Allison's new grown up room

Soon after we moved in (almost ten years ago) I spent an entire weekend painting pink and white stripes on Allison's walls. I even remember my neighbors calling and wondering if I was sick because my whole family was at church, but not me. (I've since repented). Point is, it was a lot of work. We have re-decorated it several times since then but I've always tried to figure out how to incorporate the stripes. I just can't bring myself to paint over them.

BEFORE

Allison has had the pink/mint green theme for a few years and she seemed to need a little more grown up look. Afterall, she IS in Jr. High now. So I spent the entire past year buying a few things here and there as I could fit it into the budget and hiding it in our basement. We decided we would do it for her for Christmas. She got a few presents under the tree but had no idea that more was coming. A few days after Christmas our neighbors called her to babysit for the entire evening until about midnight. I saw this as my perfect opportunity to do the makeover!

Her room was the usual disaster zone so it took me an hour or two just to clean and declutter it all! I went through every drawer, every bin under hear bed, every shelf, organized every inch of her TWO closets and threw out 2 large bags of garbage and junk. Don't worry....no privacy issues were compromised and I only threw out crap....not sentimental things that mean something to her only.

By then I was sweating! I ripped open package after package, had Brendan help me move her bed and hang up her black out velvet curtains (had to describe them since I don't have a photo of them), made the bed, vacuumed the room, and then I had to tackle the huge mess I had made in the hall with all the old stuff. Those one hour makeover shows are full of crap! You can't do all that in one hour....I guess if you have a whole crew to help, but still. Thank goodness she got home a little late. We all pretended to be going to bed when she came home. She opened the door to her room and found this....

AFTER

HER LITTLE MAKE-UP TABLE and "BEARY-ANN." Because you can never fully grow up.

She was so surprised! She loved it and was so happy. That was the goal. I'm so happy with the way it turned out. We still need to get her a desk and accessorize her walls, but that's all we can do for now. She has a lot more room to hang out with her friends in there and dance to her music. It's helped motivate her to keep it a little cleaner, but that issue will never be over I'm afraid. I love surprises and I love being sneaky with my family. This was was definitely worth it---and we didn't have to paint over the stripes!