After months of “dragging my heels” (a.k.a. I was doing lots of other things), I finally finished Nora’s new bedroom upstairs — after I found the bedding I liked for only $25 on Craigslist!
Nora has already taken a couple naps in the bed, and we’re working on sleeping the night up there — but let me tell you, it’s been a LOOOOOOOONG week and I’ve gotten little to no sleep.
We’ve already move EVERYTHING out of her old nursery so she has no option of sleeping down there (no looking back now!)
Even though there hasn’t been a ton of actual sleeping in the room, we’ve been playing up there (and the adjoining play room) for weeks now — so I’m thrilled that I can finally share the “after” pictures with you!
Here are a few pictures of some of the “details” — I’ll share the full-room before and after photos below.
This room really wasn’t a difficult project at all — I just didn’t want to commit to any specific color scheme until I found bedding I loved!
I just couldn’t stomach putting pink and purple princess bedding in this lovely white room — especially since Nora could care less what her room or her bedding looks like (and I’m totally capitalizing on this for as long as I can).
I searched and searched for bedding that I liked — and although I found a few things that were OK, they were so ridiculously expensive that I would never even consider purchasing them (again, because Nora could care less).
Finally, right before Christmas vacation, I hit the jackpot. A lady only a few miles away was selling a 1-year old, $200+ bedding set (she still had the receipt) for only $25! It was exactly what I was looking for — mostly reds and blues with a little hint of pink. No flowers, no butterflies, no princesses — just a fun stripe pattern that sort of looks like a quilt.
I went to pick it up the next morning, washed it all really well, and made the bed.
An added bonus to this bedding is that the navy “afghan” at the end of the bed (which just so happens to fit the color scheme perfectly) is a blanket Dave’s grandma knit for him when he was a boy. I was thrilled to be able to incorporate that in Nora’s room as well.
Oh, and if you’re wondering why we don’t have bed rails or anything to keep Nora from falling out of the bed, it’s because she’s actually been sleeping in a “big girl bed” since she was 10 months old… so she’s a pro 🙂
More About the Furniture:
Since my plan was always to keep this bed white (it’s an antique bed frame I’ve had for years), I was glad to find bedding with a little color. Doesn’t Nora look so small laying inside the bed frame? And don’t you just LOVE the frame!!!
We had a freebie armoire / dresser in an extra room that I wanted to paint red — along with a $10 side table I found on Craigslist last month and was planning to use for a night stand.
After two really quick coats of my favorite Awning Red paint (which just so happens to match the bedding perfectly), both pieces looked brand new — and I think they add a lot of color to the otherwise VERY neutral room.
Other than the bed, armoire, nightstand, and chair, we really didn’t feel the need for much additional furniture. We certainly don’t need it for storage — and we figured Nora would probably appreciate the extra room to play and run around.
I might try to look for a rug for the middle of the room — but I’m holding off on that for now, just because rugs are really expensive and this new carpet is SUPER soft and comfy. The rug would basically just be for visual purposes and I’m not sure it’s worth shelling out a few hundred bucks. We’ll see.
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Now for the Before and After pictures:
I hope the very first thing you notice is how NOT purple the room is. I honestly have nothing against purple — just when it’s in mass quantities in my house 🙂
Note: I’m purposely not showing the closet yet because I want to do a separate post about the fun stuff we have going on in her closet — as well as how we’re storing all her clothes, shoes, and accessories 🙂
Ahh… I’m loving the no purple!
Dave and I actually did a lot of thinking about what color to paint Nora’s new room. We knew we definitely wanted super neutral so we could swap it out for a boys room or a girls room depending on our future needs — but we were a bit hesitant to paint the entire room white, as we thought that might be TOO neutral (if there is such a thing!)
However, after realizing that it would take forever to cut in around the ceiling, all the random sloped walls, all the trim, the closet, etc. we opted to just do everything white. This decision was partially for convenience sake (a.k.a. I was feeling a little lazy) but also to make the room look and feel even bigger. It’s already a huge room, but with all the sloped walls and ceilings, it started looking really “chopped up” to us when the ceiling and the walls were different colors.
