Decorating a Girl’s Room

I love to decorate. There are few things things I find more fulfilling than transforming a cold, characterless room into a cozy space filled with things that make me happy. Jeff and I move a lot and each new house provides a wondrous opportunity to start over. I keep a binder filled with tears from home magazines that I hope to someday incorporate into my own life. It’s thrilling for me to find new pieces that work perfectly with our old ones. I love hanging pictures on the walls and searching for the perfect duvet. It’s a great feeling to walk into my home, happy and proud of how it looks.

Or, at least it was, until my daughter decided to pitch in. Her room used to be the picture of what a little girl’s room should be. Her two brass beds dressed in Shabby Chic bedding, coordinate with her lace trimmed curtains and throw pillows. A painting of her running on the beach sits between them and a cream dresser that I brought back to life with new paint and crystal knobs houses her clothes. It took me forever to find a lampshade that contained the perfect shades of purple and green, but I did and it sits on the cream end table that matches the dresser. The fairy clock matches the fairy mask which matches the books that sit on the foot of the extra bed with the image of a fairy princesses. Perfect.

Apparently, she doesn’t appreciate my hard work. Either that, or she thinks she can do better, in which case I beg to differ. Yesterday, she took the liberty of papering her walls with cut outs from her American Girl catalog. The dresser I painstakingly restored is now adorned with shiny heart stickers. My childhood dollhouse that sits on the dresser is draped in trophies, jewelry boxes and random crap treasures. Clothes are everywhere, except in the hamper. The bookcase vomits out books and don’t even get me started on the closest. When I straighten up her room, I get accused of “messing up her stuff” so I’ve pretty much just stopped, much as it gives me heart palpitations. It used to be so pretty, and now… it just looks lived in. By a very girly little girl. And it drives me crazy.

I suppose this pales in comparison to what I have to look forward to in ten years when teen idol posters adorn the walls and there are dozens of shoes rather than just five pair. But that really doesn’t make it any less irritating now. I do find solace in still having control over the boys’ rooms; aside from stuffed animals and dinosaur figurines strewn everywhere, things pretty much look the same as the day I completed them. I’m know that won’t last long though, and I bet someday, they’re rooms will irk me even more. I will say, that at least Lily’s room still smells good. At least that’s something.