Room for Improvement - Bella's Bedroom

About a month ago, here, I wrote about Bella's bedroom, about how despite a lick of paint and a tidy up it still wasn't really meeting her needs or looking very nice. We've been tinkering about with it since then and I finally have some photos to show you.

Before:

And after!

We gave away the little table and chairs, moved things around and bought a desk, chair, bedside table and bookcase. All were from IKEA; affordable, convenient and well designed. Then Bella and I set about doing the fun bit - prettying it up.

I spray painted these old picture frames and we chose some favourite things to put in them. Postcards sent from grandparents on holiday, pictures Bella had drawn, felt animals, all sorts.

I particularly like Bella's interpretation of the royal wedding.

The desk works so well. Bella was ready for somewhere to sit and play/colour/write.

The chair was plain wood and I painted it with white eggshell and a tester pot of pink paint for the seat. By coincidence the pink matches Hello Kitty's bow perfectly which pleases Bella greatly!

The bookcase is a big improvement on what Bella had before and she had fun arranging her books. Best of all, the shoe box mouse rooms are accessible and get played with daily. the little pompoms strung along the top of the wall were made from yarn scraps left over from Mr Snake. Her bedside table is a filing cabinet. A strange choice, I know, but so useful for storing the tiny toys, dolls, trinkets and general bits and bobs that six year old girls like to collect. She really loved labeling those drawers.

I made two new cushion covers with some fabric I bought a while back. With a different blanket on her bed they make it less pink and frilly, more fresh and bright.

But best of all...the fairy lights. Oh, we love those lights. Both of us.

Switched on or off they look fabulous.

We moved her shop to a different wall where there's more space to open and close the "door". I find that, with all the children's toys, simply moving them to a different area or room makes them suddenly infinitely more interesting to them. I've no idea why.

Yes I tidied the shop and yes I enjoyed it.

A few weeks ago MoneySupermarket emailed me and asked if I'd like £50 to put towards a house or DIY project as part of their Room For Improvement campaign. I am usually wary of these things but their upfront approach and the offer of actual cash struck a chord and I thought actually, yes, I know I can make that money stretch a long way and it will help make this room really lovely for Bella. So I said yes please and I spent it on:

Cable and Cotton fairy lights: £23

a yellow desk lamp from habitat: £15

a can of green spray paint (to add to the ones I already had): £8

one tester pot of pink paint: £1.50

two showler & showler postcards: £2.50

Obviously these are fun extras and wouldn't touch the cost of the furniture we bought. But I expect if you had more time and patience than me and good access to charity shops, car boot sales and reclamation yards, then you could probably buy most of the furniture for £50 too! Maybe that's a project for another day.