For the last two months, I’ve been working on my plan to redecorate Annabel’s room for her birthday. I involved Annabel in a few things, but I tried to be casual about it because I really wanted to surprise her by redoing her room while she was away at school. The big redecorating day was this past Friday, the day after her birthday and the day before her birthday party. I am the best at doing a bunch of things all at the same time.

When I asked Annabel what colors she wanted in her room, she very firmly replied, “rainbow.” That was confirmed by the duvet she chose, this pretty rainbow-chevron flannel coziness:

Rigby loves the bed
Rigby has claimed it as her own.

I used the duvet cover as the centerpiece of the room, adding other touches throughout that tied everything together.

rainbow cloud

I hung this rainbow cloud on the door to her room. I made it with craft foam (the cloud), embroidery string (the…string), cardstock in rainbow colors (the hearts), and a hot glue gun (to hold it all together).

Rainbow Canopy

Annabel once saw a canopy bed and loved it, so I was inspired by that when I thought up this rainbow. I hot-glued tufts of pure-white stuffing fiberfill to the outside of a round paper lantern (like this one, for reference) until everything but the opening on the top was completely covered (I used literally 20 hot glue sticks to do this, it was very tedious). I then cut six 72-inch long pieces of tulle in rainbow colors, and attached them to the top of the paper lantern with hot glue. I then decided to stitch the strands of tulle onto the paper lantern to make them extra-secure. My dad screwed a hook into the ceiling, and we hung the cloud from that. I draped the ends of the tulle over the back of the bed’s headboard, and used painter’s tape to hold it in place. I’m currently toying with the idea of adding more strands of tulle and having the rainbow’s width run the entire length of the headboard…we’ll see.

tulle attached to paper lantern cloud

The next thing I tackled was Annabel’s Fairy Reading Tent. She still loves it, but I wanted to dress it up a little. I took some glittery butterflies I’d bought years ago at the LA Zoo and hot glued them onto the tent (from Ikea, which I can’t find online for some reason). There’s also a brand new bookcase next to the tent for easy access to all of her favorite reads.

reading nook

The butterflies are high enough that a certain grabby baby brother can’t tug on them.

butterflies

Annabel was constantly taping her artwork to the walls with scotch tape. I saw this clipboard idea and thought it would be perfect display for my little artist. She’s already changed the drawings out a dozen times.

art display

I liked the look of string art, and thought it would be another fun way to bring in more rainbow colors. I followed this tutorial almost exactly, except I found an unframed cork board that worked perfectly (instead of gluing a bunch together), and instead of framing the entire thing with duct tape I used fabric and a stapler.

string art

I found a bunch of the art on Fab.com. Right now it’s mostly in cheap black frames, but I plan on looking for more colorful frames over the next few weeks. The tiny “Be Brave” canvas is really just a placeholder – I gave Annabel a bunch of 3-inch by 3-inch canvases for her to decorate herself.

art

You may have noticed some ponies floating on the walls – I bought the Fathead My Little Pony wall stickers when they were on sale for $50 after Christmas. Not long after I bought them, I found MLP wall stickers at Target for $12. I decided to use the $12 stickers for Annabel’s party and the $50 stickers for her room, and I’m glad I did. The $12 stickers are smaller and sparkly, but they don’t stick well and rip easily. The Fathead stickers are durable and easily moved. I’m very glad I got them for the room!

Rainbow Dash sticker

I had a lot of time to decorate Annabel’s room that day, as my aunt picked her up after school and took her to the movies. When the movie was over, my aunt told Annabel that I had a surprise waiting for her back home. She ran into the house and found me in her room, where I was blaring music from (of course) My Little Pony. Her jaw dropped when she saw her room. “This is the best surprise EVER! I LOVE MY ROOM!” She ran all over, taking everything in. She didn’t want to leave her room for the rest of the day, and she said over and over that she couldn’t wait to show her friends.

I enjoyed decorating Annabel’s room, and this gave me the boost of confidence I need to really start tackling the rest of the house. I’m tired of it looking like we just moved in!