Audrey's Big Kid Room (Breaking This Action Down)

Photos by Chris Plavidal for D Moms

I'm not the only one in my family with a milestone birthday this year... Last month, Audrey hit double digits. Yep, friends, I have a ten year old. And boy is it a wild ride (I'm not gonna lie).

In celebration of her officially entering this new era, months prior we agreed that she could "switch up" her bedroom. At the time I was thinking a coat of paint, some bedding, maybe some new art... But what started out as some heavy sprucing soon became a full-blown makeover, complete with the design prowess of our amazing friend Janet and a photo shoot for D Moms capturing the whole enterprise for posterity (i.e. Audrey was all of the sudden the luckiest girl in the world).

For those of you that have slogged along in this little space of mine, you might remember Audrey's first room redo. (Her current room started out as Millie's nursery before evolving into the serene green retreat that she happily inhabited for the better part of four years.) That process was easy. She was six. She still let me do pretty much what ever I wanted on the decor (not to mention sartorial) front. This time, well, not so much. She had ideas.

Specifically she wanted a "kind of hippie, loungy, cool room." (Ok, I'm in.) "that's turquoise and has patchwork wallpaper and a hanging chair and tie dye fabric and peace signs." (Ummmm...)

Enter Janet.

My lovely and immensely talented friend managed to take all the pain out of what could have been a wholly unpleasant enterprise by designing a room that met Audrey's desire for big and bold and cozy and groovy and hitting my desire for it to be, for lack of a better word, "classy." (We like to keep things classy around the Taylor house whenever possible.)

Elbow grease (Janet was spray painting and gold leafing like a rock star and Bryan got his make on with that canopy bed), some killer Flavor Paper Monaco wallpaper, a custom neon light installation, a bed full of Peacock Alley bedding, art from Read Between the Lines, a Serena & Lily hanging chair and Moroccan leather pouf, and a shaggy Feizy rug later and we had blast off.

Audrey is pretty much the happiest ten year old in the world. And we didn't fight once. Success. Full stop.