Yellow and Blue Make GREEN!

We moved into our house when Maddie was almost 2 1/2 years old.  The first day she walked right into the room we had told her would be hers, she sat down at the bookshelf we had managed to unpack and "read" her books in the corner for hours. 

Her room was one of the first that was decorated.  I made a quilt and we had picked out colors to paint with.  Mom helped me sew some curtains and a bedskirt from leftover fabric and I even covered buttons to match.

That top color was supposed to be a dark rose to match the bedspread.  Maddie LOVED all things pink at the time.  I am not a pink fan at all so this was our compromise.  The yellow flowers were all foam I cut out and we pinned to the wall.

Fast forward 8 1/2 years and it was time for Maddie to get a new room design.  Understandably, she wanted something a little older looking.

She didn't want pink.  No more pink.  Instead she informed us she would like a room that had lots of green and turqoise.

The problem was that while she was excited for all this to happen, she didn't really want to invest the shopping time needed to find the right starting point: a bedspread.  I came home week after week with different bedspreads I thought might fit the bill.  Some weren't the right color blue, others had the wrong design quilted into them.  We did agree on one duvet from Pottery Barn we both liked that involved blue "bubbles" on a white background and green could easily be thrown in.  This duvet and one sham was going to cost us a little over $100 and I couldn't do it.

One day I found a bedspread at Target.  While it wasn't really something I was in love with - it has so much pattern - it wasn't my room, so I brought it home to Maddie and told her that she was GOING to pick out one of the two bedspreads I had purchased because I was done looking (and I'd run out of stores).  She loved the Target polka-dots and we I started gathering accessories as I ran errands and would throw them at her for approval.  Eventually I started to understand what her mind's eye saw.

Then we went paint shopping.  She knew she wanted a bright green.  She chose the brightest, most neon green I had ever seen and I about cried.  Then I flat out told her that I was vetoing that idea and we came to a compromise.  We found a color that was bright enough for her discriminating taste, and one that I thought would be far more mellow on the walls than she envisioned.

It wasn't.  But we painted the room.  I then pulled her aside and said, "I'm going to ask you this only once, and I want the truth.  I won't be mad.  In fact, I'll repaint today.  But, do you really like this color?"  She replied she loved it and that was that.  Then I went into the basement and prepared Mike for what he was about to see.

Without further adieu, here's the finished product:

These pictures DO NOT do justice to how bright this green is.  I had lamented to Tracy one day over email about this color and she must have thought I was exaggerating.  When she saw it in person she said, "Wow.  You weren't kidding!  That's some green!"

Mike helped me finish painting her room and said two things:  1. "It looks like Shrek exploded in here." and 2. "Madison, when you move out of this house, you will be repainting this room a normal color."

We did some of our own renovation projects.  That bean bag in the corner was recovered by yours truly one night.  I came up with my own pattern based off what I could measure from the bean bag (which couldn't be taken apart) and Maddie found the fabric.  Originally the bag ended up so tight that after Mike and I stuffed it, it stood like one of those plastic punching bags we had as kids.  Mike suggested I make one more panel and that seemed to do the trick to where Maddie can actually sit in it.

My parents gave Maddie their old desk which was white when we acquired it.  I repainted the desk and Maddie tackled most of the chair one weekend.

The lamp used to have a pink shade.  Maddie picked this fabric as well and one night I tackled this project.  Twice.  Then I redid it again when I messed up the top and bottom. 

The decorations came from Target.  This year their buyers decided turqoise was the color scheme for all college kids this fall.  HALLELUJAH!  One of Maddie's favorite things are the turqoise drapes that are room darkening.  We found tons of little baskets and bins in the dollar section that were the perfect compliments to her room as well as a desk lamp and some cheap wall accessories!

One of the deal-breakers involved Maddie's vision of polka dots lining the top portion of the walls.  I did not want to paint those again after having done the bathroom a couple years ago.  We walked around Michael's trying to think outside the box and found these cardboard circles pre-cut and in a package of 12 for 50 cents!  We bought two packs and some acrylic paint and spent one night painting these bad boys.  We attached them to the wall with pins and Maddie instructed as to how much to pop them off the wall for a cool 3-D effect.

Despite the fact that there is now a nuclear glow coming from the north corner of our home, Maddie loves her "new" room.  And slowly but surely, I'm coming around to the green.

Hopefully she will like it for years to come.  We've already told her she needs to love it for a minimum of five years.