Out with the Old, In with the New

My friend, Kathy, reminded me that I hadn't put the before and after pictures of the girls' room on my blog yet. So, here they are.


The girls have a daybed with a trundle bed underneath. This picture was taken when we began getting ready to redecorate and were putting all the stuff from the floor onto the bed. Notice the purple walls.
This picture is kind of taken at an angle. The purple and pink colors and writing are actually on the wall. One day Savannah asked me if she could paint on her walls. I said yes, but it didn't come out as I had expected. Then, she wrote some stuff she later wanted changed, so she had to paint over it, which made a kind of blob on the wall. This is also a picture of the closet and floor.
They had stuff just piled all over the place. We had some boxes, but they are so difficult to get to and get into that they just piled up and were not really used. The painting in the left of the photo is a painting Savannah bought at an art show held at our church a few months ago. It was painted by a young man we know and have known for years. He and his twin brother have grown up in our church and they are both very talented artists. They graduated from a local art high school and are currently preparing for their first gallery showing. Savannah fell in love with this painting and while we were deciding to buy it or not, other people were eyeing it. She just about panicked! lol So, we quickly made the deal with the artist's agent (read: mom! lol).
We ended up rearranging the furniture to give them more room. Plus we purchased some crate type things to use as shelves for clothing. And, we painted the walls. We had planned to paint one wall black and the other 3 white. Unfortunately, we ran out of white paint and ended up having to paint the last wall black as well. It worked out ok because the second black wall is behind the door, so you don't really see it unless you're actually in the room. We had also planned to allow the girls and their friends to "graffiti" the walls with sharpie markers. We bought shiny ones for the black walls and regular ones for the white walls. In the first picture, Savannah has drawn her nickname on the wall above her bed.
In this second picture, you can see the crate shelves on the left and right side corner, next to the window. Between the two is some graffiti some friends have done. If it looks like a little kid did it, it was a little kid: Indy. Where the blue and green stripes are is his drawing for the girls.

This is the main black wall. The painting hangs right in the middle of the wall and having the black background with the fluorescent colors of the painting really has a great affect. Below the painting is Savannah's hope chest and some little cubbies she has to hold all her little things.

On the other black wall, they have the snake cage against the wall, so it covers a lot of the wall. Also, you can see some of the graffiti with shiny markers that some of the neighborhood kids have done. It looks like colored chalk on a blackboard. I keep feeling like I can go up and erase it. lol But, seriously, they have done some really neat drawings. I'm amazed at the talent of some kids! I did forewarn the girls that once something is drawn on the walls, it's there to stay, so they need to make sure of what they draw or write. They've done pretty well so far. As every new friend comes to visit, they have them write on the wall. Some write their names, some draw pictures, some write a whole message. It's neat to see what each one chooses to do.

Anyway, it turned out pretty well. I still want to buy a black light and spray paint some lines and curly cues on the ceiling. And, maybe get some little white Christmas lights to hang in there. I think that will look really cool. So, it's not completely done, but it's getting close. Now, if we can just keep it clean, we'll be doing good!!