Beauty Bar

A few years ago

we decided to bring a theme

into Calli's room.

She wanted to redecorate.

She was being 

inspired 

by all of the magazines

and design shows

she has been exposed to.

There were two issues with redoing her room back then.

1) I didn't hate it yet

and 

2) I wasn't spending any money on it.

If we were going to revamp the 

already cute room

we were going to have to be

ultra creative

and stretch 

every

red

cent!

So, we kept everything!

Especially the sweet lavender wall color

that is so soothing.

We came up with the idea to do a 

vintage hair salon

theme.

I was inspired by a place that my husband and I

visited in New York

called

Beauty Bar.

When walking in

you were completely sent 

back in time.

I had the black t-shirt with their 

logo.

I turned it into a pillow.

The pillow inspired a giant mural/vignette on the wall.

My friend Amy,

 from Citro Salon, 

gave Calli the 

doll head.

(Only creeped me out the first 100times I entered the room,

but we're used to it now.)

At a local shop, Polka Dot Attic, 

sadly closing it's doors for good,

I found Teen Magazines from

1965

and we cut out the hair trend photos

and put them on the wall.

That chicken wire looking thingy

is genius.

I can say that because it's not my idea.

One of my favorite home accent/gift shops,

Filthy Gorgeous,

lent me this fantastically cheap tip:

Go to Lowes or Ace Hardware 

and buy the corner 

(?can't remember what it's called)

but it's used for corner foundations before

applying stucco.

You get about 10 ft of it for $8.

They will cut it for you. 

You bend it to make a little sleeve.

Filthy Gorgeous displayed their greeting cards with it.

I've used it for Christmas cards

but I dowsed it with diamondy glitter first.

Great for kid's art because you can easily change out the pages.

We found a few signs that added to the vibe.

Can you read the sign?

I love it!

Those were the basic cheapy things we did.

We did it!

We transformed her room

without changing paint color,

buying new bedding,

or 

making ourselves crazy.

It was several years ago,

but I'm doing the math

and I bet that whole makeover

was done for about 

$100.

The cool thing is that she is getting older

and flexing her creative decorating muscles now.

The other day

I came home to find all of her furniture moved,

she did it herself,

yes-the apple doesn't fall far from the tree.

My mom did it,

I do it,

and 

now Calli does it.

What I found was so fresh and fun!

She turned her desk into

a little nail/makeup station!

She thought of it

and executed it perfectly!

"Now when my friends come over I can

do their nails right," she says.

Why am I telling you this?

Why do we care?

Two reasons:

1) Look at things differently.

I love that I saw a desk and 

she saw an opportunity

to up-do her room and 

entertain her friends

with cute design

and no money spent!

2) Let your kids come up with their own design solutions

and try things out. 

Sometimes it won't work. 

Actually some of my

ideas don't work and that's how I learn.

And sometimes they will do something fun and innovative,

because they are not influenced yet by 

all the "rules" of decorating.

In this case,

she inspired me. 

So I propose,

give the young ones a 

chance to experiment!

And they might teach you something!