When we moved to our current home, Bee was only two years old. At the time she really liked Strawberry Shortcake, so I purchased a comforter, bed skirt, sheet set, and two matching window valances, in gently used condition, at a consignment store. Total cost – $14.
Now that Bee is older and, ahem…more mature (her words), her interest in Strawberry Shortcake has waned. The bedskirt is torn (though no one seems to know how this happened – big surprise) and the comforter is badly faded from countless washings. It also has some lovely ink stains from when Bee “decorated” it with a ballpoint pen when she was a toddler.
I decided that the time had come for Bee to get some new bedding, and I was lucky to find this cute, embellished bedding set, complete with a lavender bedskirt and pillow sham, in the Wal-Mart clearance aisle for $25:
The colors are a good match with the pink and green hanging letters that I made to spell out Bee’s name on her wall:
I replaced the Strawberry Shortcake valances with 4, white, tab-top panels. These used to be in our bedroom, but I recently replaced them with some ivory, Shabby Chic tie-up shades. I washed the panels and steamed the wrinkles out (because you know I don’t iron), and embellished them with alternating purple, pink and green craft ribbon from my scrapbook stash. I tied a bow at the base of each tab, to make them cute and girly:
Bee and I spent the whole afternoon cleaning, organizing, dusting, and vacuuming her entire room, from top to bottom, including all drawers and both closets. When we started, her room looked like this:
But now, it looks like this:
We moved all of Bee’s Barbie stuff, which had previously taken up all of her floor space, down to the basement playroom. My husband brought in a little desk, which we got for free at a church garage sale:
We’ve had this for years, and I told my husband several times to get rid of it, but because he still has packrat tendencies, he hung onto it “just in case” we needed it. And, as it turns out…we did. Bee has a very small room, and this little desk is the perfect size for her. We plan to paint it this summer, and we’ll shop around at garage sales for a cute little chair to go with it, but for now, Bee seems to like it just fine as it is.
We also mounted a bulletin board (which used to be in the basement) above Bee’s desk so that she can display her artwork, pictures of friends, and other keepsakes, and I gave her an extra desk lamp that was on my scrapbook table. I spent $30 on this supply organizer for her closet (I was annoyed at the price, but considered it a necessity). It’s perfect for all of her markers, crayons, paper, and other art supplies, and it’s right next to her desk, so it’s very convenient.
We only spent $55 on this room “makeover,” but Bee couldn’t be happier. She has a pretty new comforter, she can actually find her art supplies when she needs them, and she has a place to do her schoolwork in private. These are small changes, but they make a big difference to her.
