So, Claire’s room got a little “spruce-up” along with Lucy’s. Claire is it’s third occupant…went from Elle’s room where we tried to copy a wall we loved in India and somehow got this:

Which I wrote about over on the house blog over HERE, and which we loved for a little while when we first moved into our house, but by the time Grace moved in when Elle moved away, she was ready for a change.

We tore down the wallpaper and changed a couple pillows:

…and had the best intentions of spiffing it up, but by the time Claire moved in a couple years later it was still needing a little love (her little bathroom too):

So we got busy.

First we tried the bed in a different position…which you can’t really see in this picture, but here we go for record’s sake:

(It didn’t work by the way.)

Then we got busy with some new ideas…helped along again by my friend Ashley from Skout and my other friend Julie who has the best taste in the world.

We started with a new desk:

For years I have kept desks out of bedrooms because I like to have the kids in the kitchen for homework, but for lots of reasons, we decided desks in bedrooms might be a good idea after all 🙂 It sure has helped during all this online school business, so I’m so grateful!!

Sisters installing a new mirror (because Claire will use that desk to do hair/make-up too):

We finally dusted off this shelf thing that has been gathering dust in the garage ever since we used it at Max & Abby’s wedding (back HERE…we were originally “gifted” this puppy after a friend’s reception a couple years ago because Grace loved it and they were getting rid of it, just kind of roughly put together for reception purposes). But we fixed it right back up again and re-painted and ended up really liking it.

We got an area rug and debated on which carpet to replace the old with to go with the new rug…

…but in the end decided to put wood in there since this will become a guest room eventually when the kids come home and it will last the best:

A little work replacing baseboards after all that:

And here we are…still a work in progress, but it’s coming together!

We painted the wall pink, super pale, but just a little something new.

Trying to figure out how to arrange our little hexagons…still have some work to do on those suckers, need something big in the middle:

We put up these black and white pictures Claire chose of some of her favorite places:

My friend found these cute pillows at Target for me:

And here’s what we have so far!

Oh, and a change in the bathroom too:

Love this painting print from Juniper Prints:

Trying to figure out a lamp and a hanging light over in that corner still, but kind of fun to have it situated at least this much!

Claire and whichever married sibling we have visiting who has kicked her out here and there, are pretty happy with the results so far!

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42 Comments

  1. I’m curious about all the room-switching … is this like “the best room” and each kid gets a turn in it as they become the oldest in the house? Do the former room residents get allocated back into smaller, less-good rooms? Like, when Grace is home now does she go into the room where Claire used to stay? I promise I’m not asking this in a catty way, I’m genuinely interested … all the multi-kid households I know just keep everybody where they are and the college-and-beyond kids come home to “their room” when they’re like 25 …

    1. I was wondering the same thing (also in a very non-catty way). Is this the room with it’s own bath which makes it a better guest room for the marrieds? So many things to figure out as kids start to leave home and come back to visit!

      1. Also, little did we know how much we’d be using that “extra” room since everyone has been home so much with Corona! It’s worked out so nicely so I’m so thankful!

    2. Good questions. Yes they think it’s the “best room” because it has it’s own bathroom. Grace and Claire used to share a bedroom with two double beds so it made more sense for us to use that one for guests when they come. That room has a jack-and-jill bathroom that shares with Lucy so as long as we have the space we figured we may as well spread out a little bit.

    3. If I’m remembering correctly, Max had his own room cuz he’s the only boy. Lucy also has her own room and Grace and Elle shared? Of course, if this is too nosy/personal, feel free to ignore! 🙂

  2. It looks like there is a glass top on the desk. Did you purchase this separately or did it come with the desk? I bought some from a glass shop to protect my daughters furniture but it has a green tint to it and I like how yours is clear. Also wondering where the desk is from. Looks so cute! You are lucky to be able to switch things out so often!

    1. We bought that separately because we knew the desk would get beat up if claire was using curling irons there, etc. I just found a local glass place and told them the dimensions.

  3. Love the room! So chic for Claire for the next few years but will translate nicely into a guest room for your visiting kids.
    On the topic of your older married kids, purely curious as we will be there soon, how do you handle their visits? Are there house rules they’re expected to follow? Is it tough to remember they’re married and no longer tell them what to do? Lol. Would love to hear about your experiences of having them home, good, hard, etc. and any input for navigating this new stage of life! Thanks!

    1. I’ve loved the opportunities we’ve had during Covid to have them home. I’ve still assigned jobs to everyone on Saturdays, and everyone’s taken turns helping to cook. I think this helps a lot, although Claire still thinks I treat them “like a teacher treats a class when the principal is visiting,”…HA! It’s hard because they are so involved in jobs and college and their own things that I don’t want to overwhelm them, but also don’t want to let them off the hook. My happiest thing is when they just see what needs to be done and do it, and I think they both married people that seem to be pretty good at that.

    2. In answer to your question though, I do think it’s good for them to share the work load when they’re home, and have them added into taking care of things. I think it’s good for them AND for the rest of the family.

  4. That chair is gorgeous! Where did you find it? I am after something in that sort of look for my front porch and don’t want a hanging egg chair.

    1. The chair is from World Market. I know, I love the hanging chairs but I was worried about how awful the wall would look when Claire and all her friends would swing into it over and over again (inevitable and just something I didn’t want to deal with).

  5. I’d love to know about “stuff.” I’m helping my girls do their room, so I was interested in these posts. One big difference is that I have four girls in a 10×12 room which is pretty standard for my area. But the other difference is that I don’t see any of your girls’ “stuff.” Besides their beds and clothes my girls have books, toys (or more mature electronic things), their craft stuff, mementos, etc. Even if I help them pare it down, it still requires shelves and boxes, etc. I just didn’t see any of that in her room so I’m curious to know what you do with it. This question is for everyone! How do you handle the stuff? Where does it live at your house?

    1. My daughter’s ‘stuff’ lives in her closet mostly. She has a large drawer in her dresser where she keeps other small things and keepsakes. She’s 14 now, but when she was little the ‘stuff’ was overwhelming! Back then we used the cube shelves with bins. Good luck!! 🙂

    2. I’m going to sound jealous but this family has a huge house with homework center, pantry, laundry room, mud room, bookshelves in a hallway, game room, room for a piano, family indoor gym, pool and sport court often these bonus spaces come with storage. So her kids do music and sports but the stuff that goes along with all that doesn’t have to go in their rooms. The extra notebooks and pens you buy at the start of they year don’t have to go in the rooms, they can be stored in the homework center drawers and cabinets. The kids rooms don’t have dressers they have really neat closet systems. They don’t seem to go particularly nuts around Christmas either. When they moved to this house I’d say half the kids were out of the toy phase. They had a playroom in that house.

      I think this generation is lucky. They have tablets and laptops and smart phones to listen to music to that take up almost no room. I had a boom box, tv, and encyclopedia set and a shared desktop computer with massive printer to find space for. My son barely has any physical textbooks. I had more than would fit in a book bag. Even movies are streamable. Blu-ray’s are much smaller footprint than VHS tapes. There are no cds or cassettes to store. Houses got bigger but the stuff people need to store got smaller or disappeared.

    3. Great questions about “stuff,” my husband’s least favorite thing!! Kristine is right, we have built in some good storage spots and that really helps, and we don’t have a lot of toys, and these pictures were taken when these bedrooms were cleaned up, spic-and-span. But we do “clean outs” on a very regular basis. It’s amazing how much “stuff” can accumulate that no one really cares at all about! I let my kids take pictures of any prize possessions they have that we don’t want to store, and we have a filing system for any school work they really love and want to keep. We don’t have many toys except for the Legos that are always spilling out of Lucy’s room. I think it’s just a constant process to clear out and get rid of things you don’t really need. I think there are several organization sites that could help if you’re dealing with too much stuff. It’s amazing how much better I feel when things are organized, which is NOT the case in my little office I’m sitting in right now! I better wrap this up and get to work!

  6. It looks gorgeous! Like Liza, I would love to know how you organize their “stuff”! I am thinking my daughter just has way too much =)).. thank you for sharing this as it inspires us all!!

    1. Tess and Tricia, see above, but maybe I should write a post about this because we do have some things we do to stay on top of “stuff,” mostly because my husband cannot stand it!

  7. I loved the room before, and I love it now! Looks so good!!! I LOVE that you replaced the wall-to-wall with wood flooring. I hate thinking about all the dust and dirt that wall-to-wall carpeting permanently holds. Wood flooring is just so much cleaner! I suffer from dust allergies, so it’s something I always think about when I see carpeting.

  8. Such a fun post! On another note entirely, can you send me the link to your white dinner table? And has the surface held up? In search for one for our family.

    1. We had that made because I couldn’t find a table big enough. The paint is starting to chip off and I really need to get it refinished, but it’s really held up pretty well considering what a beating we give it with so many people gathered around it all the time!

  9. Can you please provide the paint color of the light pink? I am looking for a light pink for my daughter’s room.

  10. Can you tell me where to find the light fixture over the bedroom mirror and desk? Thank you so much!!
    Such a beautiful space you all created together! I love it.

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