catherine, the whole project was going to be done in a single day.  You read that right.  ONE DAY!  To make this happen, I gave Becky some homework, like getting the walls painted with the solid color and priming these pieces of furniture that I planned on reusing in the space:

The hubs and I showed up on Saturday morning, goodies and tools in hand, and went straight to work.  Bryan started taping out the stripes on the wall...

While I quickly gave the furniture a coat of paint {which was already primed for me}: 

Once I was done painting the night stand and storage cabinet, it was time to tackle the striped focal wall:

While the paint dried, Bryan began installing a new closet system, very similar to the one we used in our boy's bedroom here.  I took the 14 cabinet knobs outside and stuck them through a piece of cardboard to be sprayed:

Still lots to do!  Like dress up the owl lamp shade with ribbon and the desk legs with twine:

And install that giant tree decal:

Once the knobs were dry, they were a little too bright pink for my liking.  So, I just used a craft paint dobber to add a softer rosey pink dot to the middle:

Bryan finished up the closet, installed the hanging drum pendant, valance, picture ledge, mirror and a surprise chalk board feature.  The sun was starting to go down and we just finished in time to snag a couple of photos before the big reveal!

So what did Catherine think? 

The reveal went wonderful.  She entered with bright eyes and after a solid, "Wow!" she was basically left speechless!  I loved watching her sit on her new pouf and just take it all in.  You could feel her delight and it was a very touching and amazing experience to be a part of!

I had so much fun working with Becky and her family on their spaces, a huge THANK YOU goes out to them for letting me invade their home and play with paint!