The time has come.  Our baby is not a baby anymore.  Our baby is not even a toddler anymore. Elena has turned four (I will try not to cry as I type this) and has blossomed into a little girl.  It all happened so fast!  I wish time would stop so I can soak up these last years of baby cheek sweetness.  But as we all know that’s not the way it goes.   Elena is becoming a young girl who has grown out of the nursery and is ready for a big girl room of her own.  I chose to design her room with a soft palette, that is light and bight with just a little sophistication that she can grow into over the years.

We have always loved the dress she wore on our “Officially Forever” day (her adoption finalization) when she was just eight months old.  It’s a beautiful blush pink tule skirt with  a sparkly gold sequin top and lined with pink velvet trim.   This dress is very special to our family, and the more I thought about it, the more her dress provided the design inspiration in her room.  Blush pink and gold make such a beautiful combination and I couldn’t wait to get started.

Now that I had the color scheme figured out I set to work on finding her big girl bed.  I wanted something with a fabric headboard in a neutral color that would fit a full size mattress.  The Eliza tufted bed at PBK had caught my eye some time ago but was out of our budget.  I would still check the website every so often with the hope it would be on sale, and one day with amazing luck it was 60% off!  What a deal!  We snatched that baby up fast!  Now that we had the bed secured it was time to find her bedding.  I fell in love with the Mali print bedding from RH Baby and Child.   It is such a beautiful color and adds the perfect amount of sophistication to her room.  I must admit, I’m a little jealous of her bedding.

I decided to nix the sunburst mirror from her nursery design and instead chose an eclectic array of wall art from Minted and Rifle Paper Co. to display above her dresser.  I went through several different combinations of art before deciding on the right grouping.  I love the way her gallery wall turned out, it adds the perfect pop of color and interest to the room.

When I designed Pretty in Pastels Playroom last year, I purchased the IKEA dollhouse bookshelf as a starter dollhouse for Elena.  It turned out great, but it wasn’t the dollhouse I had initially wanted for her (and let’s face it, for me too).  The Plan Toys Victorian dollhouse is truly a beauty and was finally back in stock.  I painted the entire exterior in BM Simply White with a sweet blush pink door and added scrap book paper as wall paper throughout the interior of the house.  Because the new dollhouse is so much larger, I needed to purchase some additional furniture, decor pieces, and add a bathroom.  Shopping for miniatures is so much fun and much cheaper than my own home!  Here (in no particular order) are the lovely miniature shops featured in Elena’s dollhouse: One Brown Bear, Calevie, November Oak Minis, Olive Rose, Izzy’s Wonders, Mostly Miniature, and My Tiny Nest Miniatures.  The Calico Critter Tuxedo Cat family had no problem moving into their new digs, and Elena is loving the new doll house.

The rest of the room came together little by little over time.  I gave the brass wall shelves from World Market a quick coat of white spray paint and placed her Papa’s elephants upon them.  The knobs on the IKEA  Hemnes dresser and nightstand were changed to ones discovered on clearance at almost 80% off from Rejuvenation.  Score! They add just the right amount of girly glitz to compliment the dress.  While I wasn’t planning on changing the mint wall color, it unfortunately made the bed fabric look yellow and dingy.  So out with the White Mint and in with the Alabaster.  The fresh white paint softened the room beautifully.  Elena loves that we have pictures displayed throughout her bedroom of our family including a special picture taken with her birthparents when she was just days old.

I started her big girl room transition almost seven months ago and it is now finally complete.  Throughout these four years I have learned not to rush the design process and to not be afraid to change something out if it’s not working in the space. Elena’s Officially Forever dress hangs with love and is the focus of her bedroom, which makes her room my favorite in the house.