Small Tween Room in Black and White

Three years ago when we first moved into this house I was so excited to decorate my daughter's room. Unfortunately I didn't like the result. I made a few mistakes along the way, some of which could not be avoided. So, I blogged about the her first room here and here.  Here is a before picture when I first finished her room:


My daughter was insistent on the furniture style and a canopy bed.  I then made the grave mistake of taking her with me to the fabric store to select curtain fabric (which I really hated but I bought anyway), then I made mistake #3 when I had her select the wall paint. 



The only thing that I really wanted to add was some chair rail moulding 2/3 up the wall (not pictured but you can see where the green paint stopped, that is where I added the moulding).  Guess what?  My daughter hated the moulding and insisted it be taken down. 

Well, 2 years later and a constant battle with trying to keep all of her stuff organized I did a total room redo.  I cleared off the mess on the dresser, the desk, the nightstand, under the bed and on the floor.  I put all of the stuffed animals in 2 large plastic bins and put those away in her closet.  I folded and put away all the extra blankets and pillows.  I took all of the legos and put those in the closet on a shelf.  I took down all of the taped-up posters.  This room was tchotke city.  I cleared everything.  I don't have a good before picture of the mess but you get the idea.

Then I pushed all the furniture into the middle of the and took down the moulding and sanded.  And sanded.  I took down the curtain rods and patched the holes.  Most of the time she had the curtains tied up.  They were never just hanging there making the window look pretty.

Did I mention that I did all of this without my daughter's permission while she was away at summer camp?

This room is a challenge.  It is small and has 3 large windows and 3 doors.  My daughter was very particular about what furniture she wanted, and there was just a lot of furniture. 

I decided to just paint the room white.  Soooo boring, I know but since daughter was away at camp I couldn't ask her which color she wanted.  Also, I was thinking that we could always just paint 1 wall or the ceiling a color if she wanted and the rest could be white.

Then I just did an excercise in "making it work".  I knew what she would insist in having in the room so I made those things blend in.  First, she loved this cat picture that I hung over her bed.  It has a red frame and black background so that gave me the idea of a mostly black and white room.

The Little Mix pillowcase was also a must have, fortunately it has a lot of red in it so ties in the with picture frame above (can't really see this in the pic).
I also decided to just leave the window curtainless.  Very plain, I know but she was always tying up the curtains or they just looked really messy.  I could always do a valance/pelmet or roman shade in the future.

 This was the only furntiure configuration I could figure out for this room that would both fit everything and look fairly nice too.  I used her huge stuffed angry bird for a footrest. 

I knew both the chair and One Direction pillow would have to stay too.  Behind the chair I hung my daughter's artwork and some mirrors and shelves I already had.  Then I set out some of the tchotkes on the shelves.  I knew that would make her happy.

 I got 2 of the same braided area rugs from Target (on clearance, I heart Target!). 

Above the desk I have 2 magnetic boards from Ikea.  I was thinking if she needed to hang up more stuff, I could put some frames above the magnetic boards.

So, she came home from camp and.........LOVED her new room.  Whew, I got lucky.  And we are on day #4 of her actually keeping it clean!  Wonder how long that will last?

Thanks for stopping by!!

----Adrienne Linking: