The Final Bedroom

Elsie Jane's room barely got finished by the end of March to keep me on track with my goal to do a room a month. We are heading off to California for the better part of two weeks in just 13 days, so I am not sure I am going to finish the sewing and accessorizing necessary to also check off our bonus room from the list, but I am still hoping!

Elsie Jane's room is, like both my other girls' rooms, a testimony to the fact that furniture sticks around FOREVER! I have thought a lot about this truth lately. I am not sure I have fully appreciated until lately the reality of the fact that when you buy a piece of furniture it is a LIFETIME purchase. I do not think of things in the very long-term that way. But, when I look around my house, I see how true of a fact it is.

The only mitigating factor to my new axiom: Buy furniture well, you will look at it for the rest of your life! is moving. It is in the process of moving that we have lost some pieces of furniture, to short space, different sized rooms, stairwells that would not fit couches, etc. But, otherwise, furniture sticks around forever.

For example, Maggie's dresser was purchased for me when I re-made my bedroom after high school and is on its fifth coat of paint. Her bed was bought for us when we got married 13 years ago, her shelf was a purchase by my mom for my sister from my aunt who had it in my cousin's room over 20 years ago.

In Elsie Jane's room where I just finished all the decorating, I painted a bed that has been through both of my older girls and my little sister. I antiqued a rocker that my mom bought when I was born and which I have painted 3 different times myself, a dresser that belonged to my grandmother, and a cheap little night-stand that Jeffrey and I bought 10 years ago. I also re-purposed the frame from a picture that hung in my room during high school, but had since faded and had the glass broken. Even the linens were bought for other spaces! In fact, the only thing actually purchased for Elsie Jane's room was the bird counting cards that are on her wall, the ceramic birds, and one of the several bird houses on her dresser. I also did make two pillows and a couple of wall hangings, but otherwise, all of it is a hand-me-down.

Part way through working on Elsie Jane's room I felt guilty about that fact. I felt bad that I chose the bird motif for her before she had even been conceived, and that I had never asked her or consulted her on what she personally wanted. She does like blue, but given her own choice, she may go with pink. I even came up with an awesome plan to redirect her room and decorate around her favorite thing: Mickey Mouse. I was going to swap out the bedding for large red and white polka dots, replace the orange accents with red, leave the blue and gray in place and replace the bird pictures with vintage black and white Mickey Mouse. Throw in a few, large buttery yellow daisies and it would be adorable! (You can tell, I get a little too excited about a new decorating project.)

But, then I finished the room and gave up all my other plans. I love the eclectic feel of it. I love the look with the birds. I love that everything has been handed down and fixed up and made to work and yet creates such a gorgeous custom look. I love the teal and blue and gray and orange. I guess, if I were to choose to move into one of my daughter's bedrooms this would be it. Although the other two are sure cute in their own way.

Anyway, here is the final product for Elsie Jane. This is the first time in my life that I have fully finished down to the very detail every part of each room. Usually I get too impatient and leave pieces hanging, but not this time. And, I love having it all done.

I am very happy with how the hand-painted accent wall turned out. I think I can be satisfied with it as is -- except for a few moments when the Minnie Mouse room itches at the back of my mind again....