A Big Girl Room

A couple of weeks ago, we took on a new house project -- making Bean's big girl room! Since new baby is a girl, she'll be going into the nursery as is, which allows Bean to get a brand new room.  We let her help in making some decisions (like bedding, lighting, and paint options).  She was very excited in the process which we were hoping would translate into her being excited about the new bed.  I was worried about all her picks and didn't think her room would ever come together, but in the end, she loves the room and so do we!

(This room is painted wallpaper and I REAAAAAALLLY wanted to take all the wallpaper off and start from scratch. However, my heart was never fully into that portion of the process and I didn't get started on it earlier.  So we just decided to paint over the existing painted wallpaper and pretend the wallpaper doesn't exist.)

(Bean loved every step of the transformation process.  Especially when she got to just sit and play with some of daddy's tools.  Her favorite pastime involved taking all the Allen wrenches out of their case and put them back in - which is what she's doing in the picture.)

(Steve HATES painting, but he sucked it up and helped me out a ton.  He painted a lot of the trim while I did all the taping and rolling.)

(Did I mention how much she loved to help?!  She thought it was great fun to help with the paint roller.  Little did she know, there wasn't much paint on her roller.)

(More painting with the roller!)

(She was also a big help in taking all the tape down.  Even all the trim, windows, and doors got a fresh coat of paint!)

(I got the brilliant idea to have her help me build her new bookcase/organizer.  About 3/4 of the way through I almost called the whole "have Bean help" idea off, but we managed and made it successfully.  She then helped to put a few books on it until it was time for her move to the new room.)

(Steve helped on the weekend, but I did a lot of the work on my own during Bean's naptimes.  I built the dresser and bed during 2 separate days.  I had her help me put the sheets on the bed - bad idea, should've done it by myself! She did, however, enjoy eating her snack in her new bed.)

(The color pallet I had to work with after she picked all the different items.  Not shown is the dark blue star light for her wall (purchased from Ikea) and teal curtains that I bought to finally finish her room.)

(Ta-da!  The room is complete! I might cut the curtains in half so that they hang on both sides of the windows, but for now they are serving their purpose to keep the sun out as one whole piece!)

(View from her bed.  Bean helped put all the different stickers around her room on the walls.)

(From this view point, the bed is to the left and the book shelf is to the right.)

Once her room was all complete, I let her decide if she was ready to sleep in her new big girl bed. I told her that her paci (pacifier) was for the crib and that she couldn't have it in her big girl bed.  She told me, "ok, I don't need paci! Sleep big girl bed!"  I had her sleep in it during nap for the first time, just to make sure she'd sleep okay.  It took her almost 2 hours to fall asleep.  I wasn't sure if it took her so long because of the novelty of the new bed/room or if it was because she didn't know how to fall asleep without sucking on her pacifier.  She slept really well once she passed out.  I had to wake her up because I didn't want her to sleep much later (or she'd never fall asleep for bed).  That night for bed, she went to bed like a pro and fell quickly asleep!  She's not mentioned anything about her pacifier since then, and she's been in her room for over a week now! 

(I'd say her new bed is a success!)