The Peacock Makeover

One of the perks of being the only girl in our family is that Eleanor has now scored a room of her own and so we spent the weekend changing bedrooms around and tarting hers up a bit. She wasted no time outlining the brief - blue walls, polkadots and lots of bright rainbow-y colours. We were on a very tight budget, allowing just a tin of paint to be the most costly item. She chose Dulux "Oceanus" - her favourite shade of blue. It's bright and a complete change from the otherwise white interior of the rest of the house. I did suggest toning it down a bit to a quarter strength but she wanted this colour specifically and really wanted it more than I wanted it a different colour so in the end she won. She loves owls, peacocks and birds of any kind, so when we found this Peacock Bedhead at the tip over Christmas, we couldn't believe our luck - it was just $10 and in perfect condition. Sold! I have seen these exact Bedheads go for over $400 so it is one of my best bargains yet. About 6 months earlier I picked up a Peacock Chair at the very same place for $5. It needs a bit of work where the cane is coming loose on some areas but we have plans for yarn bombing those spots. Are you familiar with this new craze? 

We painted them white and if your eyeballs are ready for a colour explosion here is how they look in the new blue room. Please ignore the Whippet's long sad face in the photos - he puts it on for the camera. I did manage one shot of the room before he stole the limelight.

The bedside table was a lucky roadside find which is actually Tassie Oak and super sturdy. The pillow cases were $7 from the Sheridan Factory Outlet and the little cat pillow was 50 cents from the local Op Shop. The Granny Blanket was also $5 from an Op Shop which I bought almost a year ago. The Red and White spotty valance is just a piece of material I already had - I could probably sew a hem onto it but why bother? The little colourful rug in the above photo and that was just $1.99 from Spotlight. The owl on the wall is in a strange place but it's hiding the ugly underfloor heating switch box :-).

The feature i love the most is her wall of artwork - all done when she was in Year 1 in Sydney as a 6 year old. Her more recent work is scattered around the house but these earlier ones look great in her room and are a lovely reminder of her time in Sydney.

If you look closely you can see a Picasso inspired portrait, a Pro Hart inspired Still Life and an interpretation of "Where the Wild Things Are". It's an absolute credit to her wonderful Teacher who placed a huge importance on creative arts as a tool for learning.

There's some Monet inspired Waterlillies too and my favourite is the one with the Mum and Daughter in the rain. As I was sticking it on the wall she thought it was funny that she drew the water droplets upside down - I had actually never noticed that.

The final project is to transform the daggy brown built-in wardrobe on the opposite wall where the desk is. I'm thinking maybe painting over them or adding wallpaper just to the wardrobe bit. I'm also thinking of converting the part of the wardrobe for hanging clothes into a little reading/cubby nook. If anyone has any idea for colours for curtains/wall covering I'd love to hear.

Eleanor loves having her own little space after all these years of sharing, even though the boys are still in there a fair amount of time playing "Schools" with her. 

The Whippet has stamped his seal of approval too :-)