Let’s step back in time together to three and a half years ago when we moved in. Imagine this: Dark blue walls, deep red curtains and weird burnt-yellow shag carpeting. Oh and a little bit of circa-who-knows-when dusty rose wallpaper peeking out from the closet. That was Kennedy’s room! Believe it or not, she made herself right at home there when we moved in and didn’t make a fuss. What a trooper! We’re so glad to have been able to finally give her the room of her dreams now though and to have it be something she can really use and enjoy everyday. Let’s do a little before and after tour, shall we?
So here are those scary dark blue walls I mentioned:
Honestly? As far as navy blues go, that was a fairly nice one. The walls were really banged up though and the color was a little too much on all the walls. Plus the creepy red curtains and yellow carpeting really did make things feel pretty creepy. So we painted. And it wasn’t good. Again, nothing really does look good against yellow carpet. It was better, but still no good.
So this Summer, while Kennedy was away at a week-long soccer camp, we went nuts on the room. We ripped out the carpet, put up drywall, painted every surface and pretty much just changed everything. It was a pretty intense week but it was also a lot of fun to share the progress with you all on Instagram and Facebook.
And now here we are today! All of the finishing touches are in place, everything is just how she likes it and we’re finally ready to show you everything!
Ta-da!
It’s kind of awesome, right? 🙂
I’m really proud of it. It was a super long process, but I’m so thrilled with it everyday, still.
Obviously there are three things that Kennedy loves that had to be a part of the room: Soccer, turquoise and zebra.
I had her agree to let me use some grey in the room because everything being just turquoise would probably be a little too much. I love how it turned out and in fact, I think the grey makes the turquoise even turquoisier!
The challenge that I ran into was that I, of course, DIYed some things and others were things that I bought. Of the things that I bought, not many came from the same store. When you’re dealing with a strong accent color, you’re of course not going to be able to get them all to match exactly the same.
I dealt with this problem by having a main turquoise color that I used over and over again in the room, in the form of paint.
It ended up on the accent wall above the bed, the desk chair, the cork board, the chalkboard frame, the mirror frame, and the back wall of the desk area.
After that, I just added in lots and lots of different shades of turquoise and teal all around the room to balance things out.
That custom wall decal from Cozy Wall Art is definitely the number one thing people notice when they come into the room. You don’t exactly just walk into a store and pick up something with the name “Kennedy” on it, do you? Well, maybe, but not fun kid’s stuff. 🙂
I love making personalized stuff for Kennedy’s room. Something like this monogrammed jewelry box would be awesome on her dresser too if I ever get around to picking up one of those vinyl cutting machines that I’ve been looking at for years!
We made sure to keep things from feeling too young, and too new for our 114 year old house by keeping lots of vintage-inspired elements in the room, big chunky baseboards, and the antique dresser too.
…and power cords of course. Oops!
Anyway, it’s a room we’ve all enjoyed hanging out in from time to time over the last few months.
All of us.
Well, it’s just such a cozy spot. How can you blame him? 🙂
Hope you’ve enjoyed your little tour! If you want to read a bit more about some of the different projects through out the room, I’ll add some of those links below!
Courtenay Hartford is the author of creeklinehouse.com, a blog based on her adventures renovating a 120-year-old farmhouse in rural Ontario, Canada. On her blog, Courtenay shares interior design tips based on her own farmhouse and her work as founder and stylist of the interior photography firm Art & Spaces. She also writes about her farmhouse garden, plant-based recipes, family travel, and homekeeping best practices. Courtenay is the author of the book The Cleaning Ninja and has been featured in numerous magazines including Country Sampler Farmhouse Style, Better Homes and Gardens, Parents Magazine, Real Simple, and Our Homes.