Having shared a story recently about the hallmarks of ’90s and ’00s preteen bedrooms, I’ve been feeling a touch of nostalgia for my own (which I’ve since remade into the lovely and peaceful place it is today.)
In list form, the defining characteristics of my room, circa 2000-2008.
- The most noticeable thing about my ‘old’ room, and the one that feels the most personally relevant to me today, was the wall paint. My room was light blue, lighter toward the floor and slightly darker toward the ceiling, with lifelike clouds that may Dad and I (but mostly my Dad) painted. I’m pretty sure that this was his idea, but I loved it very much and hope I didn’t break his heart too much when I suggested repainting my room around the time I was going to start high school.
Home improvement projects with my dad are some of my happiest memories, and just as I remember painting our kitchen cabinets with him 4 or 5 years ago, so I remember painting the clouds long before that. In my worn out Tweety Bird slide on sandals, putting a touch of gray paint toward the bottom to give that three dimensional feeling.
Bonus: When I first moved into my ‘grown up’ room from my ‘baby room’ (which is now Mom’s ‘sewing room’), My Dad painted stars on the ceiling with glow in the dark paint. They’re only visible at night and look like the night sky during the summer, the season in which I was born. My clouds may be gone but the constellations have hardly dimmed. It’s something I want to do, if and when I have a child. So that means maybe we have at least one more father-daughter project. And I hope many more than that. - The inescapable bead curtains. I credit my bead curtains with being my original instructor in the color spectrum. The strands were each different colors of the rainbow with small beads and larger beads in the shape of stars, suns, and crescent moons. The order of the colors- red, orange, yellow, green, blue, light blue, and purple. I would sing them to myself ad can still list them in my head to the same tune- one that I unfortunately have no idea how to transmit via blog post. And of course it’s only a short step from that to ROYGBIV, which we all know is of the utmost practical importance so far as preparation for life as an adult.
Of course, the only problem is that sometimes the bead curtains fall down, especially if it’s in the doorway and a stampede of preteen girls are running through it during a birthday party, playing veterinarian (when time really is of the essence because those stuffed animals have to be SAVED, DAMN IT). - Speaking of stuffed animals, I had a couch full of them. It was an old couch that we eventually replaced, and when we did replace it, it came up to my room and was covered with a white throw blanket sort of thing. I had a completely obscene number of stuffed animals- a number that kind of shames me when I think back on it now. But I would love to spend time arranging them on that couch, frequently in a giant pyramid, with attention paid to relative size, comfort, and which stuffed animal friends would make the most serendipitous neighbors.
- Last but not least, I had a white gauze canopy over my bed (#IKEA) with a sensuously curved paper lantern (also #IKEA) hanging from the center. Also a bolster pillow which I believe was upholstered in a blue and black zebra fur cover. I still have it but the cover is now white.
Honorable mentions: lava lamps, embroidered table runners on dressers, the tiny castle with battery powered fountain, the super annoying flower shaped electric doorbell, horse figurines all over the floor always, my framed Vincent Van Gogh sunflowers print, and one of those things where your name has been colorfully painted by a nice man in the street- I never see those anymore.
List Mimsy 