Adele’s room was the first room we started when we moved in – with hanging the gallery wall.  In fact, her room is still the only room with things hung on the wall – I’m not sure why I’m so reluctant to commit in the rest of the house.

Do you remember how we put together the bed while I was in labor with Eleanor? =)

I painted her bedroom furniture in Annie Sloan Chalk paint Emile mixed with Old White. I used about half (I just eye-balled it) Emile and half Old White, but in real life it looks like a mix between the two lightest colors on the right.

Then I made a little tissue paper pom-pom “arrangement” thingie over her large double window (inspired by THIS). I thought the window need a little something, but long curtains wouldn’t really work with the window seat and also weren’t necessary with the lovely wooden blinds that came with the house.

The project that has taken the longest to finish up has been her window seat. From the first moment I saw this room, I knew it needed a “built-in” window seat in that lovely nook under the double window. After a few trips to Ikea for the three “over-the-refrigerator kitchen cabinets” that we used for the bases, it just sat that way for a few months while we had the baby and got used to the new normal with THREE KIDS!!! OK, we will be getting used to it for a long time, I think. A few weeks ago, I decided that I really wanted Adele’s room to be DONE, so I ordered the foam for the cushions and bought some baskets for toy storage. I also ordered a few more yards of the Anna Maria Horner upholstery fabric and I am planning to use the sewing tutorial HERE for the “quilted” cushions or maybe just plain box cushions. I still need to actually sew the cushions — I am thinking of adding a hot pink ruffle instead of piping around all the edges of the three cushions. And I plan to wrap each of the cushions with quite a bit of batting – so they will look more fluffy and less crisp on the edges.  Derm Dad still needs to finish up the trim work — but before he can start that, he needs to finish the trim on the fourth and final “built-in” bookshelf in the living room. I think it’s fine if it stays like this for a while =) So, I’m calling it “DONE!”

Basically Adele’s room is a crazy circus of everything bright red, fuschia, pink, lavender, rich purple and a bit of yellow — and flowers, polka dots and stripes! It’s a handmade room if ever there was one – I made as much as I possibly could but I did purchase a few things when it was cheaper to buy than make (or if I didn’t think it would look good if I made it). Here’s a list of everything that went into this room:

• sewed her quilt (using fabric from my stash but I also purchased quite a bit of new fabric) – actually, Adele selected many of the fabrics and selected the quilt pattern as well as fabric placement,
• purchased the polka dot duvet cover (folded at the foot of her bed) and pillow shams,
• made (braided and sewed) the rag rug (FREE using fabric I already had),
• purchased her bed used from craigslist and painted it (bought a new box spring, bummer!),
• received the dresser FREE from Kent’s parents and painted it,
• purchased the frames for her gallery wall and painted them,
• reused wool rug (FREE – actually, we purchased it five years ago from Ikea for her nursery in Connecticut and also used in her room at the last house)
• reused random lamp (FREE – we already had it)
• made the window seat from Ikea kitchen cabinets (Derm Dad will finish this sometime in the future),
• purchased the baskets below the window seat (still hoping to get a couple more from a different TJ Maxx),
• will sew (in the future) the window seat cushions.

Even though this room is a far cry from totally free, we didn’t spend as much as we could have; and the things we did spend money on will hopefully stand the test of time. The frames and furniture can all be re-painted down the road (hopefully way down the road) when her tastes change. Maybe her quilt and rug will even become treasured heirlooms. Adele had a LOT of input on her room, so I hope she loves it for many years to come!