This tween room makeover features Beddy’s bedding and lots of DIYs. We created a DIY headboard, DIY bulletin board, DIY feature wall, DIY bookcase, DIY pillows, DIY storage solutions… oh so many DIYs! And it was a family affair. From my dad painting the room and building the headboard to my mom sewing the pillows, we all pitched in to give my niece MacKenzie the room of her dreams. In this post, I’ll discuss our inspiration as well as the amazing Beddy’s bedding that inspired us to do the makeover in the first place. I’ll also give a brief overview of the whole room. Then in a follow-up post (or posts), I’ll discuss all the clever DIYs.
A room fit for a “tween.”
MacKenzie turned 11 a couple days after Christmas and her main wish was a room makeover. She’s in that fun transition age where she isn’t a teenager yet, but she also isn’t a little kid anymore (at least not in her eyes). So while she still loves her stuffed animals, she doesn’t want anything “too baby.” She’s moving from loving picture books to loving Harry Potter, from loving Disney princess movies to loving teenage dramedies like “Alexa and Katie,” from loving dance and gymnastics to being really good at it too, and from having boys as friends to talking about boys as boyfriends! Yikes! Hence the term “tween.” She’s beautiful, funny, intelligent, talented and simply a joy to be around. So I loved the challenge of creating a space that could live up to be as interesting as her. A space that is “grown up” but is still fun, creative and joyful.
The Before
The before wasn’t so bad, just a bit plain. Plus the bedding was old and she really needed something more updated that would get her to make her bed in the morning. She also was in need of a new dresser, desk, storage solutions… Okay, she needed a lot. And we didn’t disappoint. Plus, note: the pressure was on. While my niece really wanted this makeover, we also discovered she hates change. When painting the room she even asked if we could not paint around one of the electrical outlets so she could look at it and remember the purple. So hard not to laugh at that sweet request. Our compromise was taking her photo in the room before we painted it and then we framed it on her new dresser.
First up, the inspiration.
She, like a lot of girls her age, is obsessed with flamingos. Have you noticed how they are on everything these days—tshirts, wall art, bedding, lamps, backpacks, etc.? So while she insisted that she did NOT want a “pink” room, we were like, “but you love flamingos!” She went as far as saying she “hates pink,” and she wanted a “peach room.” So while the “peach” we picked leans more towards the pink side, don’t you dare say we painted the room pink. And we felt like the colors were meant to be because the darkest color on the Behr paint swatch card was called… “Flamingo Feather.” Ummm, yes, please!
In addition to flamingos, we needed a space that could incorporate her love of unicorns, panda bears, panda-corns (you know that cross between a panda bear and a unicorn), llamas, sloths, cactuses… basically anything trendy. Although my niece would say, “Not trendy, I love anything cute!” So our goal was an eclectic and whimsical space where flamingos, florals and all other trendy and cute creatures felt comfortable to dwell.
Second, the bedding!
Thanks to Beddy’s, MacKenzie’s bedding is not only gorgeous and cozy but it’s practical too. Have you heard of Beddy’s (pronounced bed-ease)? My sister actually really wanted Beddy’s for a while now, so I feel like this was more a gift for her than for my niece. My sister wanted it because the entire bedding is in one piece and fits like a fitted sheet. Both sides are lined with large zippers and you just unzip it to get into bed. And here’s the best part, in the morning you just zip it up to make your bed. Brilliant! So my sister no longer has to fight with MacKenzie to make her bed. Yet, as you can see, the bedding is super cute too. We picked the Simply White Girls Room Set and the pintucks provide such great texture and design. We loved that it was all-white because it allows us to easily change out the accent pillows and throw blankets to any colors we want. We also used the Chic White Bed Skirt, the perfect final touch to any bed.
Beddy’s has so many great videos on their website explaining how the bedding works and I ended up making a few videos with my niece as well because we were blown away by how easy it really was to make her bed. To learn more, be sure to visit Beddy’s website and also check out MacKenzie’s videos on my saved Instagram Highlight Stories.
As for the accent pillows and throw, we either found them at Target or my mom made them. At Target, we found the Opalhouse embroidered floral pillow and the Pillowfort Triangle Stitch Quilt in pink. The two yellow pillows were handmade by my mom using fabric from Hobby Lobby. The white pillows were part of the bedding set from Beddy’s.
Room Overview
We created a space that is edgy yet still whimsical. A space where she can display all her selfies like a teen but also showcasing her Perler bead art. A space where she can talk about boys with her friends, but still play with her American Girl dolls as well. Overall, it was a balancing act that made our little tween very happy.
Let’s start with the wall color. We painted the whole room Behr’s Resort Sunrise which looks like a light peach. We then created a feature wall using the main wall color as well as a darker peach (Flamingo Feather), a lighter peach (Island Hopping) and white. The abstract triangle wall immediately elevated what could have been just another girly pink room into an edgier, more stylish, and more grown-up space. (Note: I’ll include the DIY instructions for the feature wall in our DIY follow-up post. All the Behr paint was from Home Depot.)
To offset the bold wall color, we picked bright white furniture, bedding and curtains. We then brought in more bold colors with our accessories (mainly peach, yellow and teal). Our accessories also stayed whimsical. We made sure to include her stuffed animals, her artwork, her flamingo tchotchkes as well as other curated pieces that were sure to put a smile on your face.
The dresser was from Santa! Santa rocks and brought Mackie both the dresser and the wooden deer on said dresser. My niece actually asked Santa for a “wooden figurine.” One year she asked for a “water bottle” so this child has simple needs.
The dresser is the HEMNES dresser from Ikea, but we updated the standard knobs with crystal knobs. We have plans to add a mirror over the dresser, but in the meantime, we used three foam flowers from Hobby Lobby—an inexpensive substitute that makes the room still feel finished.
My niece collects a lot of little objects (like hair clips, erasers, small toys, etc.) so we made sure to include lots of storage ideas, including the Unicorn Canister from Target and the three stacked boxes. The stacked boxes were Kraft paper boxes that we painted and then added yarn and the pom-pom embellishments using a glue gun.
And no matter your age, every girl loves flowers. I created a couple faux flower arrangements. Here I used a vintage milk glass vase.
The desk area was another new addition. Although the desk is a hand-me-down. In fact, it used to be my desk but in one of my many moves my sister inherited it and we decided to move it into Mac’s room. It created the perfect space for her to do homework or one of her many art projects. And it already features her art, including her panda-corn string art, her Perler bead art, her spin art, and even her ceramic seahorse. Clearly, I love promoting creativity so it was fun to put all this on display for her. (Note: my DIY follow-up post will include the instructions for the DIY Bulletin Board.)
We lacked a desk chair so we used a white chair from the basement. On the chair, I draped a lamb baby rug that I gave to MacKenzie when she was a baby. So not all her baby things were tossed out. She still loves the matching lamb stuffed animal as well.
Another DIY was the DIY Dollhouse Bookshelf. My sister and brother-in-law actually built this a long time ago for MacKenzie so all we did this time was update the paint and style it with some new baskets. It was originally created so MacKenzie could use it for books but also play with it like a dollhouse so it had dollhouse furniture on some of the shelves. However, MacKenzie had started to use it to collect all her junk so we knew she’d grown out of using it as a dollhouse. Therefore, we said goodbye to the dollhouse furniture and hello to Harry Potter books and more storage solutions.
I hope what I’ve shared today has inspired you to say yes to your next bedroom makeover. We did this over the course of about four days. And we did a lot of DIYs. I even forgot to mention the DIY Tufted Headboard and that one has a fun “hack” tip so I’ll have to cover it in the DIY follow-up post. So stay tuned.
