A Little French Zebra

A year ago I posted about the painted lady, a tall white dresser that took a walk on the wild side.

You can read about that redo here. 

My daughter fell on love with the painted lady and begged me to keep her. Not only keep her but redesign a whole room around her. Of course there were other rules I had to follow with the room to. It not only had to be zebra to match the dresser but it also had to have Paris in it. She absolutely refused to let me take out her vintage four poster bed that she "helped" me redo when she was in preschool. There had to be a place for her dog, her books and a desk. The desk HAD to be a secretary and had to have a place for her to put her magic potions and fairy dust. Oh yea, she also wanted a chandelier. 

Kids are so much harder to work with once they have an opinion of their own...

Chloe's room is really tiny and hard to put furniture in. To get the most floor space for her the best place for her bed is to have it's side pushed up under the window at the far end of the room. To give you an idea of how small the room is, with her bed pushed sideways up against the wall, centered under the window, there is less then a two foot gap between the wall and her twin sized bed on either end. I really, really wanted to do a built in daybed here. No way, she said. I'm keeping my bed.

 

GRRRRR

 

So the challenge was how to get the built in look I wanted but let her keep her beloved four poster shabby chic bed.

 

The solution:

 

Please excuse the white balance here, it was taken at night with just the overhead lighting.



 

To get the look of a built in daybed I attached a wall to wall valance to the ceiling, hung cutens from either end, and a small plug in chandler from the ceiling above the bed. For the valance the fabric was stapled to a 1x1x8 board that was then screwed into the ceiling with drywall screws. The sides were folded in and then stapled directly to the walls. The trim was put on using double sided fabric tape. One of her favorite parts of a four poster bed was being able to drape it with fabric and create bed 'forts' with it. Did I forget to mention that was also one of the things I had to put into this room?

 

 

Behind the valance the curtains are hung using a wire and wire clips that slide across the wire. This lets Chloe close her bed curtains and hide out in her bed. I often find her bed this way with a couple giggling girls in it when she has friends in it.

 

 

 

Close up of valance trim, Chloe picked out two different trims, you know, cuz one would have been to easy.

 

There are a few other secrets in this room. Remember I had to have a place for the dog? We used a roll out drawer we picked up from IKEA a few years ago. Chloe used to use it to keep toys under her bed. It has been painted and repurposed into a dog bed. She loves having a place for her dog to sleep in her room at night, but able to put the bed away for extra floor space during the day.

 



My dog Lilly is 'borrowing' Daisy's bed, she HAS to be where I am and she might as well be comfortable while I take photos.

 

Now take a look at the room photo at the top, and compare it to the photo with the dog bed. See the artwork behind the bed? It's her roller shade. I used a sharpie marker and drew this zebra right on the shade. When pulled down it looks like there is framed artwork above her bed instead of window, but when she needs more light in the room she simply pulls the 'artwork' and lets the sun shine in.

It was months before I could find a secretary within my budget. When I finally found one it was in rough cosmetic shape and Chloe hated it. Once it was painted though she decided she loved it.

The shelves hold little apothecary bottles with dragon scales, fairy dust, and potions. (glitter, sequence, and food coloring) 

To keep with our 'hidden suprises' we decided to pop the inside of the desk with a bright pink.

 

She has a little shelf behind the head board end of her bed to put her cell phone, glasses and what ever else the little eccentric thinks she needs. We plan on hanging more shelves or maybe a book shelf on the foot board side of her bed, but haven't gotten to that yet. For now the many books are taking over the drawers of the desk, so this is something I need to get to soon!

 

So there you have it, the gone wild eccentric room of a 10 year old girl the painted lady has moved into.