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When my grandpa moved in my house last year, I willingly gave up my bedroom so that he could have the bigger bedroom. I live at school most of the year and he needed the space more than I did. I watched my mom and stepdad transform my girly decor into a pale yellow grandpa paradise.
He passed away this summer and over 6 months since, the emptiness of his room could bring anyone in our house to tears if we stood in it long enough. I found pistachio nut shells underneath his recliner and heck, I cried like a baby. I even contemplated keeping them. Losing someone makes you want to hold onto the last bits of anything and everything they touched.
I came home from school over break to learn my mother would wake up in the middle of the night and sleep in my grandpa’s room, thinking he was calling for her.
It was time to make a change.
“Mom, I’m moving back into my old room.” I saw the look on her face that said but that’s grandpas room. It didn’t feel right either for me to move in like nothing happened but, for the sake of everyone’s sanity, I needed my room back.
“Okay, start going through stuff in your other room and getting organized,” my mom finally said.
Without telling anyone, I made my way to wal-mart and decided I would save my stepdad the hassle and paint my room myself. I walked up and down the aisles and I saw a $12.99 dark grey color and thought, hmm, this should cover that yellow.
And it did. I painted so frantically and stopped every time I thought I heard a car pull into the driveway. Trying to create a forbidden masterpiece is quite the job. It took me 6 full hours to paint and... let’s just say I’m clearly not as good at it as I thought I’d be. But I got the job done.
I pushed the two beds together that were in the room from grandpa already to form a king bed; I used my old queen comforter until I decide on which bedding I want.
From there, I started to see the start of a vision for how I wanted the style. I used a gift card and I ordered a $15 chandelier on amazon and a $40 grey area rug and figured that was a good start. When I looked on Pinterest, though, I saw all the cutest bedrooms had a shelf above their bed. Ugh, guess I’m going to TJ Maxx.
By the Grace of God I somehow hung this up with a hammer and screws and a screwdriver. It’s probably going to fall on my head tonight but it’s cute so it’s okay. I found this at TJ Maxx for 19.99 and it’s adorably rustic.
My chandelier came in the mail right on time, (gotta love amazon Prime) and I hung that bad boy up all by myself with another screw—picture me pathetically using a hammer to secure it. All in all, my room finally feels like it’s my own and it’s even cooler knowing I made it all happen. And as for grandpa? Don’t worry—
I know he’s here with Me. Especially because the man can’t see without his glasses; I have them right here so he is always there when I need someone to look to.
