White lights & decorating the kids' rooms for the holidays

As all the seasonal decorations are being brought down from the attic and I decide what will go where I thought about what I might do differently this year. Over the past year I have been working on my kids' rooms off-and-on - redecorating and reorganizing. I thought about surprising them with a string of white lights to brighten up a corner of each of their rooms. 

Coincidentally, as they helped me string white lights outside the house this past weekend, both of them separately said they wondered what it would be like to have lights in their rooms  - there goes my surprise!

This is what I did with 100 mini white lights in each room. 

The floating bookshelves in Isabel's room in her reading nook as shared with you some months ago (daytime, without the lights).

I thought this was the perfect area to illuminate as she loves reading and also I thought it would be fun to light up a corner!

I just placed the lights atop the books.

This is with the ceiling and bedside lights off.....

and on..

And then we have Emily's room, recently shared. Do you notice the stacked snowmen by the bean bag? It was in a "to donate" pile last week but she grabbed it for her room instead.

...random pattern with the lights...

This strand of lights was a little difficult to keep up as the art pieces kept moving with the weight. This needed two sets of hands and with Emily's help I got it to stay. 

 

White lights are inexpensive and add a festive touch anywhere. Be creative with a string or 2 of lights this season - white or colored.

The lights only stay on when the girls are in their rooms.

I would love for you to leave a comment. Thank you for stopping by; please do check back often. 

One Room Challenge: Week 6 - The Reveal

It is finally here - the day I get to reveal my tween daughter's room makeover and share it on the One Room Challenge linking get-together over at Calling It Home. Although I started this room in the spring and did it in various stages there was a lot I had to accomplish in the past 6 weeks. You will get very few words from me in this post but you will get a lot of pictures. Enjoy!

 

If you would like to read the previous posts before continuing on, click on the links below.

Week 1

Week 2

Week 3

Week 4

Week 5

 

 

Lights on in some pictures and lights off in others.

 

I am not 100% done. The one thing missing is the nightstand. I am working on refinishing it. In the meantime, I apologize for the exposed wires. I did not attempt to camouflage them.



There was very little sun today when taking these pictures.



 

 

 

 

Some close-ups.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

A few pictures taken in the evening.

 

There was an issue with hanging the curtain rod for the small window. We could not drill holes further away from the window and were only able to a little inside the width of the window frame.

 

The chandelier I made over works well in the new room.

 

No pictures of the desk in the evening as somebody was doing their homework.

 

Before.

  

After.

 

I have shared specific details and resources in previous posts. There may be a few things added since. I will discuss all specifics further in a later post.

 

What is the next challenge? Well, aside from me finishing the nightstand it would be for Emily to keep her room looking like this. I do not expect it on a daily basis but I would settle for regularly.

 

I started working on this room - the first thing was the paint - back in the spring. I have to applaud those who took on their individual projects and accomplished everything within 6 weeks. With all that I have going on I would not have been able to complete this room in that time frame because it is a room in my house. That makes it harder as other things take priority.

 

Thank you, Linda, for hosting and encouraging and supporting. It has truly been fun. 

Now do head on over to Calling It Home and visit the other skilled and talented participants.

 

If you require any help with Interior Decorating please click on the tab at the top of my page marked 'Services' or click here for further details.

 

I would love for you to leave a comment. Thank you for stopping by; please do check back often.

 

One Room Challenge: Week 5

Who can believe it has been 5 weeks since we started this One Room Challenge! Next week is the final reveal and I am glad for the opportunity - the push - to finish Emily's room. Today I have a few pictures to share of some things that I had not addressed previously.

I did a little work on the hutch this week. An idea that came to mind quite suddenly.

 

 

While looking around the room at what requires finishing or fine tuning, I noticed the desk needed something else decorative besides the writing utensil organizers, shared with you last week.

 

 

 

 

This is the cork board attached to the hutch. The usual white color.

 

 

I had some spare fabric left over from a reupholstering project I did some months ago. This is Premier Prints Chelsea in Black & White.

 

 

I also had some nailhead trim left over from redoing my desk last year.

 

 

I decided to do the same here and pin the fabric to the cork board with the nailhead trim. It would add a fun pattern to the otherwise all-white space - other than the black chair - and also be something of interest for the eye to rest on when traveling across the room. Besides that, it ties in with the black-and-white pattern on the duvet.

 

 

 

 

 

 Emily and I had worked on this model of the Sydney Opera House for a school project about 3 years ago. I had found a template online and we built it out of card stock together although she did do a lot of the work herself. Subsequently, we visited Sydney, Australia that summer to see family. We are holding on to this model. I think it will stay on top of the hutch for now.

 

 

 

Then there is the carpet made from Flor carpet tiles.

These Flor carpet tiles were bought for the "old" room. She had wanted a shag-like rug with color and we decided on the Short Shag in Sunflower tiles. The initial rug was a smaller size in the "old" room. As the layout has changed, I wanted to increase the size of the rug by adding more tiles. Unfortunately, the same style and shade are no longer available but the Flor representative was extremely helpful and suggested I try Velvet Twist in Sunflower. I ordered 6 of them.

 

 

 

 The color looks deeper, depending on the light and time of day. We figured we could incorporate a pattern, at times subtle, into the rug. 

 

One could really create any pattern - random or not - with these Flor tiles. The toughest part of this was moving the rug around to the new layout and lifting the bed as we did this.

 

 

Next week is the final reveal. For me that challenge was to make time to finish what was started in the spring and summer.

 

 If you are visiting for the first time and would like to catch up on previous posts related to the redecorating of this room, click on the links below.

 

One Room Challenge: Week 1

One Room Challenge: Week 2

One Room Challenge: Week 3

One Room Challenge: Week 4

 

 Now do go ahead and visit the other participants in the linking party hosted by Linda at Calling It Home. We are at the home stretch.

 

 

Happy Halloween!

If you require any help with Interior Decorating please click on the tab at the top of my page marked 'Services' or click here for further details.

 

I would love for you to leave a comment. Thank you for stopping by; please do check back often.