{Girls Room Makeover} Chesapeake, Virginia Newborn and Baby Photographer

I'll let you in on a little secret. When I found out my last baby was a boy, I was ever so slightly disappointed. Out of practicality, I was glad...after all, we already had two girls and a boy so this would even things out and ensure my first little guy had a brother to play with instead of being surrounded by girls all of the time. Emotionally, however, I longed to have another baby girl to dress up in frilly, girly things and to decorate a feminine nursery for...not to mention all of the girly newborn and baby pictures I dreamed of taking of my own baby girl (I didn’t start newborn photography until my girls were already born so I have NO gorgeous newborn pictures of them! 😭)! Don't worry...now that Harrison is here, I love my last little guy SO much and wouldn't trade him for all of the girls in the world!

When we moved to our new house in Chesapeake, Virginia this past January, the girls’ room left something to be desired. It was somehow cluttered and yet had too much empty space all at the same time. Here are a couple of "before" shots. I'm a little embarrassed...it was extra messy because I had just sold their bunk bed and had just started taking the bedding and mattresses off.

I had waited several months to redecorate the room after moving because I just wasn't sure what direction I wanted go! I kept trying to come up with a new design incorporating the pieces that they already had but didn't love any of the concepts. I finally realized I was going to need to pretty much start from scratch! I have a fellow photographer friend that has a baby girl about the same age as Harrison and I love her girly, floral nursery. I finally realized I could take all of those girly nursery ideas I had and modify them for a more mature, yet still feminine girl's room. My oldest daughter is not a huge fan of pink. She likes it in small doses but the room couldn't scream pink so I had to keep that in mind!

One thing that was important to me was displaying some portraits of the girls in this new space so I designed the walls with that in mind! I have a great app that I use during my client gallery reveals that allows me to display their images on THEIR walls, scaled to size, and we can play with frame shape and color to come up with just the right wall art for their space. I have found it invaluable when designing wall displays for my own home as well! I'm a super visual person so it's very hard for me to visualize something without actually seeing it. Any time I need to design something, I like to do a mockup in Photoshop to make sure it will actually look as good as it does in my head! I do this frequently for my cake smash sessions as well! I love being able to share what's in my head with my clients so that we're all on the same page!

Here is my original Photoshopped "design board" that I came up with. I knew I'd be shooting new portraits of the girls for the new space so I just plugged in some somewhat coordinating images into the frames as a placeholder in the meantime!

It took a while to find all of the right pieces to complete the space within my budget but it all came together beautifully and what was once my least favorite room is now one of my favorites!

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Here is the final result!

The girls absolutely love it! Before, often at least one of them would end up wanting to sleep in my room at night, but they love their new room so much now that they prefer to sleep in there! Bonus!

A special thank you to my friend Brittany over at Mr. and Mrs. and Company for creating the customized wood name pieces for the space. I just love them!

Shopping list:

Nighstand: https://www.wayfair.com/furniture/pdp/lark-manor-babcock-3-drawer-nightstand-lrkm4929.html?piid=30420061

Beds: https://www.walmart.com/ip/DHP-Wallace-Metal-Bed-Twin-White/611912869

Lamps: https://www.target.com/p/desk-task-lamp-gold---pillowfort--8482-/-/A-51649674

Rug Lena Light Blue Traditional Area Rug - 7'10" x 10'3": Overstock.com

Bedding: https://beddys.com/products/chic-white-for-girls

Throw Pillows, birdcages, gold letter "c" accent, and gold and teal desk frames: https://www.athome.com

Accent books from Hobby Lobby

Wall Color is Distant Haze by Glidden in eggshell

Wall frames available through Bella Rose Portraits!