We love the look of white everything — and if you’re wondering, we went with “Frost” by Behr (after a mini internal debate on my part!)
Oh, and lest you think we could finish even one project without a glitch… check out this picture.
Only hours before the carpet installer was scheduled to arrive, my dad decided to come over and cut out a huge chunk of the flooring since there was a large “hump” in that area. We just figured it was due to being an old house — but the floor boards were actually totally messed up.
I’m glad we could fix the problem in time… but since I was literally sweeping up the crumbs as the carpet installer was walking upstairs, it did make for a mildly stressful afternoon!
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Cost Breakdown:
** The below figures do not include the cost of the actual room renovation (new carpet, new window, new door, new trim, etc.) — just the items in the room and the materials used to decorate the room.
White Paint and Primer = $250 — apparently covering purple with white is expensive
Bed Frame = $0 — from a friend several years ago
Mattress = $0 — from Dave’s parents (it’s quite new — they just upgraded their guest bedroom to a queen)
Bedding = $25 — The comforter, dust ruffle, pillow shams, and decorative pillows were all a set I purchased from Craigslist.
Sheets, blankets, and pillows = $45 (but I used a Target gift card)
Cordless Black-out Blinds = $45 (on sale at Home Depot)
Bench = $0 — we got this as a wedding gift, but it was from IKEA
Armoire / Dresser = $0 — from friends a couple years ago
Night stand = $10 on craigslist
Awning Red Paint = $0 — I already had this in the house
Poäng Chair = $0 — we already had this chair from IKEA and weren’t using it
Kids Rocking Chair = $0 — we already had it
Tent and other toys = $0 — all gifts or toys we already had
Shelf, picture frames, and other decorations = $0 — all things we already had in the house
So besides the paint for the walls, we only spent about $125 for all the furniture, bedding, decorations, and accessories! Not too bad.
Now if we could just get Nora to realize that it will be super fun to actually sleep in her new bed instead of just play in it 🙂
I’ll be back next week with the full closet tour + tips on how I organize all her clothes!
Jennifer says
Dear Andrea,
May I ask what brand baby doll and accessories are pictured here? I’m looking for my 2 y.o. niece for Christmas, and I like your set.
Thank you!
Jennifer
Andrea says
Hi Jennifer,
I honestly don’t think I’ll be very helpful because I have no idea what brand everything is. The doll was from a garage sale 2 years ago, the changing table was given to us for free from a friend, and the little “crib” was $1 from a local thrift store. All the little “blankets” are larger burp cloths someone made for Nora when she was born but I never used them as burp cloths because they seemed so big. It’s definitely not a “set” but rather just cheap and freebie stuff I’ve accumulated and now am letting Nora use for her dolls 🙂
Oh, and the rocking chair was something I found on Craigslist and then painted white.
If you’re not opposed to used gifts, I’d highly recommend searching your local craigslist or children’s 2nd hand store for doll items… you can usually find A TON at very reasonable prices!! Good luck 🙂
DanielleD says
How have I just found your wonderful blog? I just subscribed & love your style 🙂 I’m getting ready to start my daughter’s Big Girl room, could you tell me who made this adorable bedding ? Maybe I can find something similar if I can search by the company. Thanks
Andrea says
Thanks Danielle — so glad you “found me” and thanks for subscribing!
The bedding we got for Nora’s room was from Craigslist, but it was originally from Kohl’s but I can’t find it on their website anymore. Their is a tag on it that says “Big Believers” but I’m not positive that’s the brand name. Sorry, that’s all I know!
Cara says
Where did you get your carpet from and do you know the name of it? Thanks!
Andrea says
The carpet was from Advanced Interiors in Jenison, MI (not sure if you’re from West MI or not). The name of it is Maybrook Shell
Kim says
I love the room! The one thing I noticed was there aren’t curtains. The reason I noticed is because when we moved our 3 young girls to an upstairs bonus room, they were bothered by the dark windows at night being uncovered. I bought curtains and it wasn’t an issue. Not sure if that would help in your situation, but maybe it’s worth a shot? Good luck with Blessing #2 🙂
Andrea says
Hey Kim,
You probably just missed it — but I mentioned the cordless cellular black-out shades in the cost break-down. I never put curtains up in any of our windows because I don’t like curtains 🙂 We use the black-out shades for all our bedroom windows and the bedrooms are literally PITCH BLACK even in the middle of the day.
