Total Room Make-Over

Yesterday, my niece celebrated her 13th birthday. We (my sister and I) couldn't figure out what to do for her. She wanted to throw a big party but we just didn't have the funds for that. So, my sister came up with the bright idea to redecorate her room as a surprise to her. The catch was how were we going to get my niece out of the house to even start on the room. The best time to do it would've been while she was at school, but before we could even get started on the decorating part, her room had to be cleaned. I'm talking, "throw stuff out" kind of clean.

We were trying to get her out of the house Friday night to no avail. Then we tried Saturday night and almost succeeded until at the last minute, her little girlfriend flaked on her. They were supposed to go skating. The only thing left to do was to take her and drop her off at my house to spend the night. I left to go back to my sister's to help her finish cleaning the room and eventually get started on the decorating. I told my niece I was going to drop a vacuum cleaner off to her mom and would be right back (yeah right, lol!) She called to the house a few times to see if I was still over there because I had been gone for so long. We were hoping she wouldn't get suspicious because she knew that her mom had started cleaning out her room and throwing stuff out before we headed to my house. My sister told her "You are about to be a teenager now, and you need to start keeping your room clean."

It took us SEVERAL hours just to clean her room and throw stuff out. She had all kinds of stuff in there from when she was much younger and just papers and other junk that needed to be thrown away. We had to put a lot of stuff in boxes and store in the garage. We had to sweep, vacuum, clean off furniture (I'm talking warm soap and water kind of clean). My sister had gotten started on it around 6pm while I took my niece to the mall to spend her birthday money. When I got back over there to drop the vacuum off around 10pm, she was STILL cleaning up. I started helping and I don't think we got done with that until after midnight. Trust me, If I had've known that we had to go through all of this, I definitely would not have signed up for this, lol!

Now on to the good stuff. Our inspiration came from these lime green "ball shaped" stools that my sister got for "FREE" (yes free) at a Thrift Store she frequents a lot. She also found a lime green colored lamp from the same Thrift Store. My niece already had a little lamp in the shape of the letter "C" (for her first name, Chiara) that was lime green and blue. With just those 3 pieces, the color scheme became Lime Green and Blue. My sister also found a comforter set that had several different colors like blue, green, red, purple, orange, etc, etc. We decided to pull the green and blue out of the comforter and accessorize the rest of the room with those colors.

Now mind you, I hadn't seen any of this stuff. My sister pretty much described the comforter set to me and told me about the Lime Green ball stools. I went to the store and picked out some stuff to add to the decor. I happened to be in Hobby Lobby (LOVE that store!) and saw some cute flowers and butterflies that could be used to hang from the ceiling or hang up on the wall. Hobby Lobby had so many accessories to go with these and they came in lime green, blue, hot pink, purple and orange. So, I picked up a few flowers, butterflies, and paper lanterns amongst some other things. My sister had already told me that she also found these little "Retro" circles that you stick on the wall in lime green and blue. When we finished cleaning, we put all of our stuff together and this is what we came up with:

*Click on the pics to enlarge them


Those are the "ball shaped" stools and the hanging lanterns. I have one more large green lantern to add to it. Unfortunately, the other green one I bought had the wrong sized metal wire that you stick inside of it. I have to take it back and get another one. So that will serve as a little area that she can sit down and read a book or her favorite "Seventeen Magazine" at. Prior to this, her bed filled this area.




That's my niece and nephew enjoying the new reading/study nook.


Those are the hanging flowers I found. Aren't they adorable?



We moved her bed to the middle of the room where her dresser used to be. My sister left the mirror there (because she said it was really heavy, lol!) and put her bed under it. I adorned the sides of the mirrors with the cute butterflies I found at HL. I love the image of my niece in the mirror with her hand on her hips, lol! The curtains were also a new addition. My sister bought those. Before, she just had miniblinds on the window.


Here is a close-up of the butterflies. Cute.



Here are the "Retro" circles. Wish I had more circles to cover more of the wall. The good thing about them is that you can peel and stick them as many times as you want.


This is a frame that I made (well I didn't make the actual frame, but the pictures inside of it). I found the butterfly pictures online, printed them and cut them out and placed them in the windows of the frame. I also printed that picture of my niece and cut it out and put it in the frame. I also found that "All About Me" phrase online and cut it out and stuck it in the frame as well.

I am SO upset that I didn't think to take a before and after pic of the room. Nobody will ever believe the condition it was in before and how we did this transformation. We were up until after 2 in the morning working on this room. I had the hardest time hanging those lanterns. Almost fell clear on my face a few times. I was also struggling with those darn butterflies. While I was hanging the butterflies, my sister was hanging the curtains. She was having a hard time with that as well, lol! Then, she did all of that to find out that she had bought 2 different lengths. One was waaaay shorter. At first she had some solid lime green curtains that hung down in between the white ones. The store didn't have any more left them when she went back to exchange them, so she had to get those, which are "lacy" and look better than the first ones she had in my opinion.

We still have a few things to add to the room. She needs a rug, another lamp shade, and if you notice that weird looking metal thing next to the bed in the 4th pic down, that goes to a butterfly chair my niece already had. The chair is yellow, so my sister has to find another one to match the room.

My niece was surprised, to say the least, when she walked into the room. She had no idea what we were up to. She just thought that her mother was cleaning out her room and that I stayed late last night to help her. The look on her face was priceless when she walked in. My sister even had the song "Butterflies" by Floetry playing in the background when she walked in. It was too cute! Now, the real challenge is whether or not she be able to keep her room tidy and clean. I still wish I had a picture of the clutter in that room before the transformation. It doesn't even look like the same room.