Red's Rave: Fox Den Design By Alex Brown

A few weeks ago, I was rummaging through the 'what is this and why is this here' stockpiles in my daughter's room. Finding underwear in toy baskets and long forgotten shirts shoved behind the toy barn in the closet made me shriek with horror and plan a trip to Ikea. I squeezed all I could from the dollar bin organization system over nine years and it was time to invest in a real dresser.

Sometimes a purchase for one thing will be an avenue for changing other things. We bought a cheap pinewood dresser that we could paint. Alex mentioned she was sick of the pink walls in her room and was ready for change. "Mom", she replied, "I'm not a little girl anymore, the pink has got to go." I had to admit I liked hearing her bold assertion of opinion. This was a milestone moment. I said, "You're ready for a change, how about you design your room? With a little help from Mom and Dad we can make it the way you envision it." Her baby brown eyes perked up with excitement, "YES, that will be so fun!"

This project was perfect for learning- doing things well takes time. When I work on a creative idea, I can become impatient and want to push it through so I can see the final result, this usually ends in mistakes or downright disaster. I have had to learn to put the brakes on and sit on it for awhile or do due diligence in researching the proper execution so the final product will be worth all the effort involved.

Alex working on her Fox Den Design Project; The Fox Box
photo by: Chandra Brown

Alex was chomping at the bit to get going on her vision of the perfect room; The Fox Den, as she calls it. She wanted all dark brown walls with green rugs to represent grass. She wanted a mural of a forest scene and a fox painted on the walls. She knew what she wanted. She picked out countless color swatches and even researched murals on the internet.

I hadn't even put one word of advice on the docket and she was tearing it up on her own. I had a little moment of motherly pride watching her talk about pulling colors through a room, knowing that earth tones don't mix with pastel palettes.(I did hint at not making all the walls dark brown and guided her to the idea of an accent wall of dark brown.)

I was impressed at her resourcefulness. She found a $4 clearance paint at TreeHouse, that matched her color palette perfectly. She chose that for the dresser. She found the grass rug at Ikea for $20 and the two different wall paints at Lowes were $45.

Nathan putting together the dresser
photo by: Chandra Brown

We got to work on the room re-do. Alex painted a wood box we found on the sidewalk put out for large item pick-up. Mom painted the dresser and Dad got involved and helped put the dresser together. The next day Alex and I painted her room, she is a pretty good wall roller. As we painted over the pink, the walls had a green hue. UH OH, we thought we picked a medium tan, what was going on? We patiently kept painting. I told her sometimes a color will not be true until it dries. She looked a little worried, I secretly was too. We put the brushes up and called it a night, shut the door and turned on the fan to help air out the room, tomorrow would tell if the color was a bomb.

The next day we opened the door to tan walls. Phew! We made it over a design hurdle. We began putting the room together. We knew the existing bedspread would not work anymore and I remembered I had stored an heirloom quilt in a trunk. It was given to us by Nana Brown. It worked perfectly in her room. We just had to buy a new bed skirt, which we found for a steal at Target for $15. The room needed a little something else, a little detail was missing. A pop of color was needed to bring the room together, so we saw the perfect find at Target, the red pillow made the finishing touch for $25.

Alex's Fox Den Design
photo by: Chandra Brown

Alex and I looked back over the receipts for the room remodel, we spent $190. We high-fived at how well it all worked out. It took over 2 weeks from idea to fruition, we still have a bit more to do,we are still working on the mural, which will take more planning and time but thankfully we have an artist in the family that can help when the time allows.

This project was worth more than the $190 we invested in it. I will always remember the time I spent with my daughter, the view into her thinking and seeing her idea take shape because she planned and worked towards her goal. Seeing her enjoy her space and want to be in it speaks to the success of the project.