Decorating for a Ten Year Old

Several years ago, Sarah Graves started asking about painting her room. We made the deal that for her tenth birthday we would paint her room. All year we talked about ideas, visions, and how we might change her room. She was excited to make a change, but also felt the pressure of committing to one design. Then after much debate, she was ready to make a choice and we went for it!

One last picture with her key lime green walls and the "You are a dream come true" saying. She is still a dream come true, but it was time to move on. I have such fond memories of putting together that room with great anticipation for the arrival of that precious baby! It's hard to believe ten years have passed so quick. 

Charlie was just as excited for her!

She was so excited to get to roll the paint on!

Charlie had the fun idea to paint a 10 on the wall!

He was excited to get in on the painting fun!

 Sarah Graves' birthday gifts from Aaron and I were some new things for her room.  It was tough to strike a balance between surprising her and letting her pick things for her redesigned space. 

Elephante, as she named it, was probably her favorite!

I think we did well! She was very happy with what we chose and recognized some of the pieces she had pointed out over time when we went to look!

Her redesigned room strikes a good balance of young girl and sophisticated. The pale turquoise walls fit Sarah Graves well and the touches of pink make it feel girly. We changed out the pulls on her furniture and the curtains, which made it feel like a big girl room. 

The configuration of doors and windows doesn't give too many choices to arrange all her furniture, but we moved the bed and chest of drawers around giving it a different feel. She really wanted her bed by the window so she could lay in bed and look out the window. We couldn't quite get it the way she hoped, but this came closer and gave the room a new feel. 

The fairy lights with clips to pin up special photos and other keepsakes was a fun surprise. I wanted her to have ways to display some of the treasures that mean a lot to her and make it easy to change them out. 

I didn't get a picture of the new area rug we added, but that was a great addition with bright colors and fun pattern to make it feel happy. 

One thing that was not rehung in its previous place was her bow holder or height chart. We tucked them away in less obvious places, but they are still part of her room. 

She is very happy with how it all came out! She has proudly shown it off to friends and family. Her happiness was the main goal and I think we met that!