Extreme Makeover

I will readily admit it: I am addicted to home make overs. Whether on HGTV or DIY or in my own house, I love flipping through paint samples, fabric swatches, and Target sales ads. Unfortunately, on a teacher's budget, you can only do so much! And with major remodeling and additions that this house has needed in the past three years to be a good fit for my family, our bedrooms have pretty much stayed ho-hum. Basic bedding, unmatched furniture, cheap area rugs, you get the picture. So I started to think ahead to when Emily would be getting out of a crib and needing a big bed like her sister. And Caroline is currently in a full sized bed (passed down to her from me when I upgraded to a queen). These girls were going to look like a dorm room! Or sardines! So I started to think about bunk beds. I kept my eye on Craigslist and lo and behold, there was an ad last week for white ones! I called the lady and we met up today in MD. The beds were perfect and in excellent condition and about 1/3 the price of buying new. If you know me, you know I need immediate gratification, so the beds got set up the minute we got home and the full sized bed in sitting in the garage, waiting for my sales flyer at school to bring in a buyer! But bunk beds were just the tip of the iceberg... Caroline's old bed. Only problem with it? She curls up in the fetal position every night, using about 10% of the bed's space. And more floor space with a smaller bed would mean easier play dates!
New bunk bed set! What a huge difference it makes in the room. The room could almost be described as "spacious" now....almost.

View from the door. In the next few months, a dresser will replace the changing table and my very handy husband will be doing a built in bookcase and desk set on the crib wall when Emily gets in the big bed (we plan on two 30-in wide bookcases with lower cabinets with a built in desk between).

Caroline's American Girl doll CJ gets her bed right next to the girls! And her bathtub fits perfectly under the end of the bed. I got two big rolling bins for toys under the bed too.

Up close of bed sets: Flutterby. Very vibrant colors. Our original plan was to wait til Spring Break and paint all of the bedroom's wooden trim white (takes two coats of primer and two of paint, so it's time intensive). We would upgrading to white wooden blinds too, to match the addition and bathroom. I wanted to keep the blue walls, Caroline wanted to go back to pink. I love how the blue looks with the bedding once it was on the beds. But pink would be nice too...

Caroline wants a striped wall for the wall with the changing table. I mapped it out for her and she went through her marker collection, pulling out colors that matched the bedding. This was the plan we came up with. As Timmy pointed out, "You're going to be taping lines for days" but I think the end result will be spectacular. And it's only one wall, so it shouldn't be overwhelming.

Picture me hovering over the beds with paint samples! I think I matched up Crisp Green and Glorious Gold perfectly for stripe options.

Caroline LOVES paint samples--she squirrels away several sheets every time we go to Lowes or Home Depot. She picked out all of these pinks as options. She ended up deciding on the top one on the right--Foxy pink. I can't decide if it will be too dark for three of her walls. Maybe just leave the blue walls and use the pink for the stripes? Or repaint the walls pink, using the blue for stripes? Feel free to leave your opinion in the Comments section!