room reveal: the claire bear's room

From the moment I stepped into the one and only bedroom upstairs in the farmhouse, I knew it was meant to be the Claire Bear's.  

It had a beautiful eastern view, where the sun would rise every morning for my sweet early-bird.

It had two closet doors with a long closet that met in the middle...a "secret-passageway" as she says.

And it had a little hatch that went into some attic storage that  really made the oldest daughter nervous.  "Who knows what might come out of there?" Harlee said that first day.

When we saw the listing for the house online, this was the picture of the upstairs bedroom...we now could call this the "before" picture.  You can see the two closet doors on the left, the big windows facing the east, and the little hatch to the attic down on the bottom right of the photo.

We had originally talked about taking down the paneling upstairs and putting up sheetrock, but it seemed like kind of an unnecessary expense when the paneling was in good condition and when paint is an inexpensive option to brighten up a room. 

You might remember the playroom transformation that I shared earlier this year.  We used the same paint (Valspar's Warm Oatmeal) in all four upstairs areas (the playroom, each of the older girls' bedroom areas, and the new bathroom).

After the room was painted, we started to fit Claire's furniture in. 

She knew she wanted BOTH closet doors accessible, so that left ONE place for her bed.

My mom had found an antique bedroom set at an auction that had "Claire" written all over it.  There was a full bed and matching vanity.  We fit those pieces in first and went from there.  We covered the "creepy attic hatch" (as Harlee calls it) with her dresser and saved room for her desk by the window.

The picture on the right was the first day she was planning to sleep in her bedroom before we put pictures on the wall or carried in the rest of her furniture.

The other girls were so excited to help her "move in" and then they laid around chatting for a while before bed. This picture is now almost a year and a half old and I remember the memory like it was yesterday.

I remember thinking of this image when I walked upstairs as a vision into their future...

...when they're teenagers, lying around talking about school and (hopefully not too soon) boys...

...when one of them comes back from college and they all snuggle up to hang out on the weekends...

...and when they're all married with kids and their children go to play up in their mamas' rooms.

Since those pictures were taken back in July of 2017, we've gotten the windows in the farmhouse replaced and Claire Bear has her dream desk with her dream view.

It's not perfect, but it's all Claire!

I really can't wait to watch my sweet girl grow up in this bedroom.  ❤️🏡❤️