Harper turned 4 the other day- it hardly seems possible! My little lady bug grew into a big girl in what feels like a blink of an eye. For her birthday, I promised I’d work on shifting her space into a “big girl” room. Over the past couple of months, I’ve slowly built a vision board for a bedroom that not only reflects who she is right now, but can grow with her over time.
Harper’s Room (Before)
This room was always so special to me. I remember the hours I spent dreaming up her room when I was pregnant with her. Her room was absolutely perfect in our old home! It was so cozy and exactly what I had envisioned for the space. We moved when Harper was around 3 months old and I felt like the room never felt quite the same where we currently are. I had talked about doing a wallpaper, board and batten, etc but you know, life happens and I never got around to it. We don’t plan to be in this home much longer, but I felt like it was unfair to her to not give her a space she would love just because we aren’t staying here long-term.
Paint Selection
When drawing inspiration for Harper’s “big girl” room, many of my searches included “European children’s room”, “English cottage children’s room”, and “whimsical children’s room”. I love the timeless, lived-in look these spaces all encompassed. They were playful, a little messy, and embodied the spirit of childhood. They layered color, texture, old and new things in such a thoughtful way.
I had asked Harper what she wanted to see in her big girl bedroom and each time I asked, she responded with “YELLOW!”. Yellow is such a beautiful color, but one I find intimidating to work with, if I’m being honest. Getting the tone right can be tricky. If it isn’t quite right, it can shift the entire feel of a space. I went through at least six paint samples before I found the “perfect” shade for Harper’s room. I wanted the walls to be a “butter” yellow, but apparently that means something different to literally everyone. In hindsight, what I had envisioned was a soft color that almost appeared creamy depending on the lighting, but with the hint of yellow.
In my initial plans, I planned to purchase a rick-rack stripe stencil, stencil the top half of the wall and do a wall treatment on the lower half. Many of the paint selections I tested were to determine colors for the wall treatment and stencil. Each time I sampled a color on the wall it never appeared the way it did in someone’s Pinterest or Instagram photos. For example, I had seen someone do a beautiful striped wall throughout their child’s bedroom in two different shades of yellow. I loved how it looked in their room, but it didn’t translate the same in Harper’s space. Lighting plays such a huge role in choosing the right paint color! Her room is East-facing. A lot of these colors I had sampled pulled orange (like Mac and cheese) in her room which was NOT the vibe I was going for.
I loved the look of Farrow and Ball’s “Farrow’s Cream” in the images I had seen online, but we don’t have a local stockist. Sherwin Williams was running an incredible 40% off sale at the time so I spent some time comparing their colors to the one I was looking at from F&B (not sponsored at all, but I love their paint! The Emerald line has always been my go-to!). I happened to find the color “Morning Sun” from Sherwin Williams and when I sampled it on her walls, I knew it was perfect! It had that creamy “is it yellow?” thing going and that’s exactly what I was looking for. I painted the entire room in a flat finish to give it that Farrow and Ball look.
I scratched the wall treatment plan once I decided on Morning Sun as the paint color. It serves as a beautiful backdrop to the room and doesn’t fight with the other elements in the room.
Once the walls were painted, I moved on to painting her dresser. That’s an entire blog post in itself that I’ll get around to sharing soon! Again, I so badly wanted to paint the dresser “Hay” from Farrow and Ball, but found that “Straw Harvest” from Sherwin Williams lightened 10% appeared to look very similar.
Room Sources
- Bedding
- Artwork and Frames
- Furniture
- Rug
- Extras
Thrifted Finds
I found this shelf and lamp on Facebook Marketplace and will be using both in Harper’s room. The shelf is in the process of being sanded down and re-stained. I planned to use the West Elm shelf I tagged above, but when I found this one on FB marketplace, I couldn’t pass it up! The lamp is STUNNING (probably my favorite FB marketplace find ever), but it definitely needed to be re-stained. I found this adorable striped lamp shade and it gave the lamp an additional layer of whimsy! I’m still holding out hope that I’ll find a Jenny Lind style bed on FB marketplace with garage sale season around the corner. However, if I can’t find one then I’ll buy the beautiful maple-colored bed from Crate and Barrel.
What’s Next?
Over the next few weeks, I’m going to finish adding little details into her room. Hopefully, I will find her big girl bed so we can get that swapped out! I plan to finish hanging up all of the artwork I have for the room and see if I can find any vintage pieces. I’m on the hunt for a small kid’s table to put in the corner of her room, too.
I will continue to update as I go and will do a final reveal once it’s complete!
-Cayla
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