Design Inspiration | Elena's 8 year old room refresh

The reveal is here! I’ve been working on re-doing Elena’s room for about a month. She just turned 8, and this year for her birthday rather than throwing a party, I decided to give her room a little refresh. And she was super excited about it.

I didn’t take any before pictures, because it really was a hot mess…and very pink…and cluttered. It was embarrassing, more for me than for her. Haha. Anyway, my hope was to create a space that was comforting, and inspirational for her, and we’re all so happy with how it turned out.

First we started with her favorite picture from the San Miguel Collection. She’s loved this picture since the first time she saw it. She loved the colors, and how it represented Mexico. (She’s my colorful kid, who is always mixing colors in her wardrobe and her creations…quite opposite from me)

Secondly we decided on her favorite color blue for the statement wall, which worked perfectly with the print she loves. Since she wanted her room to be colorful, I painted the other 3 walls a light grey, and made sure the furniture (bed, shelves, storage) were white.

Thirdly we wanted this room to be functional. She has 3 passed down American Girl dolls, and a lot of passed on clothing for them. She also has lot of other dolls. I really wanted to have a space for her to keep everything. I found a bed that has two storage drawers, which is perfect for all the doll clothing, and even the smaller dolls themselves. The cubbies next to her bed are an organized space for her to store other odds and ends. She also loves reading, so instead of having piles of books all over the floor she can store them neatly on the shelves behind her bed.

Another important part of the room is her gallery wall. She is an artist and always doodling, drawing, or painting something. I’ve been saving quite a few pieces, and I’m so excited to finally have a place to display them. This can be a space where she can have rotating art, and we can even add more frames as her collection grows.

She has spent a lot of time in her room since we’ve finished. Her shrieks of excitement are worth it. You can see more photos in the gallery below.