My love for design and decor started many years ago, it started when I was a little girl. I was raised in an older home in Southern Alberta. My parents purchased the house after my great grandma passed away, we happened to move in on my seventh birthday. They have lived in this home for many years. I remember visiting my great grandparents there, we would come in through the kitchen and visit in the living room. The toys were in a bedroom located past the bathroom and three stairs that went up to a door. It never occurred to me that the house had an upstairs. I just remember seeing three stairs and a door. When we moved in it was the first time I realized there was an upstairs.
The upstairs needed a lot of work before we were able to use it. My sister and I shared one of the two downstairs bedrooms with my two brothers for a few months while my parents worked on the upstairs. We had three spaces upstairs that became my parents room a room for the boys and a room for the girls. The downstairs bedrooms were made into a family room and the laundry room.
The things I loved
My mom and dads original plan was to build two captain beds with drawers underneath. They built captains beds for my brothers and the plan was to do the same for me and my sister. My mom came to us one night and asked if it would be ok to not build us captain beds and just build us a little shelf so we would have a place to put our books and special things. We would be able to move into our bedroom a lot quicker if they didn’t build the beds. I was a little disappointed but was excited about our little shelf.
When I was visiting my parents a few months ago I decided to take a few pictures of my bedroom that is now my moms sewing room with a spare bed for grandkids to sleep in. This is the actual shelf my parents build for us. I loved that shelf and loved to keep my books and special things on it. Unfortunately there are no pictures of my bedroom when I was growing up. My favorite part of those shelves is the spindles my dad installed. I always thought they were something special and fancy because they were sculpted.
Not a very big space
If you are thinking the room doesn’t look very big you’d be correct. My bed was on the wall where the sewing machine is and my sisters was on the other wall. We had white and blue linoleum on the floor and white walls. The walls and ceiling were wallpapered in pink and white flowers with stripes a few years later but we kept the linoleum.
This is the dresser my sister and I shared, still sitting in it’s original spot. We also had a makeup dresser with some little drawers for our curling irons, brushes and makeup. It has a cute little chair with a cushion that match our bedspreads and pillow shams. I loved that makeup dresser and mirror. I spent hours sitting there and playing when I was younger and getting ready for school when I got older. Since I didn’t have any daughters my sister ended up with the makeup dresser for her daughter.
I’m not sure where this originally came from but it wouldn’t surprise me if it was left in the house after my great grandparents passed away. The chair still has the original fabric on the seat that matched our bedspreads my mom made. It still has the same broken wooden handle.
The make up dresser sat at the end of my sisters bed by the closet, where the file cabinet is sitting now.
Ceilings
I have always loved the ceilings in this room. It is one of the elements that made me fall in love with design. It made me feel unique and special. This bedroom usually sat with the beds on the one wall and the dressers at the foot of each bed.
When I got a little older I was always wanting to rearrange my bedroom. My sister could have cared less and let me do what I wanted. She probably thought I was crazy. I know my mom would cringe downstairs when she’d hear the furniture scraping across the floor as I’d move things.
The change would always make me feel excited. Since it was such a small room there weren’t any options that worked besides the original setup. My mom would let me leave it for a while then convince me we had more space before I moved things around.
Lighting
Our bedroom had a plain flush mounted light for many years. I was never too worried about it until my parents came home one day with what I thought was the most beautiful light. They had been to some event and won what I think was a door prize.
When they brought it home I was so excited to see where they were going to hang it. When I found out it was going to be in my bedroom I was thrilled. It hung in the middle of the room and was swaged opposite directions. It’s no longer hanging in my old bedroom but hangs in a half bathroom that has a super high ceiling.
I really loved my bedroom growing up. Even though the space wasn’t very big and I didn’t have the space to design the furniture in fun ways. I loved the architecture of the ceiling, the coziness of the space and having my parents and brothers rooms just feet away. I am blessed to have grown up in a home that was unique.
I’ll one day have to write about some of the renovations that house has been through and some of it’s unique characteristics. That old house has been through a lot of changes.
