A room with a view: tired of staring at four ho-hum walls? Instead, you could be taking in a view of the Hawaiian islands…or the Sahara Desert…or all of Europe - My Room

Girls' Life, Oct-Nov, 2002 by Kelly White

MAP IT OUT

Slap some maps on your bedroom walls for oceans of eye-pleasing depth. Go for National Geographic maps (what we used), road maps (not really old ones--they're worth bucks!) or maps snipped from an atlas. Working one piece at a time, cut to fit, apply a coat of Mod Podge (from craft stores) on the back with a paint brush, and smooth onto wall. Take your brush, and go around edges to seal (use a tad more Mod Podge if needed). The map might be wrinkled at first, but it should flatten once the glue dries. (If any lumps remain, don't freak--it'll look like part of a mountain range or a wave in the water!)

THE SKY'S THE LIMIT...

Even if it's yucko out, you can gaze at a clear-blue sky, er, ceiling. Put on two coats of flat interior paint in a favorite shade of light blue, letting dry completely between coats. Once dry, use a white satin paint mixed with glaze (get it at home improvement stores) to make "clouds" by blotting on with a damp rag.

LET THE SUN SHINE IN

Take a clear-glass overhead light fixture, and brighten it up in a big way. Cover the entire outer part of the fixture in two to three coats of sunny yellow glass paint (from craft stores), letting dry completely between coats. Then, paint swirly stripes on the inside of the fixture with a beautifully bright shade of orange glass paint.

GET SOME RE-LEAF

Get an eyeful of leafy trees from your bedroom window...even when the shades are down. If you don't already have plain white shades on your windows, you can pick some up from the home improvement store for about S5 a piece (or less). Choose some acrylic craft paints in two shades of green and one rustic orange. Unroll the shades onto a large working space, such as a kitchen table or floor (put down newspaper to catch drips). Using one color at a time, pour a puddle of paint onto a paper plate. Dip rubber leaf stamps (from craft store) into the paint, and blot onto a clean paper plate to remove excess paint. Randomly press stamp over the front surface of the shades. Let one color dry completely before repeating with another color and so on until shades are well-covered.

IT'S A COVER-UP

Turn your childhood toy chest into a combination coffee table/seating bench/storage box. Measure the top of your chest, and take a trip to the fabric store for a flat piece of foam to cover. Adding six inches to both sides of your measurements, purchase a piece of fabric to go over the foam. Get your mom or other adult to help you carefully remove the lid from your toy chest. Lay the fabric, print side down, out onto a large working space. Center the foam over the fabric, and place the lid upside down on top of the foam. Firmly pull one long side of the fabric around the rim of the lid, and have Mom secure at one-inch intervals along the inside edge with a staple gun. Repeat on the opposite side. Then, just like you're wrapping up a present, fold in the corners before pulling up the fabric on the short sides of your chest and securing with staples. Get Mom to use an ice pick or other sharp object to puncture the fabric at the screw holes, and re-attach lid to chest.

TWINKLE, TWINKLE

Camouflage ugly, old dresser drawer handles with peel-and-stick foam rubber stars. Simply apply stars to handles, overlapping them to provide depth. Once you've figured out how you want the stars placed, secure them with a few dabs of superglue.