Home Decorating 101 - KIDS KORNER

Thursday, February 4, 2010

Ready for the Kids Korner?

We have two very girly-girl granddaughters (I know-I know...I'm not "old enough" to be a grandmother....), 5 and 7, who Grandpa Charlie and Lele love to have visit the lakehouse.   We realized early on, they needed their own little "space" to define themselves and work on their amazing artwork.  Before we added the Guest Bedroom you saw yesterday, we had a longer "dead-end" hallway which we used for their "space".  At that time, we had only one granddaughter, Isabella (Bella), and a godchild, Taylor, that visited us quite often.  So, I took some side profile pictures of them, and painted a chalkboard silhouette of Taylor and Bella on the wall for them to chalk around on.  Well, when we added on to the house, that wall had to come down, which meant the chalkboard silhouette had to come down too.  Oh what a painful day that was for me cause I had worked hard painting it and it always brought a smile to my face whenever I walked down the hall.

So, although we didn't have as much space in the hallway after the addition, we did have a slice of space that we turned into their special little corner.  Found this cute little chandelier at Home Depot (it was a REAL bad color....thus the cheap price), spray painted it cream, purchased some hot pink shades from Bombay Outlet, added some faux gems and there you have it; a chandelier fit for our princesses.  The whole thing was maybe $20.

The table was made by Grandpa Charlie for less than $10 and I just painted the top with chalkboard paint (I'm guessing there's at least 10 layers of paint on that thing!)....Helpful Hnt; if you ever do this, be sure to use MDF wood.

The chairs are pretty awesome, aren't they?  You will never believe where I found these.  These were discovered at a Goodwill store in Sulphur Springs; were stained an almost black dark stain; had red velvet attached with upholstery tacks to the backs and seats of both.  Looked like they came out of the  TV show The Monsters.....they were hideous!!  But I loved the shape of the chairs and was able to look past the hideous scary red velvet and snatched them up quickly for $5 each.  Chuck is use to me dragging stuff home from everywhere including people's curbs, but he was really scratching his head on this one.  I love freaking him out that way!

Found the cabinet on the wall at the Bombay Outlet (why oh why did they have to go bankrupt??!!) and just hot glued a little lace on the edge of the shelves to make it interesting.  Accessorized with tea party (and no; this wasn't the anti-Obama Tea Party) cups and saucers, couple little hot pink cowgirl hats, some angel wings and of course, a princess crown........we've had many many fun times right here in this little corner and some very expensive artwork has been created right at this very spot!

Tomorrow......we're headin' down the hall to the Media Room.....