The Room Of Audrey Paige

One of the really great things about my life is that it is filled with young people. Not just my own daughters, but their friends, my students, family friends, my nieces and nephews, kids at my church, and so on.

And one of the really great things about having a life filled with young people is watching them grow. I've been fortunate to have young people in my life that I've known for ten, fifteen, even twenty years now. It's so great to watch them mature and evolve, day to day, week to week, and year to year. Most of the time, kids' growth is gradual and subtle, almost imperceptible, but then there are moments when they seem to undergo huge transformations that reveal with surprising clarity who they are as human beings.

I had one of those aha! moments when I recently visited my former student and long-time family friend, Audrey, at her college home-away-from-home. I've always know her to be a smart, organized, precise girl with a sweet disposition and a good-natured sense of humor, but when she showed me around her beautiful bedroom, I gained enormous insights into the person she has become.

Beautiful, yeah? I love the juxtaposition of offbeat odds and ends, organized into neat lines and orderly arrangements:

The precise row of thumbtacks holding a wild assortment of necklaces,

the geometrically brilliant grouping of quirky family photos, 

the perfectly white origami boxes jumbled along strings of white twinkle lights,

the straight line of outlandish froggy illustrations, 

the taut zigzagging strings of vintage post cards, 

the simple circular bowls and plates full of funky jewelry, 

and the neatly mismatched line-up of trays and bottles of cosmetics.

What all these things tell me is that Audrey has embraced the logical, orderly side of her temperament, but has also found a way to balance that rationality with an equal measure of whimsical charm.

And I think this style suits both her personality and her bedroom perfectly.

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Once there were two best friends named Jane and Audrey, and I wrote about both of their stylish bedrooms. Read the other story here:

A Happy Birthday Bedroom Tour