While They Were In...
As combined birthday and first-anniversary gifts to our son and his wife, we decided to re-do their bedroom. We'd first planned to send them away for the weekend and surprise them with it when they returned, but Nici had to stay and work, so we just barred them from the room while we worked. Our friends Tom, Michelle, and Michelle's daughters Amanda and Ashley, and my sister, Cherryl, came to help.
Nici loves The Lion King and has been wanting a sunset in the colors they used in the movie. I found a mural and some tropical/jungle doodads and gizmos, and we made their room a tropical paradise.
Tom prepared the wall for the mural. He is a retired painter/paper-hanger, and my very dearest friend.






The last panel going up. Tom had a terrible time with this wallpaper. The paper stretched and bubbled, and the colors were very delicate and had a tendency to rub off with the smoothing sponge. He was very frustrated by this time, but it turned out beautifully!

Amanda helped hang the new curtains and we all pitched in to put up the canopy. Ashley and Amanda were our 'gophers' for the project. They unloaded all the goodies from my car, and did a lot of fetching and carrying and cleaning.

We added all-new bed linens.












Nick & Nici in their new tropical getaway. The chest of drawers was an old one we had, with scratched-up finish and damaged veneers. I found some inexpensive tatami mats and Rich covered the drawers and case with the mats, then added split-bamboo poles as trim.