A Makeover and a Gift

All the parenting books in the world, can't prepare you for being a Mom. It is indefinable, confusing, simple, difficult and beyond wonderful. They say it goes quickly, and it does; before we know it, they are suddenly their own little beings, trying to decide what to do, then running off to throw themselves head first into a new adventure. In between the chaos, we try to remember what it was like, and we adjust to our new normal - we feel almost redundant, but secretly know that we are needed even more.

And, as emotional as the roller-coaster can be, one of the frivolous benefits to having a child is giving myself another excuse to decorate. Not very deep and insightful, I know, but it gives me pleasure, and it gives my daughter a "new" room every couple of years.

Our recent endeavor was to make it a little more of a teen room, instead of a girls room. A bigger bed meant less room for "stuff", and more room for negotiation. Being a child who keeps everything, I knew it would never be a House Beautiful photo-op, but I knew I could make it perfect for what she needed right now. With a lot of patience (and some extra-strong glue), her room was re-done, re-designed and creatively organized.

I won't pretend that it didn't take a lot of time, but the time it took was worth it. We didn't spend a lot of money (just new bedding, and the bed, of course) everything else was sourced from her room, or other rooms around the house.

One of the items we re-used, was her old day bed. After eliciting a promise to not throw it away, I decided to indulge my romantic side, antique it, and use it in the Living Room. Who doesn't want a bed in the Living Room? As it turned out, re-doing her room was a gift; it gave me this wonderful bed to play with. I used all sorts of leftover paint to distress it - copper spray paint, brown house paint, craft paint, and a few speckles of blue-something paint. I then sprayed it with vinegar (not sure why, but it seemed like a good idea at the time) and left it outside in the rain for a few days.

When I put it in the Living Room, unfortunately, it looked like a "Bed in the Living Room", not a romantic thing at all. It was the sheets that were its downfall. So, I went on-line, and found a place that specialized in custom made Slipcovers for Daybeds. For less than $50, I found an elasticated, durable, patterned fabric in all sorts of warm tones. When it arrived, it was perfect! That, and the distressed copper, reminded me of one of my favorite childhood movies - Bedknobs and Broomsticks. (We even have the knobs that turn, on each corner - if you remove them, I wouldn't even mind if you decided to drop secret notes inside ...)

What this bed taught me, was that changing with your children, is a damn sight easier than digging your heels in and complaining; part of the fun is creating your own new adventure, indulging your own childhood dreams (and discovering that you really always wanted a bed in the Living Room......).