Poor M pulled a muscle in his back on Friday, so we figured teepee camping was probably not the best idea. Since the camp site is so close and the rate was on the economical side, we didn’t feel too guilty about canceling and had a quiet, at-home fête of three.
But K had been looking forward to the teepee and was a bit bummed out (I suspect what she really wanted was the s’mores). Partly to assuage her and partly because we’ve been talking about it forever, K and I hit IKEA to finally update her room from pink and purple sparkle-ness to something a little more grown-up. I was rather impressed by her decisiveness when it came to selecting the rug, bedding, and curtains. As you can see, she went with a subdued palette. That swivel-chair was her favorite purchase, fyi. I was surprised that she chose black because it comes in cute colors like green, pink, blue, light grey…
The Nordis sheer curtains were too long, so I shortened them, which was the highlight of my sewing over the weekend though I am working on my secret sewing project for M (spoiler: it’s not going well – if you saw my sneak peek on Instagram, that is by far the best-looking part of the project).
This. This curtain rod and double brackets had me pulling out my hair, proving, yet again, that I am so not handy. “Mama, there’s an awful lot of ‘ow!’, ‘oops!’, ‘AAAAAGH’s going on,” K commented, as I tried to wrangle the power drill to tame the uncooperative screws. The curtain brackets are from IKEA as well and a monkey could have easily installed them, but I am obviously not as dextrous as a monkey.
Because K’s room is east-facing, it’s like a broiler in there during the summer months, but her original curtain rod had broken and we’d been trying to shield the sun with foam boards that I happened to have on hand. Not a classy look, let me tell you. I’ve known for a long time that I should put up blackout curtains, but laziness kept winning out, and I was willing to live with the shanty-town look.
But it’s my girl’s 10th birthday in five days and she deserves better. Clearly sheer curtains weren’t going to cut it. Hence the double curtain rods and blackout curtains. I’m quite proud that I finally got everything measured, screwed in and acceptably installed. The curtain rod with the glass finial is from Amazon as is the grey-ish white blackout curtains — they were a good deal! They initially looked really cheap, but I have to say that I’m pleasantly surprised by how put-together it all seems.
All this talk of curtains and bedding is well and good, but the most important part of her room is directly across from her bunk bed: the studio. This is where my musical child practices her instruments and composes songs and generally blows me away. She recently recorded a song with her piano/guitar/voice instructor (yes, one teacher for all three) and I couldn’t believe it was K when I heard it in the recording studio. I tried to upload the MP3, but it says the size exceeds the limit for WordPress…oh technology! At any rate, it’s pretty awesome to watch the blossoming of a talent through perseverance.
And then, of course, there are the signs of approaching teenage-hood on her door.
Alright, all that drilling and redecorating wiped me out! Hope you all had a fabulous weekend!
Not related to your post, but your sewing book finally came to my local library and I nabbed it! It’s so gorgeous and restful to read and enjoy. I liked it a lot
Thank you Mayrav! Glad you enjoyed the book!!
It looks great. K has such a sophisticated aesthetic! I wonder where she got it from…
I believe R has the exact same bunk-bed in her room, and I wish it looked all tidy and neat like K’s – it’s my day off work today and I’m about to go in there and tackle the piles of STUFF that cover ever surface including the floor. Ugh…
Oh Marisa, I snapped these photos right after I made the beds for her and two minutes later, they were in complete disarray.
Let’s just say that tidiness isn’t K’s strong suit. She’s too busy making music, and that’s okay with me!
She clearly has her mama’s sense of style! As for putting her song online, maybe check out SoundCloud’s free accounts – she can upload any size file there (they limit free accounts by duration so you can put up the high-quality WAV or AIFF version instead of the compressed MP3 – + they provide really nice players to embed into a WordPress post too. (Also a great supportive community of musicians, I’ve found)
I’ve heard of SoundCloud! I’ll check it out, thank you Caitlin! I knew there was someone out there who would point me in the right direction!
It looks great! Where did you get the bunk beds?
Thanks, Rachel! The bunkbeds were from Amazon, if you can believe it! I was nervous about ordering them online, but they’ve held up really well for the last four years I got the mattresses online too. The bed was from Powell Furniture — it doesn’t look like it’s available via Amazon anymore though.
The room looks fabulous. Oh TEN, my!
Happy birthday to the soon-to-be-ten! And also, M
I know!! TEN. Can’t believe it. Thank you, Asmita!
So beautiful! What a great room. I would be exhausted,too. Major work.
Ha! That power drill did me in, Greta! One of my dreams is to find a fantastic handyman to help fix all the niggling little things around the house that’s bothered me for years :-).
Finally catching up on your blog, and oh! the goodness. I love coming here to see all your beautiful images (your daughter has excellent taste, just like her mom) and am constantly being inspired by what you create and how you express yourself. So amazing that your daughter is creating her own music, too — it must be exciting to witness!
Thanks so much, Emi! I love that K’s so confident in her own sense of style and it was so fun putting the room together with her! And yes, her dedication to music is awe-inspiring. She says she wants to play more instruments than Prince!!
Yeah, black. My youngest daughter, now 21, went through years of black walls, bedding, and clothing! I had to rethink my contention that that meant she was depressed:) I wish now I had respected her choices a little more, rather than going on about it as I did:) I was the one depressed by it, not her! I should have seen the foretelling in the black ninja costumes she put on year after year. Hindsight is brilliant.
That’s a lovely room your daughter and you put together!
Ohhhh, that’s a lot of black. Did she go through a goth phase too? As the mom, though, I think you’ve got every right to express your opinions just as much as she has a right to experiment. In some ways it feels like a delicate tug-o-war, this whole aesthetic-identity-finding thing :-). Thanks Annelieke!