My 9-year-old, Lila, recently decided that her mermaid themed bedroom was too “little kid” for her. When Vince and I asked her what she wanted for her room, she said she wanted it all Hello Kitty themed. To be very specific, she wanted “My Melody” – another Sanrio character. When I was a kid, my Grandpa, Tom, had a gift shop in Northern Minnesota and you know what he always sold in it? Sanrio stuff! Hello Kitty stationary, Keroppi gumball machines, Pochacco pencil boxes. I’d clean him out of all of his Sanrio stuff and gift it to my childhood best friends, Jen and Kat. Since my obsession started there, I was more than happy to decorate Lila’s room in a My Melody theme. Plus, while teenagers and even some grown women like Sanrio, I am pleased that it still looks like the bedroom of a 9-year-old!

Inspiration for the Hello Kitty theme:

Pinterest is your BFF when going on new decorating adventures. Lila and I sat down together and cruised photos of Hello Kitty inspired bedrooms to see overall things that she liked. She decided she wanted pink walls, a pink desk, and a pink gaming chair.

She also was big on getting a queen sized bed. The kid is 9 and she’s already five feet tall. She will have her dad’s height so we agreed we were good getting her a queen in lieu of her twin bed. In order to make room for all of this, we had to move her Barbie house out of her room. (Cue me bawling in the corner that my baby is growing up too fast.) Me being who I am though, I just moved her Barbie house into my office….you know – just in case she wants to play with it a little here and there.

I didn’t want Lila’s room to look like a bottle of Pepto Bismol so Vince and I talked her into a pink accent wall so that we could keep the rest off-white. I hate colorful walls everywhere and feel like the world is closing in on me when the walls are too bold. Plus I always lean towards light neutral colors. Most of our house looks like it belongs on the coast instead of in landlocked Colorado, so 4 bright pink walls just wouldn’t blend well. But I digress…

Pick an item you love and build from there:

For Lila, it was this My Melody Duvet cover. We searched alllll the brands for Hello Kitty bedding. Pottery Barn teen has some great items (some I did buy that you’ll see farther down.) But she wasn’t into their bed sets. So I just googled “My Melody” bedding and went from there. The set we got took almost three damn weeks to get here. And it comes with the duvet cover, two pillowcases, and a flat sheet. But no fitted sheet, which I found very weird. I ended up getting plain white jersey sheets from Target for the fitted sheet. We used this duvet cover as our jumping off point and tried to match odds and ends from there. I got this Hello Kitty throw blanket merely because my love of throw blankets runs deep.

Paint colors for a Hello Kitty Room:

I made a trip to Home Depot and grabbed all the lighter pink samples they had to offer. I brought them home and compared them to photos of duvet covers that Lila liked. We decided Behr’s “Pink Wink” was the winner. Vince was a champ and taped off the room and him and I painted away. It was thick enough paint that it only required one coat and then a second of touch-ups.

Furniture to fit with the Hello Kitty theme:

Next up, I found a pink desk. I had checked our local huge furniture store (American Furniture Warehouse) because they’re shit is affordable and gets the job done. Alas, I struck out on fucking pink, so I scoured Wayfair, Overstock.com, and finally landed on this one from Amazon. I liked that it had pink and very light pink stripes on it to tie in the two shades of pink we had going throughout the room. The cheapest place to find a pink gaming chair was also off Amazon, so I got this bad boy. And what is a pink gaming area without matching headphones? I refused to pay hundreds for fucking Hello Kitty ones though, so I opted for these pink ones.

Hello Kitty Wall Art:

This is where my BFF, Pottery Barn came into play. I got Lila this Hello Kitty Bow LED light to hang on a skinny wall between her closet and bedroom door. Then, I got these 6 Hello Kitty prints. I framed them with these simple white frames. The bonus of these frames is they are for certificates, and Lila has earned a few that I wanted to hang over her desk. I also grabbed this Hello Kitty jewelry box off of Potterybarntenn.com when I got the LED Bow.

It’s all about the fucking accessories:

Let’s face it, the motive of a 9-year-old to redo her room lies in the acquisition of new accessories. I shopped at myriad of places to get some statement ones for her. I got her this Hello Kitty mirror as well as this Hello Kitty throw rug off of a site I wasn’t sure was legit. But it is, however they only take Paypal payments and they also take a few weeks to send out your shit. So order early! Then, of course we needed a My Melody trash can just for kicks.

For her desk, I got Lila some smaller accessories off of Sanrio’s main site. First, I got a My Melody Variety Letter Set. Then of course I had to get the matching pen. Then I got a My Melody Storage Box, My Melody Acrylic Photo Frame, a My Melody Pencil Box, and another small storage box that has since sold out. But here is the Hello Kitty version of it. I grabbed this box from Amazon, figuring Lila could store her markers in it, and it matched the theme.

In regards to sprucing up her bed, I got a My Melody throw pillow, a small My Melody plush, and some My Melody slippers.

Lastly, for her window treatments, I replaced her white drapes with these white valances. And then I hung these hot pink curtain lights in front of her black-out blinds.

Lila is now in love with her My Melody bedroom and I’m just happy that she loves it! Stay tuned to see how I redid my 6-year-old’s room to be “Koala/Australia theme” per her request. To check out other home decorating blogs, click here or here. And as always, thanks for reading!