While Kinsey was OUT!

Kinsey turned 14 yesterday. I had been planning a little surprise for her for about a month. Okay...a BIG surprise. I decided to re-decorate her room, "While You Were Out" style. So I found a way to get Kinsey out of the house for about 30 hours (One of my former YW organized a little night out with Kinsey and some of her friends...ending with a sleep over...Thanks Alexa...you are amazing!). I had been planning this room for about a month and getting the stuff together, but I couldn't start much until she was out of the house. I knew that Kinsey loved one of the rooms of this years HGTV dream house, so I kind of went with that for my inspiration. I knew I couldn't do it alone, so I recruited Sara Rose, one of my dearest best friends in the world (and also highly talented in this area), to come and help me. She came over as soon as Kinsey went to school, and so did Stefanie Dowdy (another dear and wonderful friend, and the Young women's president), and we got to work on the room. It was a crazy day of priming, painting, sewing, and hoping our little kids didn't destroy the rest of the house. It was a long day...but so much fun.
This is Kinsey's room "BEFORE" the makeover. Cute and fun...but time for a change.

Stefanie was so sweet to come over. She knew I was doing the makeover, and just showed up on my doorstep right after Kinsey went to school. She helped me get that whole room taped and primed. Invaluable, and so fun to have her there. She stayed until her kids got our of school and she worked so hard. Thanks Stef.
This is Sara and her daughter Emma. Emma was actually quite the little helper. We also had two babies in the house, Gavin and Cooper (both 1 year). They both tooks naps, and then Sara even painted with Gavin on her back. When school got out, we had three more kids in the house. Sara and I said that we should host a new show called, "How to make-over a room with six kids in the house". It was crazy, but it all worked out. Carver and Sara's boy Luke did sneak up to the room while we were down stairs sewing, and they decided they wanted to paint something. Heaven forbid they just paint primer on the already primed walls. No...they had to take the roller to the screen, and to the top of a lovely antique dresser. Luckily we found it quickly and got the paint washed off the dresser. The boys had to clean up the entire upstairs as a punishment...and that was no small chore.
I made a new comforter cover for Kinsey, also about seven pillows, and I recovered a simple chair. Her bedding turned out so cute...and if you can believe it, I got the bedspread and shams at a garage sale. Never been used...and I bought them for $15.oo including amazing curtains. All white with dimensional raised designs. WHAT A DEAL. I figure I saved about $120 dollars right there. I just sewed a sheet to the back of the bedspread and made a comforter cover. I was able to do the comforter cover earlier during the week, but I couldn't do some of the pillows until that day as I was recovering some of pillows that were already on Kinsey's bed. Sara and Kennedy painted a bunch of accessories black for our new decor.
John and Sara's husband took the kids in the evening, and so Sara and I had some time to get some things done. When John came home, we only had the stripes left to paint, and he helped us get the lines on the wall. The striped wall is the focal point, so we wanted it to work out well. John's perfectionism and his love of his level, helped to make this wall great. I think we finally finished painting around 1:00 in the morning. There were so many different things to do during the day, and I was actually impressed that we got it all done. Sara was such a fun friend and a great sport to stay so late. But she is like me...once she gets on a roll, why stop. Plus, the best part is seeing it all put together. She helped me put the bedding on around 1:30 a.m. and we were just giddy at the way it was turning out. We had so much fun together all day long. We even made a "While you were out" video for Kinsey, documenting the whole day. Goofy, but fun. I think Sara finally went home around 2:00 a.m. Now that is true dedication. I LOVE YOU SARA!
YEA! IT'S FINISHED AND IT TURNED OUT SO CUTE. The room really turned out even better than I had planned. It just turned into such a relaxing and beautiful space. Clean and simple and just lovely. Yellow, and white, with lots of black accents. I did some photography of some cool iron finials and put them in frames on the wall. We gave Kinsey a little dressing area with a mirror and accessory holder. The recovered black and white chair in a corner (shown in my web album...link at bottom of post) is a perfect place to read. I THINK I WANT THIS ROOM.

I love this little built-in alcove area in Kinsey's room. It really popped with the yellow behind it.
When Kinsey came home, we caught it all on tape. She had some friends with her, but also some others waiting here to surprise her. She had such a shocked look on her face when she came in. I don't know, maybe she figured some of it out herself, but I think she was pretty surprised and SO HAPPY AND EXCITED. She can't stop talking about all the things she loves about her room. Her friends all loved the room too. What a fun experience. Thanks Alexa, Kerianne, Savannah, Sarah, Rosie, and Veronica, and Kennedy (who helped so much with the room). What great friends to come and help with the surprise. Also Thanks to Andrea Slaughter who gave me great ideas and helped with the surprise.
Thank you again Sara, my partner in crime. It was fun to have you involved. Thank you to Stefanie and Alexa too. Couldn't have done it without you. We all love Kinsey, so it was fun to do such a big project for her. Kinsey is a wonderful daughter, and I am glad that she can have this fun new room. HAPPY BIRTHDAY KINSEY! I love you so much!

If you want to see more pictures of the make-over, go to my web album;

http://picasaweb.google.com/amyinorlando/WhileKinseyWasOut?authkey=eRHgP-lFG2Y