Oh, if only Nora’s sleeping issues were that simple of a fix!
Kim says
I did miss it 🙁 Sorry I couldn’t be of any help! Hope things are good on your side of the state – I live in Saginaw Bay region and I love the snow, just wish it was warmer for the kids to go play in it 🙂
Alissa says
Very cute room and VERY cute Nora! She is a blessed little girl! White is almost more fun than color because you can change themes without repainting! Even though we live 1,000 miles apart, I think of you often when our (almost) 3 year old crawls in bed with us in the middle of the night because of whatever reason he won’t sleep without one of us beside him. (and I just leave him there and sleep on the couch bc {yawn} it’s not worth the battle!) This actually doesn’t happen more than once a week, for which I am thankful, but I think of you all that deal with it on a nightly basis! Bless your heart!! It IS hard and restless and not always easy to keep the right perspective. But every once in awhile I think of the day he’ll be on his own and it makes the nights not quite as bad. (but they don’t get any shorter!!) Hang in there! I pray God will give you the strength you need to face the challenges of the day and night! You have the most important job in the world!! 🙂
Sandy says
She’s one lucky little girl.
Jeanine says
Beautiful room! We painted our bonus room with sloped walls all white as well, and it really does look so much better than colored walls with a white ceiling, just a nice cohesive look. Praying for a good night’s sleep for all! I have to tell you our story though. Our master is on the main floor with all other bedrooms upstairs, and our daughter is 10 years younger than her three brothers. For the life of us, we couldn’t get her to sleep in her room by herself once she was out of her crib and could leave her room. She ended up sleeping in a recliner in our room for ten years (I know!) We comforted ourselves with the knowledge that if she had still been in Vietnam, she would have probably been sleeping in a room the size of our bedroom with her whole family! The moral of the story is don’t put a nice comfortable chair in your room! However, I would encourage you not to die on this hill. Maybe meet Nora halfway (not literally), and let her come down (hopefully quietly) if she wakes up in the middle of the night and sleep on the couch in the living room. I’m afraid she may grow to resent the little brother who will soon be sleeping in her room if you don’t give her options to sleep closer to you.
The other thing I would recommend is the book, “Spirit Led Parenting” by Megan Tietz and Laura Oyer (sp?). Hope this helps. I do pray that you all get the rest you need!
Andrea says
Thanks Jeanine!
I guess I should have clarified — Nora LOVES her room and loves being in her room. She has never expressed desire to go back to her “old room” and is excited to get the “old room” ready for baby brother. She thinks it’s super cool that she has a new big-girl room with all her new stuff and her new bed.
The issue with sleeping is not the new room — just sleeping in general 🙂 She NEVER sleeps… serious! She has never slept through the night once, she stopped sleeping in her crib when she was only 6 months old, she wakes up constantly all night long, etc. etc. We’ve been to therapy, many different doctors, tried many different natural and medical options that were “sure” to work… but nothing.
Basically the ONLY way she will stay sleeping is if either Dave or I sleep in her bed with her ALL night long — and we’re to the point that we just won’t do that anymore. I could care less if she sleeps on the couch, on a mattress in our room, in her own room, where ever – I just don’t want to have to sleep WITH her squirmy body next to me waking me up all night long 🙂
Oh, and yes, I’ve totally read the Spirit Led Parenting book. It’s actually the ONLY parenting book that even remotely resonated with me — and the only one I’d ever recommend to anyone else too! Love it!
Dana says
Very cute, I love the bedding! And you are braver than I am to put such a light-colored carpet in a kiddo’s room…
Tonya says
I absolutely love Nora’s new bedroom. I think you did a terrific job!
Diana from SC says
Ok, are you displaying pictures using clothes pins attached to a board in Nora’s room? Tried searching for the diy on your site but could not find it. Think that would be a neat way to change out pictures. I really enjoy your blogspot and the projects you all do. Enjoy the stories and pictures of Nora.
