welcome to lilly's room
Today, I’d like to introduce you to Lilly. Or rather, I’d like to introduce you to Lilly’s room.
Lilly is 10 years old and wanted a room that looked more like the tween that she is without giving up her collection of horses or stuffed animals. Lilly’s mom wanted to declutter Lilly’s room, give her more space, and do it all for $200 or less.
Challenge accepted.
Here’s what Lilly’s room looked like on the first day I saw it:
You know this room. It’s the one where you close the door and walk the other way. In all fairness to Lilly, this room is small - it's only about 8'7" wide and 13' long. But Lilly liked her small room. She just wanted it to catch up to her 10-year-old self.
Lilly’s Goals: Keep her stuffed animals, horses, equestrian ribbons, and tall mirror. Create a space in her room to do hair and make-up (and keep all of her associated gear) and a place to hang out other than the bed. Eventually, Lilly might also like a desk. She obviously also needed a place to sleep and a place for her clothes.
Mom’s Goals: Less clutter. Easy clean up. A place for Lilly to read or use her iPad other than in bed. Mom had also recently purchased Lilly’s dresser and book shelf and did not want to buy new furniture.
The Plan:
1. Switch out some of the larger furniture in Lilly’s room with smaller furniture from her brother’s room to make Lilly’s room feel larger.
2. Use the closet more efficiently to create additional floor space in the actual living area of the bedroom.
3. Remove some of the visual clutter from the room like unused furniture, toys, books, and smaller art work. Consolidate Lilly’s ribbons onto one wall and display her horse collection in one place as a decorative element to the room.
4. Swap out the oversized and overflowing stuffed animal bins with a bean bag chair cover that would hide Lilly’s stuffed animals but without storing or getting rid of any of her prized collection.
The Mood:
The Process: Lilly purged all of her clothes that no longer fit. On a roll, she cleaned out toys that she no longer played with, books that she had already read, and furniture she didn’t use. She even set aside half of her stuffed animals. Lilly priced all of these items for a garage sale to help pay for her room changes. She made about $100 selling her old things and was excited to use this money to help pay for a new duvet cover, lamp, and bean bag chair, all of which she picked out.
Lilly’s mom took my floor plan and mood recommendations and ran with them, swapping out Lilly’s dresser and bookshelf with those previously in Lilly’s brother’s room, painting the cubby shelf white to give the eye a break from all of the color in the room. She picked up two bins, a lamp, and a rug (also in white for a visual break and to brighten the room) at Target. She swapped out the tall wall shelf for some smaller hanging shelves (that she also found at Target), on which Lilly’s horse collection is now displayed. She moved all of Lilly’s ribbons to the wall opposite her bed and ordered Lilly’s duvet and bean bag covers (found by Lilly on clearance at PB Teen, and coming in at around $70 TOTAL). The “new” dresser was placed in the closet next to a hanging shelf. A repurposed wall shelf became Lilly’s bedside table, and an IKEA cart her beauty station.
The Results:
(After photos compliments of Lilly's mom. Excellent work, Mom.)
The transformation of Lilly's room took less than a month from start to finish. Two months after completion, Lilly loves her room. Lilly’s mom loves that the room is staying clean and uncluttered with very little nagging on her part and almost no monetary investment.
What do you think of Lilly’s new room? Ready to create some magic in your kid’s room? I'm ready if you are!