The Lilly pad: splashed with creative cost-cutters and bold colors, Hayley's playful sophisticated bedroom is inspired by Lily Pulitzer's classic prints - My Room

Girls' Life, June-July, 2003 by Sarah Cordi

Hayley, 15, loves Lilly Pulitzer's popular bold prints. So when she redecorated her seaside bedroom, she went all-out Lilly! Authentic Pulitzer bedding is pretty pricey, so Hayley's room borrowed from Lilly's playful palette of tropical prints--for less moolah!

CORNER-CUTTING COVERLET Make a lightweight, reversible coverlet using a flat sheet from Lilly Pulitzer's Home Collection (www.lillypulitzer.com). Save cash by using knock-off Lilly-like fabric or an inexpensive sheet for reverse side. How-to: 1) Sew three sides of the two sheets together. 2) Stuff with pillow batting. 3) Secure opening with Velcro at 8-to 10-inch intervals. Remove batting before laundering.

PICKET FENCES Turn fence pickets into a headboard! We love how the clean white pickets pop against the potentially overpowering turquoise walls. How-to: 1) Use an electric sander (have an adult help) to sand pickets (and two long pieces of wood that measure the width of your bed) until smooth. 2) Paint with primer, and let dry. Then paint white, and dry overnight. Be sure to allow each side of the wood to dry completely before painting the other side. 3) Tip off with hot pink paint. 4) Measure equal distance between pickets and nail pickets to long posts from behind. 5) Secure to bed frame.

SHE SEES SEASHELLS Use buckets of seashells to add a salty touch to a plain frame. If you live nowhere near the shore, you can pick up shells at almost any craft store for a couple bucks. How-to: 1) Use a toothbrush to wipe away any sandy debris from shells. 2) Spray shells with craft gloss, or slick with shimmer nail polish. 3) Arrange shells, and then hot-glue them around the frame.

MADE IN THE SHADE Make dull lampshades shine! We stumbled across an authentic Lilly Pulitzer jersey-knit skirt in Marshall's and used it to dress up our shade. How-to: 1) Starting at shade's seam, wrap fabric around bottom rim until ends overlap. 2) Cut fabric, leaving 1 inch overlapping at seam of shade and 1 inch excess beyond top and bottom of shade. 3) Using a hot-glue gun, adhere one edge of fabric to shade at seam. 4) Fold material over bottom, tack along the underside of shade with glue gun. Then fold material over top of shade, pleating fabric to fit (at about 1-inch intervals) and adhering each fold with glue gun. 5) Fold down excess fabric at top, and hot-glue to underside of shade.

TABLE TOPPERS Hayley's artistic Aunt Lauren rescued these two tables from the basement and transformed the once-forgotten has-beens into whimsical treasures. How-to: 1) Sand and prime tables. 2) Take Lilly's Palm Beach Patchwork print (used for the coverlet), and have it blown up to scale on a color copier. 2) Trace enlarged pattern onto table. 3) Paint with appropriately colored acrylic paints.

GL extends a special thanks to Hayley and her family for their design ideas and gracious hospitality!