Birdie’s New Tween Girl Wall Color (Bye Bye Butterflly Wallpaper)

Birdie has you readers to thank for this change, and she is SOOOO thankful (and excited) 🙂 Here’s what is happening. She and I picked out this wallpaper years ago (she was five the first time she saw it), and we both loved how colorful, whimsical, and happy it was (just like her). Cut to a year or so after we revealed the room (when she was 8 or 9), when she sheepishly (at first) said it didn’t feel like her anymore. And while I was bummed, I also should have known better than to lock in a kid, style-wise, so early, especially a kid who loves fashion and style and clearly expresses herself through it. My style changed so much growing up (still DOES!!!!), she’s not wrong to want to make her room a representation of who she is now – a tween girl! And if I had been a smarter mom, we would have painted and not done a fancy wallpaper to allow for such identity switches in the first place. So…

I’ve been telling her since she was 8 that we can change it when she’s 13. That felt like an appropriate amount of time to live with it (6 years). Now, to an 8, 9, and now 10-year-old, waiting til 13 is an eternity. She brought it up all the time (once a week) and was never once bratty about it, but she just really, really didn’t want it anymore (she thought it was baby-ish, which is cryptonite to a tween). I did my best to understand her point of view, while holding the boundary….

That is, until so many of you came with some solid common sense and reason, defending her desire to change it. The overwhelming response was, “Why are you waiting? If you know you are going to change it, then why not do it now so she can enjoy more of it and feel like her room is hers?” I was trying to make sure she didn’t think life worked so easily – that if she changes her mind about something, she just gets to change it. There are financial consequences to this. But as she puts it while smiling so sweetly, “Mama, you let a 5-year-old pick out the wallpaper. What did you expect??” (LOLOLOL – she’s so right!!!).

I mean, how stinking cute is her room?? We made the bulletin board together (which we are going to paint). We did the window films just for fun (so easy). We painted the vintage nightstand.

We chose the shelf color and the table color together (because painting is easy – this is the lesson here).

Bedframe

Last year, we upgraded her bed to this green one from Article because the vintage Jenny Lind one I got on FBMP was so rickety. And as you can see, she started plastering her wall withs with posters.

What Color Does She Want???

She wants a “beige purple,” A tween girl wall color. After looking at colors together, I realized that what she meant to her was a soft purple, not too bright (but not too gray). And then I remembered that we had been through this exact situation before.

Remember the kid-to-teen room that we did years ago for this sweet girl (who is almost done with college now!!!). It’s so funny. Same color palette before and after 🙂 Birdie LOVES the after room. Except she doesn’t want any vintage, which I totally get (I think she wants to be more grown up, and vintage feels funky to her).

We think we know the color (it’s for a last-minute paint partnership, which is why it’s happening now instead of this summer). We need it to still look good with the doors and carpet, so as of now, it’s Sherwin-Williams Grape Mist. It’s a really soft lavender that still had a lot of purple in it (versus going too gray or blue or pink). She loves it, I really like it, and we are on the same terms about doing it together.

So, Are We Ripping Off The Wallpaper?

Yep. It’s painful, and I’m not proud of this, but here we are (and it’s coming off really easy). Painting over doesn’t make sense, and forcing my daughter to live in a highly specific room that doesn’t feel like her for the next 8 years also doesn’t make sense. So we bought the spray, and it’s actually coming off really easily. We primed when we put it up (with wallpaper primer), and whatever glue they use now can be dissolved by the spray that releases it.

I have no idea how we’ll be during the teen years, but let’s just say there is a lot of mutual affection. Even when she says she doesn’t want any vintage in her room and no accent colors (literally just light purple and beige – she gave her brother the green bed).

Note the stuffies, which are very affectionately accounted for every night. Being 10, on the cusp of growing up with one foot still in childhood, is so fun to witness.

Well, that photo makes me want to cry. Luckily, I get to spend so much time with her painting this room this weekend because that was the caveat and our rule from now on. She is totally welcome to change her room, as long as she helps. Olivia Rodrigo will be on repeat 🙂

Opening Image Credits: Photo by Kaitlin Green | From: Birdie’s Bedroom Reveal!! Designing WITH (Not For) Your Kids, And How We Exploded This Room With Color