My Niece Harley's Flash Room Makeover Part One
Updated: Sep 24, 2021
If you've been following along on Instagram Stories you may already know about this project. It's my next big room makeover and I'm SO excited about it! Last spring after I made over my son Lincoln's room my sister-in-law Erin reached out to ask if I could give her some ideas for her daughter Harley's room (my niece). The wheels in my head immediately started turning because I knew I could do a lot more than give her a few ideas...
A little background on my niece Harley is that her dad (Kris' brother) passed away a few years ago. She was six at the time and her brother was eight. It was obviously such a hard time in their lives (and Kris' entire family). Her and her brother are the sweetest kids. We sadly live about three hours apart and don't see them as often as we would like, but Kris and I do our best to spoil them from a distance.
We took them to Disney World a few years ago and I'm hoping we have more trips together in the future. They are obviously best friends with Phoenix and Lincoln and we love spending time with them, I just wish we lived a bit closer!
I asked Harley's mom Erin if she would be ok with me doing a flash makeover in Harley's room. I would provide everything and the only caveat was that it would be a total surprise. I wouldn't show her or Harley anything I was planning. Erin not only agreed, but told me she had already run it by Harley and they were both really excited! Next up, it was time to start planning everything, but I was still in the middle of a kitchen makeover and had already started planning the dining room for the One Room Challenge. Thankfully Harley didn't mind waiting a bit to get started and was so patient!
It wasn't until over the summer I finally got to sit down with Harley and start hashing through some ideas for her room. Harley and her mom sent me some before photos of what her room looked like currently as well as the measurements.
And then Harley gave me her few ideas. She told me she really wanted her room to be a peachy/pink color and she was dreaming of a daybed, her favorite animals were puppies and sloths, and that was about it! A few weeks after I chatted with her Ashley Home Store reached out to ask me to help them promote their new baby and kids line of furniture and I knew this was a match made in heaven. It was the perfect opportunity to give Harley a brand new bedroom! As I continued to plan out her room, I managed to partner with a few other brands and I'm SO incredibly grateful that about 90% of Harley's room is completely sponsored. I had been planning to pay for most of the makeover with my own money, but having these partnerships enabled me to flesh out her room in a way that I just wouldn't have been able to otherwise. I can't wait to share all of the brands I'm partnering with on this project! Now is the time I would typically share the overall plan and mood board, buuuuut I won't be doing that this time... the reason being that I really want Harley to be surprised with the end result. As of right now she knows nothing! Well, I did let her pick out one thing that she already knows about (more on that later), but I want everything else to be a complete and total surprise. So that means you will get to be surprised right along with her!
Kris and I are headed up to Fairfield, Texas (about an hour south of Dallas) today to get started on her room and will be there for the next two days. Due to Kris' work schedule we won't be able to finish her room on this trip, hence this being "part one". But we've got a plan and are going to tackle as much as we possibly can in the next two days! Our three main projects that we will be tackling on this trip are installing new flooring from Dura Decor, installing a mural from Rebel Walls, and painting her walls. This should leave us with a perfect clean slate to come back to next week and get all of her new furniture, art, etc. installed (ie. the fun part).
Dura Decor sent me several samples to choose from and with your input on instagram stories I ended up choosing the Roughcut Lumber Sienna.
It's a really pretty neutral flooring option and I think it will make the perfect backdrop to the elements we will be bringing in (lots of light furniture/rugs). As for the mural from Rebel Walls, this is where I let Harley jump in with her opinion. It will be the focal point of her room and I wanted to make sure she loves it! I pre-selected about five options that I loved and sent them over to get her opinion. These are the options I sent her.
She immediately knew that this light pink striped option was her favorite so we pulled the trigger on it, and Rebel Walls was kind enough to send it over!
This is the same company that I purchased wallpaper for Phoenix's closet, so thankfully I already knew I loved the product and that it would be a breeze to install. This will be my fourth time installing non-woven wallpaper and it just gets faster and easier (check out my tutorial here). We will also be painting her walls and possibly her ceiling and trim as well. We'll have to see what shape everything is in when we get there.
Kris and I will be sharing the progress as we work in real time today and tomorrow so be sure to tune in on Instagram Stories!
Harley's room is finished, here are all the posts that got us there!
