Mermaidia

What do you do when you've just moved into a new house, your husband is gone for the week, two of your kids are at their grandparents', and its too hot to go outside with the little ones? Why, decorate of course!!!

And how do you decorate when you have a very limited budget to work with? Buy paint and fabric, and make the most of it! I'm so proud of myself! It was a surprise for the girls and I had so much fun doing it.

From the time that we first decided to move and the girls' knew they'd have their own room (as in, not with babies) they said they wanted a "beach" themed room. Ashley has this obsession with seashells (and rocks... but... whatever) so I thought a beach themed room would be perfect for displaying her seashell treasures.

So when we had the house painted, the "big girls' room" got painted a soft shade of aqua.

And the week they were out of my hair the house seemed the perfect time to decorate.

But ya know, beach theme can go about a bzillion different directions. It can be bright and colorful or you could do a palate of whites and light turquoises. It can be hawaiian or it can be sort of nautical. But mostly, beach themed kids rooms can get cheesy and cheep looking really easily. Yuck. So I went to my favoritest inspiration, the Pottery Barn Kids website. ;) And they had all of this super cute summer stuff, but my favorite thing were some whimsical mermaid decals. TOO cute.



So this became the inspiration for the room. More of a feminine, whimsical, underwater vibe, with a pink and aqua palate. PERFECT.

But I sure didn't want to spend the $$ on any of the stuff from PBK. So I took one of the mermaids and traced it (on the screen of my laptop, lol!). Then I did the little trick where you make a grid on the paper and a grid on the wall and draw one square at a time on the wall. Then I got some of those little $3 cans of paint from Lowes and painted it in. Voila, an entire wall filled with a beautiful blond mermaid for just $12! Whoo hoo!!!



I actually changed her up a little from the one on the decals. I changed her tail to be stripes, and I made her eye a closed lid instead of a big dot. And I gave her a fully covered bodice instead of a midriff. :)

Next, I took the swatches from that paint and headed to Joanns. I got 4 different fabrics in those shades that I thought would keep with the feminine, whimsical, beachy look. I made a curtain, 4 throw pillows and a lamp shade. My grandmother came over and taught me how to make a ruffle and I love the way it all turned out! I'm so proud! :D






I made two pillows solid, and two pillows with four squares.



I already had a bunch of mason jars for the seashells. And already had some shelves...



I love love love the way this room turned out. The girls loved it, its functional, its CLEAN and organized (for now anyway ;)) and it feels so good to have at least one room of the house finished. The girls have dubbed it "Mermaidia" haha!




I found some string lights that look like starfish and match the color of my mermaids hair perfectly. I get really excited over little details like that. :)





While Jake was in the Dominican Republic, he bought the girls a painting for their room... its an underwater scene with a whale and fish and coral... its beautiful! It totally fits the theme and now they have something super cool from the D.R. so once I get it matted and framed, it'll replace the cork board.



Even Kit and Josefina are happy with the new room so ya know... mission accomplished. ;)



**Big sigh** One bedroom down, 4 more to go!