Princess Bed + Ombre Dresser

At the end of last year, I redid Audrey's room. She was still sleeping in a toddler bed, and her dresser was an old, small thing her father had brought with him when he first moved in. I bought her a twin size bed, a bigger dresser, a nightstand and a bookshelf. The first three pieces were these wooden ones from Ikea. I painted the bedframe, the body of the dresser and nightstand white, and then did the drawers on the dresser in ombre purple. Not to pat myself on the back too much, but it came out awesome :) I don't really have a specific tutorial to link to because I read a bunch, so here's what I did:

It was pretty simple, just time consuming. I bought a quart of white paint and the sample size of a purple. I assembled the body of the dresser and the drawers, with the exception of the knobs. I used a roller for most of the painting, and an angled brush to get any smaller spots and corners. I painted the bottom drawer the original purple, and then for each shade of purple, just mixed in some of the white paint till I was satisfied with the color. I did each shade in separate trays so I could make sure I had the same color for the second coat. Audrey helped with the painting - of course everything was uneven and all over the place but nothing a second coat didn't fix. She was adorable, with her hair up and paint smeared all over, but her painting outfit was a tank top, socks and undies so I won't be posting pics.

I've seen tutorials that instructed you to just buy a sample of each color of paint on a paint card, but I went the cheaper route and it worked out just fine. I also would have had tons of extra paint had I bought 5 sample cans - one sample can was enough, with a little leftover for future touch ups. When everything was dry, I attached the knobs. The nightstand was the same, except it only had one drawer, which I painted the original (darkest) shade of purple. The bed was slightly more tedious to paint - it had less surface space, but all these nooks and crannies I had to get into.

Audrey's dresser

I purposely bought an inexpensive bed frame because I knew I wanted to eventually switch Audrey to a loft bed. Her room isn't that big, and her toys are overflowing into the living room (I need to do an overhaul, but that's another story). I figured if I eventually switch to a loft bed, I can set up a play area and some toy storage underneath. The last time we were at Ikea, Audrey loved a set up they had - a low loft bed with a green tent. Green doesn't match her room at all, and I knew I could find a much cuter tent. We looked online a bit, and of course Audrey got excited over the most elaborate bed she saw:

The bed is adorable, but I think she would grow out of the princess theme eventually, so I'd rather get something more customizable. Besides, I think the slide would take up too much of her room. And it's a bit outside of my budget. I thought about going the Ikea route again, but would rather just buy something already painted this time around. I found this loft bed on Amazon:

 

And this tent, which she will go nuts over:

I also want to add a curtain around the bottom, to create her own little space where she can hang out and play, either this one, or maybe just something plain purple or pink:

 

I have ulterior motives behind this new bed, other than creating more space in her room. She's taken to coming into my room in the middle of the night, and the only way I can get her to go back to sleep in her own room is going in there with her and laying down till she falls back asleep. Most of the time, I'm so tired, I just let her spend the rest of the night in my room, but I need to break this habit. I'm hoping an awesome bed will help ... and I know I need to be more firm about it. Easier said than done, unfortunately.