Andrea says
Yes 🙂 It should pop up right away if you search for “photo display” or anything “photo” related — that’s weird! Anyway, here’s the link to the DIY project — it was SOOOO easy and free 🙂
Diana from SC says
I found it….just needed to get the words in the correct order. Thanks,
LJ says
Love your style, the room looks great! Just like Nena said – “super cute!!”. Can’t tell from your pictures but if you haven’t already I would recommend securing the dresser/armoire to the wall. It might be something tempting to climb up or into…there have been many tragic accidents involving furniture falling on small children so feel compelled to pass that on –
http://www.meghanshope.org/
Such an exciting time, sending lots of happy wishes your way!
Julia K says
Another greate “dekker-ation” project. Well done guys !
Kristen @ Joyfullythriving says
Another room well done! The white looks very nice. I had forgotten how purple your walls were! Yikes. Why do people paint like that? I can only imagine how much primer and paint it took to get the walls looking nice and clean. I hope Nora enjoys staying in her lovely room (and bed!) soon…and for years to come!
Sheri says
Love the room. If Nora won’t sleep there, give me a call and I will sleep there! It is so inviting! I love the picture of Nora with her babies all in bed.
Melinda says
I love the white. I have always liked white walls and about 5 years ago painted all my walls taupe. To be honest just because it was a popular color. I never really liked it, so last summer I went and painted every thing white again. Now I’m back to being happy. I think it was more stressful picking out a white then a color. I couldn’t believe the amount of white shades there are!
I have to say, you have got to have “law of attraction” going on for you. I am amazed at what you find on craigslist. You seem to always find exactly what your wanting!!! But I’m sure you look for a long time before you do. But still love it! I need to be more patient. 🙂 It all looks lovely!
Andrea says
Thanks Melinda! We live in an awesome area for Craigslist — however, I’m pretty diligent with my searching. I usually have a short list of things I’m looking to find and I do a quick search for 5 minutes or so almost every night. This way, I can jump on any new deals right away!
Nena says
SUPER cute!!
Jennifer says
Nora’s room is adorable and even though I like purple, I like how you went with white instead! After Nora was born you did a few posts on how to raise an infant on a budget and I’m hoping you will do a post on how you have collected items for the second baby while staying within a budget.
Andrea says
Thanks Jennifer. I’m not positive what I’ll do as far as “raising baby #2 on a budget” because honestly, we didn’t have to buy much at all. My mom and a few friends totally spoiled us with hand-me-down clothing and almost everything I got for Nora was white, cream, or brown so it will work for a boy too. So I guess that’s my best tip for staying on a budget with #2 (use what you had for baby #1 ha!)
Melissa says
I love it! We have found now that we have to split our girls up and give the girls their own room, which means no play room. I appreciate such great inspiration! I even pinned it. Now I can’t wait to see how you organized her clothes because I need to do the same thing with Mae’s, so super excited for next week’s post. Although you could move that up a bit!!!!!!!!!!!! I would mind. I saw the one preview on facebook and plan on using some of your ideas to re-purpose an armoire we already have in the house.
Andrea says
We LOVE armoires around our house and have several — all packed full of organization 🙂 The closet post is almost ready to go for next week… hopefully it will give you lots of inspiration!!
Michele says
Love the pic of her in bed with her babies! Too cute!
kayla h says
Cutest bedroom ever! 🙂
stacie says
Andrea its Awesome! What a great room for a toddler! She is one lucky girl!!! I love the idea of no pink/purple wish I would of thought of that 6 years ago! I love the bed and everything you guys have done, so smart!!! thanks for all the tips and everything you provide for your readers!
Stacie
Andrea says
Thanks Stacie. I was SO close to going with pinkish colors — and then at the last minute, I found this bedding and was THRILLED beyond THRILLED!
Rebecca says
The room looks great and I love the bedding! I love the bed frame, but since it’s old and chipped (I love that look), have you tested it for lead? I know they sell kits to test at Home Depot/Lowe’s.
