"the club" {the reveal}

We finished it up late yesterday afternoon and by last night the girls had sufficiently trashed it :) Aww...the joys of having their own space!

This project was an unbelievable amount of work...but so worth it in the end. The space turned out so magical. I find myself wandering through the house only to make my way upstairs to stand and soak up all the girly details.

We had this space framed out by an architectural engineer. The job required cutting out 8 roofing beams and we were more than a little worried about trying to cut them out ourselves. We figured that if we hired someone else to do it...it would be on their hands if our roof came collapsing in. Fortunately, it didn't :) I owe a HUGE shout out to my Dad. My parents came for the weekend last month and my Dad helped Paul finish the framing, drywall the entire space, run electricity and install the bead board on the ceiling (I decided the room required that the night before they showed up...surprise, surprise).

Paul worked feverishly every night and throughout the weekends to mud, tape, paint trim, install trim, caulk, lay the flooring, paint, etc. I did my best to keep our brood out of his way. And I helped out where I could (I did lots of trim painting and touch-up work during nap times).

Once we started dreaming up this space I knew exactly what I wanted it to look like. The doorway leading to the room connects to A's room so it had to coordinate with her space. I HEART the pink and green color scheme so I knew I wanted to head in that direction. I wanted it to be entirely girly and sweet.

And I thought very hard about how they would utilize the room. They LOVE to play babies. I know I've mentioned that a few times like here and here. So there needed to be space for them to spread out and do their thing. I also wanted ALL of the girly toys contained within this room so that I didn't have to worry so much about Sam getting a hold of smallish toys. That meant we needed storage for baby dolls, Groovy Girls, the princess castle, the dollhouse, My Little Pony collection, Littlest Pet shop collection, and Polly Pockets. Let's just say the owners of Mattel own a fair amount of our earnings.

The square cubbies by the windows and the pink fabric bins will work perfectly to contain some of the clutter. We got the cubbies on sale at Target for $39 each. The bins were on sale as well...2 for $10. For the time being I have placed their old toy caddy in the cubby to the right of the entrance. Notice how it is empty...it can't stay there...it looks cute but I HATE that cubby system. It looked so cute and convenient when I bought it several years ago...but having all those tiny toys in open bins is a disaster waiting to happen. So I am on the prowl for another bookcase that will fit back into the spot. Something that will hold baskets and suitcases that CLOSE!

To the right of the entrance is another cubby that leads to attic storage. We have to have access to that hatch so I can't cover it with storage. Today I painted 2 long peg racks to hang on the wall for displaying J's dress up clothes. I have a collection of sweet vintage hangers that I can use to hang them all up (I'll share that little project in a few days when it is complete too!)

I absolutely ADORE the polka dots in the rug and chairs from Pottery Barn. They were my big splurge :) I wavered on getting the white polka dotted curtains as they were a bit pricey for sheers and I was worried that the cute dots wouldn't really show up well.

But they really do look adorable! I couldn't purchase the right size...they came in 64" and 84" and I needed 74". My Mom came to the rescue with a GREAT tip about hemming curtains...THANK YOU MOM! I cut off the top header leaving 1/4" of selvage. Then I cut out the unnecessary 12" in the body of the curtain. Once the excess fabric was removed I serged back on the header on the original seam...PERFECTO! And I didn't have to mess around with the nice professional hem at the bottom!

You can see that the entrance back into A's room is not that tall. I don't have to duck to get through the doorway but it's close! I still need to find shades for the little wall sconces. I had Paul wire those up when he installed the drywall so I had to put something up. Then I went shopping for cute wall sconces....yeah. Not so successful. So I purchased some ugly brass sconces from Home Depot ($6.88 each...score!) and spray painted them white. Now I need to find some small white shades to clip on the light bulbs.

The girls and I picked out these cute wall decals at Target. They were so excited to put them all on the walls...they talked about it for weeks. But once we got started they lost interest quickly. I think they thought I was going to let them put them ANYWHERE they wanted...uhmmm. Probably not. Especially since they wanted to stack ALL the animals on top of each other like a pyramid. These decals are SO CUTE but I must issue a bit of caution. They took FOREVER to peel off of the backing. Then once we got them up I was not satisfied with the "extra vinyl" on the animals, flowers, and mushrooms. The vinyl wasn't trimmed closely to the picture so they looked kind of cheap on the wall. So I spent the next afternoon peeling them back off and trimming them closer. Worth the effort. But be warned :)

Some of my favorite little details:
A cute little gingham suitcase from Home Goods that stores all the princesses. And my favorite tin tea set. The girls play with this regularly and it is broken and missing pieces. If I EVER see another one, I'd love to get them a replacement!

A tackle box I purchased on my last trip to Good JuJu and painted pink :)

It stores Polly, her friends, and her ever expanding wardrobe (good golly she likes to shop!)

Some sweet little fabric covered boxes that contain the Littlest Pet Shop Explosion (I mean collection). I stole these out of A's room because they fit so perfectly in the cubbies. I'd love to find more!

A home for the baby dolls. I took this out of J's room because it was a perfect match. Now she has a rather hideous pile of stuffies that require a new home...a project for another day.

A little table and chairs set we have had since A was a baby. I bought this for $10 at a garage sale and have recovered the chairs 3 times already. It was plaid when I bought it...then roosters (It was in my kitchen)...then some funky fabrics in our basement re-do, and now a sweet polka dot from my stash.

A coordinating polka dot bucket for all of the dolly's clothes (these babies have extensive wardrobes).

A little vintage chandelier I bought off of ebay years ago. My Dad re-wired it and we spray painted it white. I love how it hangs from the A frame ceiling :)

Whew...what a long journey (and post). I still have a few little projects I would love to add to the space over the next few weeks...but it is definitely ready to be broken in by 2 sweet little girls!

Next stop...a new sewing studio! The framing starts soon!