Finally - a finished room (sort of)

We have been in our new house now for 3 years.  I always have grand ideas for how to decorate each room of the house but have this little issue with follow through.  Most of the time it has to do with not having the funds to really do a bang up job so why start, but mostly I just don't get my butt in gear and do it.  So after joking about it for a couple of years, I finally decided to knuckle down and finish up my oldest daughter's room.  She will be a senior next year and leaving for college after that and so it is now or never.
She and her sister were leaving for camp and would be gone for a week and I decided to surprise her with the finished project. After moving all of the junk and piled up clothes out of the way, I took a few "before" shots:

Pretty plain but functional

I was on a pretty tight budget and was able to get quite a few things within that number, but it's always the little extras that make it look complete that send you over that mark.  Once I got my husband in on helping me get some pieces together, he started making some suggestions.  Of course, I had to tell him that I had slightly exceeded the budget and he decided that I just needed to get what I could to make the room look finished.

I love that moment ;)

Here is the "finished" product.  There are still a few things here and there that I ran out of time to get done.  I'll get to them eventually.  My mom helped out with all the sewing because I am helpless at that stuff.  After this week I really appreciate those home improvement shows that put those people on a time limit.  I was stressing there at the end!

 I did this portrait of her awhile ago, but could never

decide what I wanted in the background.

I asked some of her friends to give me some

characteristics and scriptures that would fit her.

I got lots of responses and used those in the background.

 I found this chair for cheap at a little antique

store and just recovered it.  It's one of 

my favorite things in the room.

 I love the way this turned out.  

I put all of the characteristics that her friends sent me

on plaques that hang down from the letters.

 This turned out well also.

It is hard to see in the picture, but there is a 

wire grid that all the earrings hang from.

We joked about doing this for a long time.

It was the last thing I added at the very last minute and 

it is her favorite thing in the room.

Above all, I wanted this room to be about who she is.  Her love for Christ, her passion for missions, her  role as a leader, her love of photography and how she is maturing into a beautiful young woman.  I hope I was able to capture that and show her how proud I am of her and who she is.  She is beautiful both on the outside and the inside.