Ashton says
I was just at Walmart last night and they have several different COLORED area rugs for around $25… not the ugly remnant looking ones. If I remember right there might be a few that would match Nora’s new room!! Love it 🙂
Deni says
It’s amazing how the white paint brightened up the room! I LOVE white paint and I’m gradually changing all of our rooms to white. It’s so refreshing! Nora’s room is adorable, and she looks so happy with it 🙂 I especially love the scenery from her windows!!!
Amy O says
Andrea, I love how Nora’s room turned out. I don’t think it is too much white – because you have such colorful bedding and the red furniture pieces. It’s totally cute! And coming from me – that’s saying a lot. Growing up, my parents didn’t allow any color but white for wall paint – so of course I vowed I would never use any white paint and now I have every room in my house a different color, hee hee.
Yours is my favorite blog! I loving reading about your family. : )
Andrea says
haha — my parents ALWAYS did colored walls with wallpaper boarders and colored carpets so I vowed I would always keep everything neutral 🙂
Thanks for your vote of confidence and your kind words regarding my blog!
Margo says
The room is adorable and yes I like the white walls. For years I only had white walls, when we painted my husband wanted some color so we went with light gray and a teal accent wall in the liviving room and a lighter gray for the kitchen. We will be moving soon and except for the bathroom which has a white ceiling and bright purple walls the rest of the house will be white. The rooms are very small and I feel the white will make them feel bigger than they are. We have a dog so I may come to regret this decision.
Andrea says
I’ve done A LOT of the beige color over the years because it did really make our white woodwork and dark flooring POP… but I’m really loving the white walls in Nora’s room and actually thinking of doing more white rooms throughout the house!
Jennifer says
I’m not a big fan of white walls, but the room looks great! Keep up the work on getting her to sleep in there. It’s hard but I always took the kids back to their own rooms, several times a night til they stayed.
Chris says
I would love if you would post a painting tutorial sometime. The red furniture looks awesome.
Candis says
I like the white walls and that’s saying a look because I dont care for white too much
I like a bit of color, but it works. It certainly makes the room look bigger and it works
with the color scheme, great job. I hope she starts sleeping in her big girl room soon. 🙂
Candis
Charissa says
I want to sleep in that room!!! I can’t wait for the closet reveal!!
Sara says
Love everything about her room! Great job! What size is the bed?
Andrea says
Thanks Sara! The bed is just a regular “full size” bed — any time you get an antique bed frame, it’s always going to be a full or a twin 🙂
Priyanka says
I love purple..actually I am obsessed with it but even I thought that was a bit much 🙂
I love how practical your ideas are and they seem doable. Thanks for sharing them.
Michelle Aitken says
Andrea, Nora’s room is beautiful! I adore your simple style and just know that Nora will love it so much as she grows older. Well done!!
Andrea says
Thanks Michelle 🙂 Even I was a little nervous about the totally white walls — but I’m super happy with how everything turned out.
Shawna says
I love the paint chips used as decorations! I’m currently expecting and will remember that for when we decorate the nursery!
Lovely room, great job!
Andrea says
Thanks — those decorations are actually left over from her FIRST birthday party. Nora loves pictures so much that I’ve been using those freebie strands to decorate her room ever since!
Melissa says
Ooh I’m kinda thinking this would be awesome for my daughter but with white walls and TEAL accents. I can’t help it, I love teal. She loves purple, but not THAT purple. 🙂
Edie says
I love the bed frame and bedding! I’m in planning mode for my son and daughter’s future bedrooms (house building is just about to start), and seeing Nora’s room with the roof angles makes me even more excited as their rooms will have similar features. I think one of the things I like best about your blog is that your design and decor are REAL, not magazine styled and showroom perfection, but attainable and totally functional and livable. All while being super cute! Oh, not a criticism, but just observation – while the carpet looks really cozy and I think it’s a great choice since you don’t have pets, you’ve got to admit those barn wood floors would have looked amazing in this room!
