My very first reveal post!!  I will be the first to admit that I might not have been entirely ready for this 6 week blogging and design challenge.  I had a whopping 2, yes TWO blog posts up before deciding to tackle this project.  I am learning as I go and doing something like this was exactly what I needed to jumpstart my enthusiasm for this blogging and design community.  Although I had a dozen rooms I could have chosen for this challenge, I decided on the recently converted shared bedroom for our girls.   I think the final result is the perfect blend of playful and functional… with just the right amount of pink!  I hope you love it as much as we do!

Now to the good stuff. Let’s start off with a good old fashioned before and after.

This room has a few challenges that I simply cannot change. The biggest one is the layout itself.  When we moved in this house a little over 3 years ago, we built out this room from unfinished basement space. We had to build around pipes, furnaces, exposed ducts and everything else you would think belongs in a basement.   I used it as an office/workout area for the last couple of years so it really wasn’t an issue for what I needed.  The second challenge is no natural light!  We attached this area to a room with a window so we opted for french doors to let in some of the natural light, but it’s not a lot to work with.

My design goal was to take all of the things mentioned above and create a bedroom and play area that my girls would love.  We have no room for an actual playroom, so we really wanted this area to incorporate their books and toys as much as possible in an organized way that wouldn’t drive this mama crazy.  I tried as hard as I could to give the space some symmetry, but in the end, the room was divided into areas of each of the girls beds, a play area, and their “changing” area. (I wish I had a changing/wardrobe area!)

Have I mentioned this room is HUGE?  Awkwardly shaped, but huge.

The wallpaper was a statement choice that I started with so I kept most of my choices in line with this print.  I tried to stay as neutral as possible with other pieces so that I could affordably change up this room in the years to come.  The vinyl removable wallpaper was SO easy to install and I love that I can easily remove it if needed. No commitment!

The board and batten was also something that I added right before we moved the girls into this room. It was something that I had been itching to DIY in my home.  I was 9+ months pregnant and it took me less than a day!  I used basic 1×4 pine boards and painted them Chantilly Lace by Benjamin Moore to match the trim throughout our home.  I love the character that trim and wall treatments add to a room and I have been scheming how to add variations of this in other rooms.

The room lacked a closet all together so I had hung up some closet rods with 1×12’s as a temporary solution.  The addition of this IKEA pax wardrobe alone immediately made the entire room feel more put together.  I built a simple plywood platform to raise the entire wardrobe system to allow our 5 1/2″ trim to go underneath.  This gives it a built in feel that was relatively simple to achieve.  I am still waiting on hardware and plan to add some trim to the doors, but I am over the moon with how this turned out.  I plan to do a full tutorial after I finish these to go over every last detail.

I took time to do a pretty thorough purge on both girls clothing which was very exhilarating.  They have really taken ownership of their new organized space which makes me so so proud! If you are in the hunt for a closet alternative, I highly recommend these systems.  The accessory tray alone has made getting ready easier and more efficient. Pretty and functional – it doesn’t get any better than that!

The dollhouse makeover was a really fun part of this room that I didn’t originally plan on.  If you check back to my Week 6 progress, you can see where this bookshelf started. I found it in our basement storage while I was hunting for other things I could bring out of retirement. To say that it has been popular with ALL of my kids is an understatement.  Take note of this bed above before scrolling to the next picture.

See that fancy white and brass upholstered headboard?  I had been wanting to DIY a new headboard for their beds for a while now.  Their current one was SO low and they were constantly hitting their heads on it.  I can’t complain for the $40 we spent on the entire bed, but an upgrade was definitely needed.  I went around and bought the entire city of Green Bay out of brass upholstery tacks so I didn’t start the second one yet.  I used a 40% off coupon at Hobby Lobby and got this white denim fabric for $16 TOTAL (for TWO headboards).  The project took about 4 hours total and it came out beautifully.

I am also in love with our new Beddy’s bedding!  Sometimes there are those things that seem too good to be true, and then there are those things that are just too good.  This zipper bedding fits over the entire mattress and box spring so that the bed looks so tidy all the time.  My 2 year old loves unzipping her bed each night and even if she doesn’t make it herself, it takes me all of 20 seconds to make it look instagram ready. My son has asked me too many times for his own to ignore, so it is officially on his Christmas list!

There’s nothing like taking photos to make you realize things that you’re missing (doorknob is now officially on order!) This is the view from my son’s room into the girls room. Right now, they are all so young and close in age that they don’t mind the lack of privacy or separation. This might change as they get older but for right now, it has allowed us to have all the kids in one area and they absolutely love it.  We have the nursery right next to our bedroom upstairs which is perfect.  As he gets older, our plan would be to move Atticus into our older sons room to make room for an upstairs office.  That would also mean that we don’t have a baby in the house anymore so I’m not in a hurry for that anytime soon!

I wanted to be intentional with the accessories in the room.  We have been trying to downsize on toys and instead focus on activities and creative playtime.  It has only taken a few tea parties and some intentional dollhouse decorating sessions to make me feel like  we’ve created the perfect space for our girls!

A big thanks to Linda from Calling it Home and her media partner House Beautiful!  I can say with 100% certainty that I would not have had the motivation and determination to create this room without her efforts and the One Room Challenge.

Also  special thank you to my friend Jenn Koss Hansen Photos for making this room come to life through the lens.

There are so many beautiful room that were created by the 20 chosen bloggers and almost 200 guest bloggers.  Make sure you head over to get your daily inspiration

You can find the 20 featured design bloggers and their amazing transformation here!

Head over to see the other guest participants final reveals here!