I am the mother of an only child . . . a little girl who is getting older and more independent every day, but who has given me more love and joy than she can ever imagine. This year my daughter is a high school sophomore and we are preparing to move to a new home where she and I will redecorate her room for what will probably be the last time before she goes away to college. I can't help feeling nostalgic for the rooms we've decorated together as she has grown up, each reflecting her current moods and interests. Anyway, I thought it would be nice to put some of the things I have learned about decorating rooms into a guide that I hope will make things go smoothly for other mothers with little girls. This particular room has a western theme, but is put together in a way that still makes it feminine and not too cliché.

It features many items that we found at flea markets, estate sales and on eBay and is a lot of fun to put together, but without a lot of expense. While the links and photos in this guide are specific to a western themed room, I think the tips make sense for any décor . . .

Choose a soft pastel color as your base.  Because this room is an eclectic mix of found items, I recommend a pastel which can be more forgiving if your accessories aren't a perfect color match. We chose a soft blue which was my daughter's favorite color at the time. It also worked well with turquoise stone which we planned to incorporate into her accessories and is a soothing color that I felt would make her feel comfortable and relaxed in the room.

Mom Tip: Make the first trip to the paint store solo! This will give you a chance to bring home a nice selection of chips in a wide assortment of colors, while limiting the choices to colors that aren't going to scare away visitors! Believe it or not, research shows that some shades of pink can be agitating and most little girls of a certain age will head straight to the hot pink paint chips if given the chance!

Shopping Tip: If you don't have to have an exact color match, many paint stores sell gallons of 'oops' paint at a discount. These are colors that weren't mixed exactly to specification, but may still be quite pretty. The only problem is that it may be difficult to get a color match later if you need to touch up the walls.

Stick to neautral bedding in solid colors. It will provide you with a nice canvas to display bright accent pillows and won't have to be replaced each time you redecorate. For this western themed room, we chose a denim comforter to represent the rugged blue jeans of the American cowboy and paired it with a creamy white matelasse cotton spread. These were layered with cotton lace sheets and bedskirts in shades of white and beige which reminded us of the petticoats ladies might have worn under their printed dresses in the Old West.

Painting furniture can be a great way to unite mixed and matched pieces. I like to use a neutral color like white linen on most of the pieces and then add a couple of interesting pieces in unusual finishes. For this room we painted a tall dresser with textured suede paint that looked like chaps and then antiqued and distressed a round pedestal table with cubby holes to display some of her Breyer horses.

Inexpensive art for the walls will add color and interest. Now that you have all of the basics in place, begin to think about art for the walls. The key is to choose interesting pieces that won't be too expensive so that you don't feel bad replacing them when your daughter's tastes change. eBay is a great place to find original art and prints at a reasonable price.

Shopping Tip: Surprisingly, the frame can often be the most expensive component when it comes to displaying art. Try to consider this when selecting pieces.

One solution can be to choose art that doesn't have to be framed, for example, try stretching a piece of vintage cowboy fabric over a ready made canvas and then staple it in place. It is ready to hang as is.

In this room, we used a product called wallies which are cut outs that are applied to a painted wall with adhesive, much like wallpaper.

A second solution is to choose pieces that are sized to fit standard frames. We had great luck finding lovely old prints of horses and an original pastel drawing that we could put in inexpensive silver frames from the craft store. Vintage horse postcards are also available in really interesting designs and they can be mounted in sets inside a single frame or placed on a bulletin board to add color above a desk.

And of course, you might always find artwork that is already framed.

The final step is to bring in accessories. Because she has loved horses and riding for so long, my daughter already had a lot of these. We put Breyer horses everywhere and also used her American Girl Mini Stable as a focal point on the dresser. We framed photos of her friends in feminine looking floral frames of rusted metal and silver frames with turqoise stones. We also took down her bifold closet doors and replaced them with sheer, billowy cotton lace curtains (again, to mimic old fashioned petticoats) and hung them on brushed silver rods with crackled blue glass finials. However, our favorite accessories were several art projects that we did together to finish the room:

Project 1: Easy Western Themed Bulletin Board

This is a simple bulletin board from a discount store. We glued a piece of craft molding to the wood frame and painted it with aluminum spray paint to create a brushed silver finish. Suede like fabric was cut to size and then glued in place with spray adhesive to cover the cork side of the board and a piece of ribbon with a western motif was added to divide the two halves. Finally, we hot glued faux turquoise beads to the top of clear pushpins and used them to affix vintage postcards to the covered cork.

Project 2: Quick Ways to Change A Lamp

We already had several vintage wall & table lamps with cut glass accents. We strung some turquoise beads onto jewelry wire and wrapped these around the lamps as accents and then cut our "pony spots" from brown felt which we affixed to the lamp shades. Another great alternative would be to used vintage textiles to add interest to lampshades, for example, vintage scarves can be draped over a lampshade or placed beneath an unremarkable table lamp to add interest. They are easy to find in equestrian & western themes.

Project 3: Multiple Personalities for Inexpensive Chairs 

This was a chair my daughter had purchased several years before-originally it was covered in rainbow faux fur, but we just unscrewed the back and seat, removed the fur. The fur pieces became pattern pieces which were used to cut our pony print fabric. Next, we stapled the pony print pieces in place and the chair looked completely different. Very simple!

I think her room is beautiful and I'm happy every time I walk into it because it reminds me so much of her and of the things that she loves. Whether you decide to copy some of our ideas or create something that is absolutely and uniquely your daughter, I hope you'll have as much fun as we did pulling everything together!

This is a bohobetty guide. For more bohobetty guides or for information about collecting and caring for vintage linens, please click here.