not so extreme make over

martha comes a week out to our screens for some reason but her clutter free solutions have been nudging me upstairs to prairie's room. what started as a sort out has turned into a semi-major renovation. martha's tip was to clear it all out then bring it back in, sorted. well, while it was all out i thought we might as well paint the walls. we have school holidays for two more weeks and tommy is away staying with my parents so we have shoved everything into his room including prairie. her room is tiny and we have flirted with the idea of raising her bed to create more space so may as well strike..... so all go here! michael made her bed years ago when tommy was little. mum had bought a designer's guild duvet cover (the one on the bed) and on the back of the packaging was a photo of a bed which was so cute we had to have it. the head and end boards are like little irregular picket fences. we are just going to raise that. when i say we i really mean michael. i will be there to help with useful advice and words of praise! and i will be sorting the clutter in tommy's room. now you do not want a photo of that!

prairie's room started with the curtains. i got the floral fabric really cheap so thought great, they can be of generous proportion. three 2m drops for each curtain. i was working out of a designer's guild soft furnishing book and i was doing lined ones with the lining facing out (ie wrong sides together) the book said to lockstitch them together to stop the fabric drooping but i didn't really have anywhere to lay them out to do this. a friend suggested sewing pretty little beads on and i thought this was a lovely idea and much easir to work with all that fabric. so i trotted off and bought pale pink pearls, little pale blue butterflies and weeny crystals and started to stitch them on. michael the mathmatician asked the size of the curtains and how close i was stitching the beads together. i did not need this information. 700 beads. per curtain!!! needless to say the gaps got bigger as i worked through that first curtain. (i had already hand hemmed all the way round and across the bottom!) so it was finished and we hung it and i looked at michael and said 'you can't see the #*@^ing beads!!!' he said 'darling, we know they are there' and we laughed that one away. it took me some time to get around to the second curtain and there are even less beads on that one. they look really pretty up and i love the way when they are across the windows in the daytime you can see the pink gingham glowing through. i then made a pinboard out of the same fabric and there is still some left!

so must get thee to the paint store as it shuts early on a saturday. the bed is painted with milk paint which is just lime, milk powder and pigment then you wax it when it is dry. i love using it. we need more of that and something for the walls. no doubt prairie and i will have conflicting ideas on this but i have the pesos baby!

Comments

[June]

I think this room is the loveliest room ever--what a wonderful place you've created for her.

[Jackie]

Prairie's room is so sweet! I'm sure she loves it! I'll have to show Meg (who is ready to send her letter, but wants to include a little something, so we haven't sent it yet!).

[Simmyb]

What a lovely bed and duvet cover. Rohan has a deigners guild one too and will NOT left me replace it even though it's getting holes in it. The lime paint looks so much nicer doesn't it.

[littlejennywren]

Your daughter's room looks gorgeous. My daughter's room is tiny too and we have often thought of elevating her bed- I'll be interested to see how it goes if you do it.