Inspiration for Afton's Room

 This is Afton.  She is my only daughter, born  in between her 2 brothers.

She is truly a girly-girl with a love of pink, ruffles, flowers, crafts and clothes.  

In other words -- she is JUST like her Mommy!

Four and half years ago, when we moved into our current home, Afton was barely 2 and had a great deal of difficulty understanding why we would move from our previous home when she loved it so much.  Weren't her pink bedroom walls lovely?  Hadn't Mommy made the most beautiful purple and white curtains?  And weren't  all of her favourite things nestled cozily onto her bed?? Why do we need to move?

The truth was, I was about to deliver her little brother and our 1500 square foot, 3 bedroom home was no longer big enough for our family.  

We were moving into a bigger, brighter home in a nearby town - the perfect place to raise our three little ones. 

But no 2 year old understands that.  She figured in  moving  she'd have to leave her pink walls, her lovely curtains and all of her toys behind.  She couldn't quite grasp that all of those things (well-except the  walls!) could come with us to our new home. 

And we had tears.

Lots of tears.

So when we took possession of the house one cold day in November 2008, the first thing I did was paint and decorate Afton's little purple bedroom.  I put up her curtains and placed her favourite bedding and toys on her bed.  And then - she was fine.  Moving wasn't so bad after all.   :)

This is how her room has looked for the last few years.  Of course, I have done some tweaking along the way, but generally  it's been pink and purple with a real vintage flair.  I have pieced it together for next to no $$$, buying all second hand furniture and sewing/knitting/painting everything myself.  

But now it's time for change.  The walls are scuffed and marked, the furniture need repainting and the curtain fabric is faded and stretched.  

I have "pinned" for months many images of the look we will try to achieve in Afton's new bedroom decor.   

(HERE is my Pintereset board if you are interested)

We've settled on pink and blue (so fresh and dreamy!), with the vintage vibe that both Afton and I love.  

Blue walls and pink curtains

A mix of hand-crafted art (made by she and I)

A big white desk for lots of craftin' action!

White bedding and a group of tissue flowers hanging from the ceiling.

Perhaps a stripe of colour around the top of the room,too.

And wall paper- one wall only - behind the bed.  

And ideally, we would love to have a bed still in its natural  wood-tone. 

I've done some shopping already and purchased this wallpaper.

Gorgeous, isn't it??

And I found this desk on Kijiji.  It's got plenty of space for homework and crafts.  I HATE the yellow pine colour but I hope to remedy that this weekend.  

(This is a "keep it real" picture. Afton has been craftin' up a storm here and there 's the mess to prove it!!)

And for above the desk, I purchased this wall-hanging shelf  to store all of her arts and crafts supplies.  

I am hoping to get started on some furniture painting this weekend. I also have a baby shower to prepare for, so painting will be mixed in with cupcake baking and tissue flower making.  

Hopefully I'll have a desk "after" to share early next week.

Til then, may the spring bring sunshine to your part of the world!