I can't believe it. We are almost ready to convert Kenzie's "baby" room to a "big girl" room. We have always actually had plans to make this change right around the time she turns 5. We figure that is a good time. She will be a whole hand old! Eek! She will be a few weeks away from starting kindergarten and she is old enough to express a serious interest in her room as her own personal space. This is far less about us choosing a theme or what we like and more about making sure she is getting what she wants (within reason) and we are there to keep her in line to make sure this change will grow with her.
When we decorated her nursery way back when, we went with an owl theme. When she was born, owls were all the rage. This was before it became more about choosing a color scheme rather than a theme for a nursery. People have always done it, but it has definitely become more commonplace since her birth. So... we went with these adorable owls. They were awesome for a baby's nursery.
She even has an amazing tree decal on her wall that was my favorite part of her nursery when we decorated it. Over the last 5 years, the tree has slowly been removed by a very curious child. She is finally at the point that she doesn't touch it anymore but I can see where it is messed up and worn.
When we painted Kenzie's room initially we split the room with green on the bottom (grass) and blue on top (sky) to make the tree look more like it was outside. Or something like that. The downfall to that is that we always sort of knew we would be repainting the room down the line. (Bonus: We got smart with Will's room and painted it blue with one wall with vertical blue stripes so it can grow with him even if he changes themes or makes his current theme of sports a bit more "big boy" in the future.)
Over the last (almost) 5 years, the room has gone through a lot of changed. Kenzie's crib was converted to a toddler bed when she was about 2.5 years old. The rocker was moved out before she turned 3 to prep her for Will coming along soon and so we could give her a reading corner. Her reading corner took over the room and eventually she just started reading wherever she wished (and all the time) but it still houses a lot of her big girl books that aren't in the playroom. She added some posters to her walls including one of Bethany Hamilton, one of UCF football, and a picture she made of Olaf. Her curtains have been changed and ripped off the wall (more than once). Her changing table was moved to Will's room (and is now an actual dresser in there instead of the changing table option) before he was born. Her room still looks so much like that nursery we brought our tiny baby home to but so much like a room for a girl that is trying to express herself more and more and has her own opinions, likes, and dislikes.
After some discussion, Kenzie has come to a decision. With some help, of course. We have decided on a pink and gold theme. We are still considering the possibility of throwing in some mint green accents. That isn't for sure yet and depends on what we find along the way. Kenzie is super excited to go pink. Initially she wanted her room to be red but she we shut that down. Red is a really difficult room color and seemed really harsh for a 5 year old. She wanted fire engine red walls. Nope. Not doing that. So, pink it is.
Nana will be coming sometime to help me paint the room a light pink. We plan to make some curtains with Grandma's help and we have plans for a gallery wall. We have started picking out all the things for the wall already but we haven't purchased anything yet because we know once we do that Kenzie will want to make the transition immediately and we aren't ready yet as the walls have to be the first step.
We have decided to not convert Kenzie's crib/toddler bed into the double bed that it can become. We are worried about the space in the room at this point. Kenzie enjoys playing in her room a lot and she apparently requires room to dance. So, if the bed takes up most of the room, she may not be happy with the outcome. We are going to keep her white shelves with the pink bins but will update the bins. Those have to be updated every so often anyway because they get worn out with a kid pulling them out and putting them in all the time. We are keeping her 5 drawer dresser in the closet for now. It isn't white, but shouldn't be noticeable because it is in the closet. We are going to update her to a white twin bed and night stand. I am considering re-purposing her nightstand and painting it white but it is pressed wood and there are a few extra steps I would have to take into account if I want to paint it. We aren't sure if it is worth the work. It is probably 15 years old. I'm still thinking about that. I'm considering the option of repainting the book holders we used to have on the wall in her reading corner and re-instituting her reading corner but I'm going to leave that up to her. The shelves were pulled off fairly quickly so if she thinks she might remove them again, I'm not putting them back up. I've promised her that she can keep her Frozen light on her wall because I know it is removable and won't be around forever.
