Bedroom makeover: From girly sweet to young woman’s retreat

As anyone who has or is experiencing the early empty nest stage knows, it is a fluid time in which young adults come in and out of your home, and the only constant is change.

Exactly one year ago, we packed up two vehicles and took our youngest child, daughter Ashley, to UNC-Chapel Hill where we helped her move into her dorm to begin her freshman year of college. I wrote about this rite of passage in the blog, A very personal back-to-school story.

Fast forward through two semesters, one Thanksgiving, one Christmas holiday, one Spring break and one nearly 4-month summer at home that just ended.

What we have learned is that our house and furniture must flex and evolve in these early years when young adults are still pursuing their educations and are not yet financially independent. It’s a time when they still see our house as their ultimate “home base.”

While our older son stayed in his college town working and going to summer school classes, we brought our daughter Ashley home on May 3, and she started a summer job the very next day near our home in Jamestown, N.C.

After a year of maturing into an increasingly independent and cultured young woman, suddenly the bedroom she’d had through elementary school, middle school and high school just didn’t feel right. It was time to transform her kid’s furniture look into more of an adult bedroom furniture feel.

It was time to transform her room from girly sweet to a young woman’s retreat—a place that would be a haven during holidays and other times she might want to make the hour drive home to study or rest for a few days.

“It seemed like the right timing to freshen up my room and make it more mature,” said Ashley, 19, “I am still at a point in life that I can enjoy my room at home, but it could also be made nice enough to be used as a guest room when I’m away.”

Two adjectives had to go from the vocabulary of Ashley’s room: cluttered and cute.

Especially the clutter had to be history. To her credit, Ashley spent hours removing the clutter that had piled up in every possible corner of her room. She cleaned layers of assorted “stuff” from off the floor. Many boxes to the attic or to Good Will later, the room was beginning to breathe.

Next thing to go: the dated mint green wallpaper and floral pink border. We left stripping the wallpaper to the pros, turning to Great Spaces of Greensboro, N.C. This is a woman-owned business run by a delightful lady named Debbie.

Then came the fun part for Ashley: finding her inspiration. “I have a love of art, and I have always believed that a room should start with a focal point,” she said. Ashley found that focal point in two photographs she’d taken last spring of hot pink flowers in the perennial floral garden at Daniel Boone Inn in Boone, N.C. Not only did these photographs provide a splash of color; they also injected a modern vibe.

From her years of art in high school, including Advanced Placement Art, she’d acquired a vision for color that helped the room’s design come to life. She selected a deep Berry Wine from Behr as the accent wall color for behind the bed and for a desk nook across from the bed. For the other two walls, she selected a sophisticated neutral called Dusty Rosewood, also from Behr.

Here’s a good viewpoint of the pleasing contrast between the Dusty Rosewood and the Berry Wine, as seen in the desk nook and adjacent wall.

To replace the “cute” mint green curtains, Ashley selected an elegant and sleek window treatment…a simple dark and light purple curtain that slides easily on a silver curtain rod.

The other benefit of this simple window treatment is that Ashley can pull the curtains completely across her windows, creating a room-darkening effect for those times she is able to sleep in.

In addition to the Berry Wine and Dusty Rosewood, we used bright green as an accent color (complementing the green in the floral photographs). Other accent colors we threw in for a sophistication: black and white, as seen here in the black and white patterned storage ottoman.We also used gray in a metallic gray trash can and black and white on the light switch covers.

What’s a young woman’s room without bling? We found ours in a delightful cream and silver accent pillow with cream floral medallions outlined by silver sequins and a crystal, cream and silver sparkly lamp for Ashley’s nightstand, both from Pier 1.

So how does Ashley feel about her room makeover? “I absolutely love it,” she said. “I’m so much more eager to spend time in my room, and I want to hang out in there now. It will be nice to come home to.”