Appropriate age group(s):
Elementary School
Middle School

Time needed:
Weekend

Description:
This design makes for a happy, colorful living space. The unique features, like the picket fence headboard and bright birdhouses, add interest at minimal cost. Many accessories, like flowerpots full of pencils and pens or watering cans brimming with silk flowers, are things you might already have lying around in the garage! Make sure to let your child help with this one. She may come up with some ideas of her own!

Materials:
Portion of a picket fence, 2-4 inches broader than the bed frame

Bolts that fit the holes in your bedframe

Garden bedding in bright colors (Brylane Home catalog has a super cute set)

Sheer white curtains and simple rods for each window

Large, white wooden crate (you may have to paint this yourself)

3-5 unfinished bird houses from your local hobby store

Wooden rods in varying heights (1 per bird house), 2 inch in diameter and no higher than 3 1/2 feet. (The finished house on a stand should be no higher than your child? head.)

8x8x1 inch squares of wood (1 per bird house)

Screws and screwdriver

Drill

Hammer

Finishing nails

Wood glue

Flower shaped rug (pottery barn kids)

Bright paint to coordinate with colors in bedding

Small artists?brushes

2? paintbrushes

Plastic tarp

Sandpaper

Watering can

Flower pots

Silk flowers

Faux ivy

Small wheelbarrow

Straw hat

Instructions:
1. Start with white walls. Using bright paints and artists?brushes, paint butterflies, bees and dragonflies flitting around windows and doors. Make sure to paint black dotted lines in twists and turns behind each bug to add movement.

2. Secure the picket fence headboard to the bed frame with bolts. If there is nowhere to secure the fence to the frame, screw the fence into the wall where the head of the bed will be positioned. For safety reasons, it should never simply be propped against the wall!

3. Make the bed with the garden bedding and wind faux ivy in and around the picket fence.

4. Hang sheer curtains and drape the tops of rods with faux ivy. Allow some of the ivy to hang about a third of the way down the curtain on one side.

5. Next is the bird house project. You will need to do this one either outside or in a garage.

6. Remove the roofs from the bird houses. Drill small holes through the center of the floors of each house, then drill holes in the center of one end of each wooden rod.

7. Screw the floor of each birdhouse onto the end of each rod (only one house per rod, please!).

8. Now, drill a small hole through the center of each 8x8? square of wood and into the center of the other end of each rod. Screw the square onto the rod. You should now have 3-5 free-standing bird houses with no roofs.

9. Replace each roof, securing with wood glue and nails.

10. Sand each house and stand with medium grain sandpaper until all houses are splinter-free.

11. Lay tarp and paint houses with 2? brush and colors of your choice. A cute look is to paint the house one color, the roof another color, the 8x8? square a third color, and the rod still another color. Then, use the artists?brushes to paint buggy accents here, too! Just get creative! These can easily be repainted if you don? get the look you want the first time.

12. It? time for the finishing touches! Cluster the birdhouses in a corner opposite the bed.

13. Position the wheelbarrow near the bed and fill it with children? books or stuffed animals.

14. Use the small flowerpots to hold pencils, crayons, and other school supplies on your little gardener? desk.

15. Turn white wooden crate upside down next to the bed as a nightstand. This is a great spot for that watering can full of silk flowers, an alarm clock and whatever else your child likes to have nearby at night.

16. Stand back and enjoy! I know your child will!