A room fit for a 'tween

When we told the girls we were moving, we promised them they could have their own rooms in the new house. Madeline was especially set on this. She had all kinds of plans for her new room, mainly that it be painted robin's egg blue, and that she have a loft bed we saw at Ikea.

For the most part her room is done. I think it needs some softening--some curtains on the windows, and something hung behind the desk to hide cords...I'm still thinking that through. And if you are thinking we're really settling in too much for just renting this place, you bet your life we are. Every day when I turn on NPR and listen to more bad news about the housing and financial markets, I unpack another box and hang another picture. I am happy as a clam to rent this place for as long as it takes for things to stabilize. And I'm really glad that our landlord was okay with us painting so we could accommodate the request for robin's egg blue walls. (We found the loft bed on craigslist--you can see that it doubles as monkeybars.)




One day last week Madeline was in her room for a long time and then called me in to show me something. At the Hannah Montana concert last year they handed out free issues of Kewl magazine, which was full of pictures of the High School Musical cast, Jonas Brothers, and a bunch of other teeny-bopper "celebrities." She loved that magazine, and wanted to tape the pictures all over her room but I wouldn't let her, claiming it would take the paint off the walls. I thought telling her that it burned my eyeballs was a little harsh. Well, she's a smartypants, that little girl of mine. As soon as she unpacked that Kewl magazine, she scoped out a spot in her new room where she could hang her pictures without taking off the paint.


According to her, she put the picture of Troy from HSM right over her head so when she wakes up she can open her eyes and say "Hello there, Dollface."

Maddie is a huge hoarder collector of precious things. Go back up to the first photo in this post and notice the things she's scavenged--a coffee filter which is now suspended from the leg of the chair acting as a basket or maybe a dog dish, a shoebox from recycling which contains more treasures, a toy from Amelia's room that looked perfect for holding a plastic lizard collection. This drives me crazier than you can imagine. But a few things in her room make it a little more bearable for me. These bookshelves are great because they don't face the door so I don't have to see what is in them.

And the skylight shelf is big and deep and hides all kinds of crap treasures from my view below, but displays them perfectly for her in her nest. She spends hours rearranging her collections.

And I love the skylight. It lets in great light on gray Seattle days and at night she can see the stars or listen to the rain fall just inches from her face. When I climb up on her bed to tuck her in at night, I'm jealous. It is so cozy, and exactly what I would have wanted at her age.