Abry's Room

     I have two sons, ages 10 & 9.  All boy.....very much into sports, getting dirty, being stinky, and all things that go along with being a boy.  Then there's my 6 year old daughter Abry.  Or should I call her Princess Girly Girl.  She's a little bit like the boys, but mostly she's into pretty things.....pretty clothes, pretty hair, pretty room.

    She was home from school the other day with a bad cold, and since I had to be home with her, with nothing much to do, I decided we'd work on her room.  She's starting to like the things her momma likes......sea glass colors, beachy stuff, decor inspired by fun........all things that I think we pulled off in her room.
    It used to look like this....................

    Not much different than it is now, but I do have a story behind the mattresses sitting directly on the floor.  One rainy day, I decided to clean her room.  The before bed was a beautiful antique bed.  It consisted of an oak headboard and footboard, ornately carved.........so pretty.  It was very special to me, as it had belonged to my grandparents,(They passed away when I was in high school.), and was a bed that I used as a child.  As gorgeous as it was, it was well over a hundred years old, and maybe not the best choice for a child's room.  Anyway, it was pushed against the wall so my daughter wouldn't fall out.  I decided to move it, to vacuum under it, and the whole thing promptly fell apart.  Needless to say, I was very sad, and actually sobbed.  I know it's strange, but I'm very sentimental to furniture, and when the bed fell apart, I felt like I lost another piece of my grandparents.  I did save all the pieces, in hopes that it can one day be saved.
   So, back to the present.  Here's what we came up with the other day.  And I can proudly say,  ALL of her furniture is still from my grandparents!

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I pulled this twin bed out of storage and with the help of Krylon watermelon spray paint, I gave it a makeover.  When my grandparents were alive, they had a cute little cottage on the lake in my hometown.  It was a three bedroom home, and in one of the rooms, were two twin beds.  In between them was the little nightstand that sits next to the bed. I remember playing "school" in that room, and we used to use that little night stand as the teacher's desk. :)  After they passed, my cousin got one bed, and I got the other, along with the nightstand.  The beds were an orangey stained wood when we got them.  We both took them to college and ended up painting them.  Since the early nineties my bed sat in storage and was this not-so-lovely shade of hunter green.

    I had planned on painting it a turquoise color, but when I found the pink, I thought it would be cute with her beachy Pottery Barn comforter.

Okay, now refer to the above pic of her room............
    The tall dresser had come from their other guest room.  It was also a not so appealing stained piece which I painted with some Sherwin Williams Oyster Bay.  The little footstool is one of my greatest treasures.  My grandpa made it in his high school shop class, and the fun part is, he had written that on the bottom!  Love it!

  On the other side of the room is this great dresser and bench.  This belonged to my other grandparents as part of their bedroom set when they were first married.  I've had this since I was 5 years old.  That pretty lady has had many looks over the years.  It was stained, it was cream with a stencil on the side, it was burgundy, (that was awful!), it was white, it was black.....and now it's my favorite shade of turquoise.  I love that my daughter uses it the same way that I did as a child.

    The toy box was made for us by my grandpa when my son Logan was a baby, and he made me the doll cradle when I was a baby.  He's in a nursing home now, and I'm so glad that I have these things from him.
    And here are a few other things that finish the room..................
My primitive art work that my daughter proudly shows everyone!  (Her comment to her dad......."Get it Daddy?!  It's a starfish, not just a star!") :)

    A shelf salvaged from and old farmhouse my brother lived in while going to college.  Not exactly his style.  It proudly displays the cowboy boots Abry wore in preschool, along with the princess crown she loves to wear.

    This shelf once hung in my parents' kitchen.  I claimed it when they took it down and painted it white.  It's become naturally distressed over the years and now hangs above the toy box.
    This fishing buoy was one of many that my brother-in-law and sister-in-law sent me from Maine.  Fits in perfectly in Abry's room!

     Finally, what girl doesn't need a pair of sparkly sequined silver boots........

    And a sign to keep her brothers out!!

    It's become a fun little room, that makes me smile as I think of the memories that the furniture holds for me.  Maybe she'll look at it fondly someday, the way I do!