I had a dilemma. I had been shopping paint for a while, so my assistant spent enough time collecting her own swatches and sample brochures to decide that she wanted a Barbie-theme bedroom. Sigh. The colors that accompanied the larger-than-life Barbie head mural on one wall were bubble-gum pink and kiwi green. Colors I love to see her wear, but not colors I could bear to surround myself with on a daily basis. And that large, ever-smiling Barbie head, ugh. Darts, anyone?

I don’t have anything against Barbie specifically. In fact, she launched my design career along with my great grandmother as I spent hours upon hours designing and sewing her wardrobe. And she saved me from pursuing a hair styling career as I quickly learned that my skill with scissors did not match my vision thus the original punk Barbie was born.

You want to personalize your child’s room, you want it to speak to them, uplift them. So I called upon a little something we used to do in the consulting world - change management. To sum it up, you are going to make a business change that will affect the way many people do their jobs. So you ask for their input, then you go prepare the change and implement. Often people are satisfied just having been asked. So I got her input and carted her off to grandma’s. Her bottom line - “I want a Barbie room mom.”

See the yummy dresser in the feature photo? This dresser was the foundation piece for the roomscape. You are viewing the center of the baroque-styled dresser. The drawers alternate blue and cream with green stiles, handles, and moulding to the feet. The top is blue and the mirror is outlined green. I got this at Warrenton, of course, from one of my favorite vendors, Jennifer Warner - Salvage Style. All her furniture is whimsical and yet works so beautifully as a starting point for a fresh vintage look.

One of the highlights of the room - when you walk in, you feel as if you have stepped into a fresh farm house. I used to spend many nights with my great grandma and she lived in this great white farm house on the hill. I remember being so fascinated with her wood walls. So I decided to bring that look into the bedroom.

We used flat-faced, tongue and groove strips and covered the walls from the baseboard to adult eye level (about 5 feet). We painted these an antique white and trimmed the top with a simple molding.

The shelves flanking the window are just ceiling tin tile moulding and can be found at Hobby Lobby. (More about what I did with those in a minute - see last photo.)

I painted the walls up from the paneling including the coffers and ceiling a fresh cool splash of blue.

This worked well to contrast the vintage tole painted chandelier that my dad rewired  and an ornate white cross on the coffer.

We took a suite of mahogany furniture that was my great grandmother’s and painted and distressed it.

I had four days to complete this project because it was going to be a surprise when my daughter returned from grandma’s house. So, my time was limited and I had not been squirreling away vintage Barbie accessories. Through the duration of the four days, I was in Barbie denial. But then the coup happened in the last hour. I may not have had vintage Barbie but I had an antique mirrored vanity tray, two empty tin tile shelves,  and 3 tons of Barbie clothes and accessories - including these groovy little dress forms. Wa-la!

“Honey, how do you like your Barbie room.” asks mom

“My heart feels full.” answers daughter

And that’s a wrap folks!

Well almost...

I will be adding more photos on the room redo to my Decorate page on Sunday. Also, be watching the site this week for a fabulous feature on my conversation with Chris Brown (Monday) as well as my attempt to find some prairie chic style in a square dance dress.

Enjoy the weekend!