i did it...

Ava and I stopped in to Sherwin Williams on Saturday to pick up paint for my room. I brought a sample of the paint I mixed at home to see if there was a close match. I found it in SW Great Falls 6495. It's a dark tealy-blue. I decided to go with matte/flat as there are some imperfections in the wall.

I rolled the first coat on and freaked out. It was dark. It was blue. What was I thinking? Then I reminded myself that I always question myself on the first coat and to wait until things were placed back in the room before making a decision.

Glad I did because now I really like it. Can't wait to get new curtains and pillows and decorate.

 Ignore the curtains. I don't know what I'm going to do yet so I just put the old curtains back up for now.

Now that there is new paint on the walls, the trim looks bad so I'm going to have to paint that next. Oh and the bedroom door needs to go black and I need to decide what to do with the closet doors. But I'm glad I'm making progress!

lamps done

Last night I tackled recovering the lamps. I shouldn't say tackled because the whole process is really easy.

Before: Yawn....

I mixed up some colors from my paint supply and came up with one I love. It's the one on the left.

I decided to stitch the trim to give it some contrast and a homemade vibe. Which it is.

Now I just need to paint the walls, build the headboard, redo the tables, stitch up some shams, make curtains and I'll be done!

little kids room storage

As I previously mentioned, I sold the Pottery Barn system we had in the little kids room because it wasn't working. Their room was constantly a mess. I moved all of their books out to the hallway shelves but hope to get something like this back in their room but smaller to fit under the window.

http://ana-white.com/2010/04/plans-wall-book-racks-easy-and-inexpensive-organize-your-playroom-today.html

I've been looking at the Trofast system at Ikea and was all set to spend the $150+ to get organized. Just the other day I was browsing Craigslist when a Trofast system popped up in the exact configuration and colors I wanted. And only $40 for two sets with bins. Sold! I still need to buy one set but considering I sold the Pottery Barn stuff for $75 and then saved money on Craigslist, I think I'll break even.

See there is room for one more set where the basket is on the floor. This room is tiny and while I don't like the bunk beds on that wall, that's the only way there is any space on the floor to play.

I finally felt inspired to decorate their room. I spent all morning painting frames that I had around and assembling artwork.

Since Molly and Grae share a room for now, I had to do a mix of boys and girls art. The top two superhero pieces were done by out very talented friend Kerrilyn. Grae loves them.

The canvases were painted by Grae, the frog by Ava, the little Luke Skywalker was drawn by Grae and the tree/bird picture was colored by Ellie when she was 3. The picture in the middle I bought on Etsy for Molly a while ago. I love decorating with art my kids made.

This is so much better and I'm hoping will help keep everyone organized. We still need some bins for doll clothes, dress up stuff and a bin for drawings. Oh and a new rug. That one is so blah. :)

my bedroom makeover

I recently shared that we made over the girls rooms upstairs and they look great. There are still things I need to do (like curtains) but I need to make a trip to Ikea for that. I also recently sold all of the Pottery Barn storage bookshelf/bins stuff out of the little kids rooms and all of their toys are being held in little plastic containers on the floor. Nice. A trip to Ikea will make that all better.

Anyway, I've been wanting to re-do the color in my room for awhile. I like the turquoise but since all the rest of the paint colors downstairs are on the warm side, my cool-tone walls didn't go well. I LOVE the bohemian look of mixing saturated color and patterns so that is what I'm going for.

The room will go a dark blue (still in the teal/turquoise family). Like this inspiration picture but maybe more muddy/gray/warmer.

http://www.themarionhousebook.com/a-bedroom-to-escape-to/

Before (the paint color is a little darker/brighter than these pics).

My sad aviation wall is missing frames because they are being used by others in this house.

Look, no lamps but that's because I recently stole the lamps from the girls room and they aren't installed yet.

The headboard was made when the room was brown with different bedding. Doesn't match anymore. A new headboard is being built.

Closet is the big white spot. I'm going to paint the doors black.

My office is in the bedroom as there is no other place for it.

Curtains will be changed out and curtain rod has been moved to the ceiling.

So on Saturday the room got stripped of all the wall stuff, holes filled in and I decided to rearrange to see if I could make more room. To get to the little kids room, you have to go through our room.

