The Great Room Switch 2012

It's spring break here this week and we were sooo ready for it! With college visits happening already and lots of talk about Punkin leaving for college next fall, we had decided that when she leaves she gets to "inherit" the smallest bedroom in the house and the younger girls would each move up to a bigger bedroom. Somehow Punkin decided that NOW would be a good time to go ahead and make that switch. She had several good reasons - 1) she was ready for a change (not sure where she gets that from) 2) she really needed to purge and get rid of a lot of junk and this would motivate her 3) it would get her used to living in a dorm (HA!). I really should have taken before and after pictures....... but here are just the afters. This is Punkin's room now.


This used to be Boo's tiny pink room - I think it's about 10x10 - TINY!  But somehow she made it work.  I thought the room would  be all bed but there is plenty of room. Punkin got rid of sooooo much junk.  She even now has empty drawers in her dresser! She was so motivated to get this done and she initiated every part of this project - she even had a friend help her move all the furniture so mom and dad didn't have to! She painted the room completely by herself! (I popped in during that last hour)

This dresser used to be mine when I was a little girl - this summer we are going to refinish the tops of the dresser and nightstand.  This picture makes it look really squishy between the bed and dresser - but there is actually room to easily walk through there.

We came up with this genius idea for organizing necklaces - thanks Dad for sawing the handle off for us! ;)

She used to have a red and brown room and wanted something completely different - light beachy and airy feeling now.

Using the floor space under her bed for perfect storage!  I found these seagrass baskets at Home Goods instead of using a dust ruffle.

She is using her top dresser drawer to organize all those things that used to be scattered all over the top - after purging a TON of non-used items.  The little sisters gladly inherited all sorts of jewelry, nail polish and fun things!

She scaled back all her clothing to JUST THIS!! If you had seen it before you wouldn't believe it - using the top of the closet for storage is perfect for this tiny room.  See those American Girl doll feet sticking out of the green bin? I love that she treasures those and is keeping them for her own children.  Her Kirsten doll is as old as she is.

I just love the beachy and airy feel of her room now.  On the wall opposite her bed she is planning on creating an entire wall of quotes.   LOVE IT!!

And now moving on to Hannah-Banana's room - picture barn red and brown walls in here before..... and now........


Banana chose green and brown - nature colors of course for my little nature lover!  The bird theme she had before transferred over well to these colors - and she painted those swirlies on the wall herself!  That was all her idea and I think it turned out great!

She actually didn't need to get rid of a thing because she is the sister who never "wants" anything.  She is so content with what she has.  I LOVE how her room turned out - we really needed a before picture with this one.

(A completely candid shot of my girls while they were watching me take pictures!! HA HA!!) Banana inherited the big  brown dresser from Boo's room since it works better with her colors.  One of the things I like to plan out when arranging furniture is to keep the "clutter" holding furniture, like dressers and bookshelves - on a wall that you don't see right when you enter a room.

Banana LOVES having her very own private art-creating-station desk right in her room.  She has always had to share her creative spaces before until now - she spends soooo much time at this desk.

A huge part of the "Great Room Switch" is that we went through EVERY. SINGLE. ITEM. of clothing for all three girls and only kept what we will use right now in their rooms, and then Banana and Boo went through each older sisters clothes that had been discarded and chose only what they thought they wanted to keep from that pile to grow into.  I had always just saved mostly everything to pass down to each girl and then they only ended up using maybe 20% of it.  I thought this approach may work  better - and we end up storing a whole lot less clothing!  We are trying this system inside their drawers - I folded their shirts and pants into fourths so that they could see at a glance what is available instead of digging through piles - I think this will keep things a little neater - we shall see!

Banana's snow globe collection now has a perfect place to live!

This room switch has made me realize how quickly my Banana is growing up!   No more little girl pastel pink room - she has definitely entered the pre-teen/teenage stage.   She loved inheriting all of Punkin's no-longer wanted earrings and such, and even found lots of clothes that will fit her now - she is loving her new room most of all I think!


The boys have been pretty confused about who sleeps where now - I caught him just as he was starting to shake his head -  HA HA!! Cracks me up!

Love this picture - it's just SO HANNAH!!

And on to the littlest girls room! Hers was the only room that didn't require painting - she switched from her sweet pink and brown room to a "much more grown up" owl theme - so cute!





I love her shelf full of books! She is such a reader and is easily reading chapter books now in just a day or two. I love that about her! And I love how she set up a little mirror and get-ready spot on her lowest shelf with all her little girly things.

Such nosy little boys - they would  be in every picture I took if I didn't make them move....

and so would she - but only her hands .... I tried to get her to sit on her bed and look pretty but no luck!

Happy Spring Break!! We will be enjoying our fresh new rooms!!  (and our garbage men will be rolling their eyes).