Madison's new Japanese room

Amid all of the busy-ness this past week was one thing I really wanted to take care of immediately: The previous weekend, David(!) had helped the girls undertake a complete and thorough cleaning of their rooms. Part of what that meant for Madison's room was to move her bunk bed to a different position. Madison has an extremely small room, with two built-out ineffective narrow closets surrounding a window on the short wall. Someday, we hope to bash out those closets, and reconvert what *used* to be a closet for that room but is now a sauna which we never use, attached to the bathroom, back into a good-sized closet. But for now, we're stuck with the closets.

All week, Madison has been absolutely scrupulous about keeping that room spotless. And, she wanted it to be a Japanese-themed room. So, on Friday, we went to Jo-Ann Fabrics, she picked out some gorgeous bright-red-with-gold silky fabric (on sale for $7/yard), and some very classy brass curtain rods, and I made her curtains. Interestingly, she decided that instead of two curtains per window, she wanted just one, and she wanted it to be flat, spread out across, like a shade ("more Japanese-y") rather than bunched up and drawn to the side. Honestly, it looks great.

And then on Saturday morning, for a surprise I went back to Jo-Ann and bought these two beautiful red decorative gauze lanterns (no lights in them) to hang between the windows. And, the piece de resistance, I got one of those little boxy shade lights and a silk red orchid plant for her nightstand.

I have promised to paint a Japanese pagoda at some point for the wall, but that's going to have to wait a while. But I did want to get that room a little transformed, so that was part of my burst of activity Friday and Saturday.

Presenting: Madison's Japanese Room: