I am SO EXCITED to share my daughter’s new big girl room on the blog today! I took some photos of it over the weekend to share and of course have already added a few things since then, but oh well! She moved into what was our guest room to have her very own big girl room. Her old room, the nursery, is pretty much all prepped and ready for our little guy that should be arriving soon (another reason to make that first nursery as gender neutral as you can so that it’s all ready for Baby #2)!

When we moved into our house we called this ‘the tunnel room’ because the wall doesn’t break away from the ceiling when you’re looking into it. ALSO when we moved into this house the walls in this room were all painted bright yellow with a bright baby border separating the yellow from the ceiling, which was painted as a sky (blue background with clouds and all). This may be some people’s taste, but it was a bit much for us. My husband and I quickly went to work and painted a more neutral (Sherwin Williams paint, of course) shade on the tunnel part and a muted mint on the other two walls to add more color. This was perfect for us because we didn’t need to re-paint when we moved our daughter into the room! I still haven’t grown tired of the colors yet!

As you can see we kept things more on the neutral side. When I started trying to get ideas for her big girl room I went to one of my go-to sources for inspiration: Pinterest, of course! We had the full size bed already in there and wanted to keep it (in case we had guests), but wanted to move it to the floor. I soon learned from reading other blogs that had a similar toddler bedroom set up that this was more Montessori style. It basically means that everything is accessible to your toddler… They can get on and off the bed when they want, they can get into their toys when they want, etc. We tried to make everything as easily accessible to her as we could.

We also had a lot of wall space to fill up so above her dresser we created a gallery wall which consists mostly of framed prints, but also a PassionWorks monster clock, a small clipboard to hang any fun cards she gets or pieces of art she creates, and a small fabric hoop with some extra fabric I already had lying around. I created an alphabet print to place near what we call the moon chair (our daughter is really into letters). The opposite wall was so big and hard to know what to do with. I started with what to put over her bed and created a tapestry for that area. The other space has the lion head (which was perfect for our daughter because our library has a large lion head as well that we must say hello and goodbye to every time we visit), a fun circle shelf and an additional clipboard to change things out of when we feel like it (or remember).

My husband and I tried to re-use or do as many DIY things as possible which include the teepee that we made for around $20, the tapestry I created from a stick in our backyard and old yarn from my craft supplies, the rocking horse which was my husband’s given to him on his very first Christmas, etc. The bedding was what was already had in the room when it was still our guest room. The ‘moon chair’ was found at a re-sale shop and had already been completely cleaned as new. I also wanted there to be some fun plants, as we literally have plants in every room of our house except our downstairs bathroom and basement so we went to a local plant shop and found some goodies for her shelf and one to hang in front of the big window as well.

I love all the little details in here just as much as the big stuff! The things on the shelf like the wooden camera Santa brought her for Christmas this year (perfect gift for a photographer’s kid, right?!?), the sentimental rocking horse, the framed printable from the day we dedicated her to the Lord, the ‘hooray’ banner from her first birthday party, the painting from an old friend with Isaiah 40:8, the purse her grandparent’s got her on their trip to the Smokey Mountains, little cards and gifts from her nursery that were given to us from family and friends, etc. I am a sucker for sentimental items (which also means I am a bit of a hoarder of these things – unfortunately for my husband).

What a fun project and thing to photograph! I am really just thankful that we were able to get it all done – even the little things – before Baby Brother is here! Lucy has been enjoying her room since November and loves it as much as I do! Her favorite things to do in her room seem to be: reading books in her bed or teepee (yes we have an insane amount of books – let me remind your I am a former teacher), rocking on her horse, playing with her toys, looking at herself in her full length mirror, jumping on the bed, looking out her big window onto our street, or lying with our mini goldendoodle, Bernie, in her bed. We love that she loves being in her new toddler room and that we’re already creating so many fun memories here!