Aloha!

I have a surfer girl in my family, a surfer dudette that dreams of Hawaii. After living in a baby pink room for 9 years, she decided she would like to have a big-girl room. It sounded like a gnarly-cool idea until she said she wanted orange walls. Rather than shouting a big fat NO, we headed to the paint store.

Oh the possibilities! Her first choice ~I kid you not~ was construction zone cone orange.

Uh. Big fat NO.

So we found a good compromise: Desert Sunset (Olympic) with hot pink accents.

You know I'm all about CHEAP, so here is the breakdown:

Reversible hot pink/orange bed matelasse' and 2 shams: $29.99 Ross

Surfer Girl picture: $24.99 HomeGoods

Beach mat (rug): $1.99 Old Time Pottery

Big flower throw pillows: Issac Mizrahi Target napkins on clearance $.98 each

Bed roll pillow: Target clearance $11.98

Headboard: mine as a child ~ free
I found the desk at a thrift store a couple of years ago. We added the chunky Pier1 Kids knobs (clearance, of course). She talked her daddy into the hot pink desk chair while mommy was in Germany (so worth it!) Daddy also purchased the big flower for her birthday. It's 3-D made out of heavy duty tissue paper and wire. Good job, honey!

The curtains tie the colors all together. Hot pink and orange flip flops! It is actually a Sunbrella (indoor/outdoor) fabric. It was very easy to sew because it is so sturdy. The wooden surfboard was a Christmas gift from us: hubby cut it out and I attached the "wally" flip flops. Speaking of walls, I am IN LOVE with vinyl wall clings (see the hibiscus in the corner).
We also added the vinyl surfboard to the wall. Her name is above it in big chunky white letters.

All of the vinyl came from Uppercase Living.

Now for the el-cheapo art project that I promised. Lucky for you it's a 2-for-1 deal today:
The memo board is the freebie, since it is part of the grouping. I simply took an old memo board (formerly baby blue gingham) and recovered it with some leftover curtain fabric. I didn't have enough of the dot ribbon, so I found some striped. Which worked to my advantage because it tied these in:
About a year ago I was staying at a friend's (very nice) beach house. Above the bed hung some original art: painted flip flops in a shadow box. The more I admired them, the more I became convinced that I could do the same thing without the "ar-teest" price. So I purchased some plain hot pink flip flops in the dollar section, gave them a little artsy-fartsy flair with acrylic paint, and added a bow. Using my coupon, I purchased 2 raw-wood shadow boxes, spray painted them orange and added a little flower power. I hot-glued the flip flops to white heavy-duty paper and viola!
I did spray the entire thing with high gloss clear spray paint to give it a finished look.

Just to be real: the original beach-house artwork was behind glass. I had intended to do that, but I shattered the glass on one of the frames before I even painted it. So now it is true 3-D art.

That's it! All that is left to say is:

For more DYI ideas, check out the party at Kimba's