It’s been a while since I have done any major DIY projects around the house because I’ve been swamped with work and school. But when I saw the Fall One Room Challenge (ORC) was coming up, I knew this was the push that I needed to get going again.
My daughter’s bedroom has been the same since we moved into our house more than three years ago, so the Fall ORC was the perfect excuse to give her the room she deserves. She’s 5 now and her bedroom has basically been made up of hand-me-down items that had been used in other rooms throughout the years….like several years….like back to my college days.
This is the one and only true “before” picture I will share, because, well….it’s not pretty….
As you can see, my daughter isn’t exactly a neat freak. And no, I don’t clean her room for her….often. I’ve given up on that for the most part. When it comes time for mom or dad to clean her room, it mainly consists of pulling toys off the floor and putting them into donate boxes. We’ve made it clear that if she doesn’t want a toy or can’t take care of it properly, we’ll give it to another child who can. It might sound harsh, but we’ve only had to deploy this “last resort” method twice. Now, when we tell her to clean her room, she actually thinks about what she doesn’t want any longer or clothes that she can’t wear as she WANTS to give them to other kids who don’t have the copious amounts of “stuff” that she has. This particular picture was taken immediately before we told her she had to clean her room if she wanted a room makeover, and it resulted in 3 trash bags full of items to be donated. HOW?!?!?!
Anyway…..
As much as I love to change up the decor in my house, I wanted to redo her room in a way that would allow it to grow with her for the next few years. She’s not super big into any “kid stuff” like paw patrol or princesses or anything, but she DOES love anything pretty, sparkly, girly, or floral. She’s clearly mine. So, she and I both spent time searching the black hole that is Pinterest to start getting some ideas. For the most part, I let her pick what sorts of things she wanted in her room, then we decided to make a design board with her ideas to try to imagine her concept coming to life. Not too bad for a 5 year old, huh? 😉
Now, executing the design has thus far proved a bit challenging, hence the 4 weeks of updates in 1 post. *smh* See, there’s apparently this supply chain disruption going on right now causing a bit of a product shortage (yes – that’s sarcasm you picked up on). Almost EVERY. SINGLE. THING. I wanted to get for her room was either sold out, on back-order, or there wasn’t enough in stock for me to get the amount I needed. It took me 2 weeks and 4 Targets just to get enough wallpaper for 1 wall in her room……ONE WALL!!!!!
Next was the whole bed fiasco…. I had originally planned on getting not one, but TWO bunk beds for her room to create one giant, long, lofted bed with desk space under one and a futon under the other for extra sleeping space for when family comes to visit. IKEA was where I was planning on getting the beds from. Of course my local store had a handful in stock, but make note of this: when it’s ONLY a handful they have in stock, you can’t order online and hold for pickup. And of course I realized this on a Monday and couldn’t get to the store until Friday. And yes, you clearly know what happened. They sold out. And not just the one closest to me. And the next closest one. and every one within a 6 hour driving distance from me. EVERY IKEA IN THE ENTIRE FREAKING COUNTRY SOLD OUT OF THESE BUNK BEDS AT THE EXACT MOMENT I NEEDED THEM! So, on to plan B, or maybe C at this point? A different kind of lofted bed. Still with available extra sleeping space. Here’s what we landed on….
Nothing spectacular at this point, but just you wait…
We’ve officially moved on to the “winging it” stage of the project where we throw the design board pretty much out the window and accept anything that we can locate in stores or make ourselves. That being said, I’ve got a pretty rough couple of weeks ahead of me as we REALLY get into the DIY stuff, so stay tuned for the fun! 🙂