Tranquil Teen Room

While my daughter #2 is away on an exciting trip to China, I have been able to get into her room, clean, organize, and add a few touches. Guess it takes a child to leave the country to get stuff done huh?

Since this will only stay clean for a little while, until she returns, I thought I'd finally get around to taking photos of her room for posterity.

We have three daughters, and live in a three bedroom home. The two youngest daughters  (now 14 and 12) shared a very large room from the birth of the youngest until about a year and a half ago, when our oldest who is now 22 moved out on her own. {gulp}

When she moved out, I thought there would be bickering between the younger two on who would have the large room all to themselves but surprisingly my middle daughter wanted the smaller room. Okay....

So, we redid the room for her and it is now complete.... I think.

Of course, this is not entirely the way I would like to have decorated the room, but this child has very specific wants, and it is her room after all. When I walk into this room, I do feel very calm (except for when there are clothes scattered all over and homework, books, papers littering the floor). It has a very tranquil feeling and for this child, it is exactly what she needs!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Pretty simple and that's the way she likes it. I adore the colors, but wished she had let me have chosen different drapes and added more to the walls or add in more colors. I'd also like to add a big area rug under her bed to add another color and pattern, and I'd even like to switch out her shades on her lamps. Hopefully some crown molding will be added as well. Maybe in time she'll let me play around a little more with her room.

 

Other than the occasional tornado that she creates in her room ( like most teenagers), she doesn't like a whole lot of knick-knack type stuff. As I helped her do this room, I found out that she gets overwhelmed with too many things in her room, so we kept it very simple. And for this small space of a bedroom, we couldn't really add too much else anyways.

 

Where is her dresser, you may be wondering... it just happened to be the perfect size to slip into her closet. The only dilemma we had with that was where to put her shoes?  The toy box  chest at the foot of her bed is now where her shoes are thrown into and has worked out great. I am actually hoping to have a cushion custom made to put on top of the chest.

 

Little details about her room:

Paint color: Gray Owl by Benjamin Moore

Headboard: Pier One

Duvet cover, shams and drapes: Zgallerie

Sheets: PB Teen

Throw pillows: PB Teen

Desk: Best Buy (online) rather cheap one though, if done over I would of stepped up and paid for a higher end one.

Chair and slipcover: Pottery Barn

Nightstands and lamps: Target

Toy box/chest: Crate and Barrel

She added shells from one of our trips to Hawaii, and the photo on the wall was a photo we took on our most recent trip to the Big Island. The London pillow was a nod to one of her favorite boy bands, One Direction and also singer, Ed Sheeran.

 

Anyway, that's the scoop on her room. Next up will be the room of daughter #3 and revamping it now that she's got the BIG O' Room to herself. Hopefully, I will have photos before too long.

 

 

 



Continue

Spring Break Recap

I am a little late posting this but thought I'd share our family Spring Break trip.
We went to Hawaii ( the Big Island). This was the first time for us for this island. We were a little unsure of what to expect from this island and a little worried that we wouldn't love it as much as we are smitten with Kauai. This island is definitely different from Kauai or Maui. It has so many different climates and landscapes. It is beautiful though, and it is Big!
We like to travel around when we are on vacation and not just sit by the pool at the hotel. Don't get me wrong, we do that quite a bit but we also love to get a feel of the area in which we are visiting.
We stayed at the Hilton at Waikoloa Village. I highly recommend this hotel. It is huge and gorgeous.
It has 4 pools (one of them an adult pool), many shops on site, and many different restaurants. They also have a Dolphin Quest on the property, where you can schedule to actually get in the water with the dolphins and touch and kiss them! This is something that my kids got to do and it was the highlight of their trip I think.
There is no beach access from the hotel but there are some beautiful beaches just a short drive away.

 

A view of one side of the Hotel on a pretty lined walkway around property.

 



 

View of the Lagoon Pool/Beach, where you can snorkel, paddle board, kayak and swim.

Green turtles everywhere!

 

A view from our room. That is the Dolphin Quest lagoon, so we could watch the dolphins swimming all day. To the far back is the ocean and the other side of the hotel's property.

 

Another view from our room. There's a nice grassy area, large checker board, and to the far left is a shallow sand pool for toddlers, and a huge pool with hot tub, grotto, waterfall, and slide past that toddler pool.

 

Some fun decor things in the room I thought I'd share. This was a fun "Hawaiian" style carpet.

 



 

Loved these textured handles on the closet.

 

Grasscloth wallpaper and the frosted sliding door to the shower was a nice touch.

 



This is the view we woke up to everyday! We were so lucky to score this room, and this view. Perfect!

 

This was the view from the door coming into our room. That water transports a boat shuttle around the hotel property. There is also a train like tram, that runs all day/night to shuttle you around too. I am serious when I say this hotel property is HUGE!

 

 

Finally the day came of meeting the dolphins for my girls.

 

 

This was a little wallet cruncher but so worth it for the look on their faces!

Priceless.

 

 

I love that the dolphin looks like he's smiling.

 



 

 

 

 

The beaches were beautiful and I definitely recommend you going to Kua Bay (the pics with the white sand beach) if you visit this Island. Gorgeous clear blue waters! All of these pictures don't do these beaches justice. They were breathtaking.

 

 

We couldn't not visit the Volcano National Park. It was fun and interesting but wasn't the highlight of our trip.

 

Another thing I recommend... the Lava Flows. SO yummy!

 

That pretty much sums up our trip. I have more pics but don't want to bore you with all my family shots. If you are thinking of a Hawaiian vacation you need to check out this resort. There are more beautiful photos on their site.

If anyone from the Hilton happens to read this and want to offer us some sort of discount to come back... we would not hesitate! We had a wonderful trip and dreaded coming back home.

 Until we can visit again, I will have to use my memories of the warm weather, gentle ocean breeze, and the beautiful sunsets to get me through all the laundry, cleaning and cooking that is now my reality. Aloha!

 



Continue

My Dream Hawaiian Home

So as I am basking in the sun of Hawaii, I can only imagine living here full time.
If I did, this is what I am imagining my home would look like.

 

 

 

 



Who's ready to move with me?

Continue