Tragic Sandwich says
We love color on the walls, but we weren’t sure what to do with the room that is now Baguette’s (we had her two years after we moved in). So we painted the walls with Behr’s Pot of Cream, and I wound up liking it so much that I didn’t want to change the color. A friend of mine painted a gorgeous mural on one wall, and we added art that people had given her, or that was from my childhood room.
But like your Nora, our little girl still only likes to play in her bed–not sleep in it!
Stephanie says
I love love love colored walls! But I can see the desire for something simple with the giant sloping ceiling and random cutouts. And I am learning that some whites are more stark than others.
It looks nice and it totally fits what you have showed of the rest of the house.
Hope she learns to love sleeping there soon! In the meantime , at least it is cute. 🙂
Stephanie says
Is that painted wood paneling or something of the like on the nursery?
Speaking of nursery, I’m glad with Nora’s sleeping issues that you have enough rooms for each kid. I have 3 kids in one room. My youngest didn’t sleep through the night until 9 months. (Which I know is nothing in comparison to Norah). We didn’t move her into the room until after she slept through the night. She was in our room 8 of those months and then I got sick of it and moved her to the living room. I wished for another room at that point.
The only other time 3 in one room has bothered me is when the stomach flu hit and one kid covered the whole room, siblings, etc in puke. The whole family awake in the middle of the night was not fun, but we survived.
It totally would not fit our financial desires to try to upgrade right now. We love our house most of the time and our acreage, but eventually hope to either add on or move to a larger house. But for now simpler is better.
Andrea says
Yes, I LOVE painted wood paneling (I know I’m weird) so we actually installed wood paneling in the nursery when we renovated it a couple years ago — JUST so I could paint over it 🙂
Stephanie says
I like the look. We had a room we were going to paint over the wood paneling, and I was excited about how it would look. But then hubby decided he really couldnt stand it and started ripping it down. We are now living with drywall dust on a lot of our surfaces…..
I like the look! First time I noticed that in the pictures. 🙂
Julie says
Absolutely Adorable!!!
Paint has sure gone up in the last few years!! I am repainting some rooms/halls in my house and the price is outrageous and I am just repainting(using same colors) due to some repairs/hole patching/normal wear and tear with 4 kids.
Andrea says
Yes, it’s like $46 per gallon (and I don’t get extremely high-end paint either). We had to use 4 gallons of paint JUST to cover the purple walls — although it is a huge room! That didn’t even include the trim paint or primer!
Melissa says
OMG yes, paint is expensive! I am painting a fairly small bedroom 10×11 (though I’m painting over paneling that was painted with silver metallic paint and yellow to make for a stripe effect (not my idea, that’s what the seller had done!)) and have already gone through a full gallon of ceiling paint, 2 gallons of primer, and I haven’t yet finished putting the color on the walls but it will need at least 2 coats even though I splurged for higher end paint than I normally do. Oh well, at least those crazy stripes will be distant memory soon! 🙂
Jane says
Super adorable colors!
Andrea says
Thanks Jane — I was actually just thinking “Nora needs a special t-shirt quilt for her new room.” Unfortunately, she doesn’t really have any t-shirts to make it out of yet! Some day 🙂
Jane says
LOL. I love all the quilts in the room and especially appreciate the hand knit blanket. What a special heirloom. I have been brainstorming about ideas for old shirts – and one has not hit me in the head yet – unless you are planning a man cave soon….and I don’t think that’s on the agenda with another baby on the way!
Andrea says
haha — we actually already have a huge man cave! we have an extra building / garage that’s heated with carpeting, furniture, 2 TVs, pingpong, refrigerator, microwave, etc. I’m not sure Dave would want a quilt out there — however he has mentioned that he would like to get all his current school shirts made into a quilt (like from teaching, coaching, student council, etc)
Jane says
OMG – how did I not know that? If you think he’s ready for one, let’s talk. My other ideas (in relation to man cave) are floor cushions/pillows made w/old T Shirts.
Andrea says
ooo, love the cushion idea too — although our man cave is a garage on the other side so I’m not sure I’d want nice cushions on the floor… but I do like the idea. I’ll ask Dave if he’s ready to part with some of his t-shirts and let you know! Thanks!