We have our plan in mind and now Kenzie and I have been drawing some inspiration from Pinterest. We look at some pins together and talk about what she likes or doesn't like in each one. Kenzie can be difficult because she sort of loves anything and everything. Here are some of the inspo pics we have been going back to frequently. I hope over the next 5 or so months, we can make her little vision (and my bigger one) come to fruition.
When we decorated her nursery way back when, we went with an owl theme. When she was born, owls were all the rage. This was before it became more about choosing a color scheme rather than a theme for a nursery. People have always done it, but it has definitely become more commonplace since her birth. So... we went with these adorable owls. They were awesome for a baby's nursery.
She even has an amazing tree decal on her wall that was my favorite part of her nursery when we decorated it. Over the last 5 years, the tree has slowly been removed by a very curious child. She is finally at the point that she doesn't touch it anymore but I can see where it is messed up and worn.
When we painted Kenzie's room initially we split the room with green on the bottom (grass) and blue on top (sky) to make the tree look more like it was outside. Or something like that. The downfall to that is that we always sort of knew we would be repainting the room down the line. (Bonus: We got smart with Will's room and painted it blue with one wall with vertical blue stripes so it can grow with him even if he changes themes or makes his current theme of sports a bit more "big boy" in the future.)
Over the last (almost) 5 years, the room has gone through a lot of changed. Kenzie's crib was converted to a toddler bed when she was about 2.5 years old. The rocker was moved out before she turned 3 to prep her for Will coming along soon and so we could give her a reading corner. Her reading corner took over the room and eventually she just started reading wherever she wished (and all the time) but it still houses a lot of her big girl books that aren't in the playroom. She added some posters to her walls including one of Bethany Hamilton, one of UCF football, and a picture she made of Olaf. Her curtains have been changed and ripped off the wall (more than once). Her changing table was moved to Will's room (and is now an actual dresser in there instead of the changing table option) before he was born. Her room still looks so much like that nursery we brought our tiny baby home to but so much like a room for a girl that is trying to express herself more and more and has her own opinions, likes, and dislikes.
After some discussion, Kenzie has come to a decision. With some help, of course. We have decided on a pink and gold theme. We are still considering the possibility of throwing in some mint green accents. That isn't for sure yet and depends on what we find along the way. Kenzie is super excited to go pink. Initially she wanted her room to be red but she we shut that down. Red is a really difficult room color and seemed really harsh for a 5 year old. She wanted fire engine red walls. Nope. Not doing that. So, pink it is.
Nana will be coming sometime to help me paint the room a light pink. We plan to make some curtains with Grandma's help and we have plans for a gallery wall. We have started picking out all the things for the wall already but we haven't purchased anything yet because we know once we do that Kenzie will want to make the transition immediately and we aren't ready yet as the walls have to be the first step.
We have decided to not convert Kenzie's crib/toddler bed into the double bed that it can become. We are worried about the space in the room at this point. Kenzie enjoys playing in her room a lot and she apparently requires room to dance. So, if the bed takes up most of the room, she may not be happy with the outcome. We are going to keep her white shelves with the pink bins but will update the bins. Those have to be updated every so often anyway because they get worn out with a kid pulling them out and putting them in all the time. We are keeping her 5 drawer dresser in the closet for now. It isn't white, but shouldn't be noticeable because it is in the closet. We are going to update her to a white twin bed and night stand. I am considering re-purposing her nightstand and painting it white but it is pressed wood and there are a few extra steps I would have to take into account if I want to paint it. We aren't sure if it is worth the work. It is probably 15 years old. I'm still thinking about that. I'm considering the option of repainting the book holders we used to have on the wall in her reading corner and re-instituting her reading corner but I'm going to leave that up to her. The shelves were pulled off fairly quickly so if she thinks she might remove them again, I'm not putting them back up. I've promised her that she can keep her Frozen light on her wall because I know it is removable and won't be around forever.
We have our plan in mind and now Kenzie and I have been drawing some inspiration from Pinterest. We look at some pins together and talk about what she likes or doesn't like in each one. Kenzie can be difficult because she sort of loves anything and everything. Here are some of the inspo pics we have been going back to frequently. I hope over the next 5 or so months, we can make her little vision (and my bigger one) come to fruition.
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