Now some actual before and afters

Here is the girls' bedroom, the first room in the house I wanted to tackle start to finish. Of course, it required ripping out carpeting, taking down walls, putting in new lights and outlets, replacing windows . . . you get the idea. Here the room was right after I painted it:

Here are the girls' beds. Let's see. The frames were from IKEA, but given to us for free by our old neighbor. I painted them white. The canopies and two lights in this photo are from IKEA, too. Eloise's bed, which is on the right with the trees on the quilt, also has a flower lamp next to it. I will eventually hang a photo above the night stand and likely on that bare space of wall to the left of the flower lamp. Right now all of our framed pictures are carefully packed away and I'm not ready to start digging through them until I can hang most, if not all, of them in their various spots in the house.

Standing at the door, looking to the right. That is our old IKEA dresser, which I like the look of but has forever sworn me off of purchasing IKEA furniture ever again. It's the biggest piece of crap. The white lamp in the corner is also IKEA and was quite the puzzle to put together! It has a really long cord and I can't quite figure out how to make it look more neat. On my next IKEA trip I'll get some big throw pillows to put on the floor under that lamp to make a snuggly reading spot. I moved the table and chairs down from the playroom (there is still another set up there). Not surprisingly, both of those originally came from IKEA, too! The green rug, also IKEA. The two mirrors, IKEA! I got them at a great clearance price, maybe $5 each or something? Hard to see in this picture, but I hung two strings above the table with clothespins to hang artwork from. We had these up in our old home, too. That window will eventually get a covering of some sort, just to add some more fabric to the room. The girls' growth charts are hanging to the left of the closet.

Here's a better shot of the mirrors. You don't even want to know how hard it was to hang these in line with each other! Nothing in this room is square, not the floors or ceiling or edge of the drywall . . . I utilized my trusty level as best as I could, but there are several wayward holes behind the mirrors! I hung a set of hooks for the girls' stuff, as well. That window that is hiding behind the door will get a window treatment.

I got the bed skirts from Land of Nod for crazy cheap.

So that's about it! Next Spring we will get a floor covering, likely carpet tiles, but for now it will stay painted. We'll also get the trim put up in the Spring.