After the clean up and re-arranging:

Bed moved to aviation wall and lamp sconces installed.

(which I took from the girls room).

I plan to recover the shades in amazing bohemian inspired fabic from my vast fabric stash.

http://davidandcarolineparker.blogspot.com/2011/01/master-bed-how-we-built-it.html

We're building a headboard like this.

I'm going to repaint the side tables even though I would love some cute round ones but that wouldn't provide any storage and I don't want to spend the money when I still like these.

(we bought them at a garage sale for $5.00 about 16 years ago)

Curtain rods moved up made the room feel bigger.

Now my curtains are ready for a flood.

They will be going soon. I'm thinking of doing pinch pleat curtains the same color as the new wall color. Which means that I have to pick the fabric out first and then match the paint color.

The room flows much better and I'm anxious to make all the other changes.

some progress...

Why is it that the little touch up painting after a major project is the hardest to get done? I always want to move on to something new.

Remember this door and Ellie's carpeted bed?

It now looks like this:

I only have one coat of chalkboard paint on the door but I can tell I'm going to like it. Please don't mind the primer all over the wall in blotches. I'm starting to touch up stuff.

The bed only has primer on it. I have other plans but this is a good first step. Much nicer than wall to wall carpeting!

the ugliest dresser in the world

Can this be the ugliest dresser in the world? Ava and I found it at Goodwill Outlet for $25.00. We figured it would be great under their window. Not only would it add storage but we could make it into a comfy window seat as well.

I decided to keep the drawer pulls because I didn't want to spend a lot money on the makeover and I thought they were interesting. I soaked them in vinegar to remove the grime, rinsed them and spray painted them black.

Then we went to Joann's to find some fabric we wanted. We decided on Waverly Modern Essentials geometric print so I got a sample. It's $20 a yard but I'll wait for a sale or coupon.

We took the sample to the little paint jars and found something that matched. I was going to buy a quart of semi-gloss at Sherwin Williams but buying the little art paint kept the cost way down. It ended up being a little less than $3.00 for two bottles of Plaid Wild Iris instead of $16 for a quart.

I had the inspiration to paint the drawers in an ombre pattern. So after many coats of paint and then sealer we have this:

Of course, it is missing the cushion on top but we couldn't wait to set it up in the room. It matches the bedding perfectly and adds in another color. I'll get a full picture when the girls clean their room. Can you believe it's the same dresser?

sneak peek

A sneek at the makeover of the ugliest dresser in the world....

and the girls working hard on the mirror. (glad I don't have to do it).

looking good...

The base, window and chair rail moulding is up and looking good. I still have to fill in nail holes and caulk seems but you can't tell that in pictures.

We recently bought the ugliest dresser in the world to go where the bench is. It will of course be getting a thorough makeover.

Here it is:

I think it was handmade and weighs like 100lbs. We'll be painting it purple and probably upholstering the top to make a bench.

We're actually thinking of painting the chair rail moulding a bright purpley plum color.

Still to do: curtains, touch up paint, find rug, makeover new dresser, throw pillows, new ceiling light fixture and accessorize.

floor down, painting done

The floor is in (except the closet) and the painting is done. Next up is the window moulding and the chair rail moulding. Then we get to decorate.

 Ava is exhausted from watching the floor being put in all day.

 Graedon unceremoniously being pushed off the bed. Molly not caring. Real life, people, real life.

maddie and ava's room

The girls and I started painting Maddie and Ava's room while we wait for the rest of the floor to go down in Lauren and Ellie's room. The new wood floor hasn't been put down in Maddie and Ava's room yet so it was the perfect time to paint.

Ava had her heart set on Seafarer from Valspar and I was worried it would be too bright and annoying. It is bright but makes the room feel like a fun girls room. Which it is.

Before or really before:

Yes Ava has an awful looking mattress but she won't let me buy her a new one. She says it's comfortable.

The room looks really small like this but nothing has been put back as the wood floor will be going in.

The wood wall ready for priming and painting, which we are doing today.

Ava's inspiration picture. She's going to be handpainting the vines.

progress...

The wood wall went up:

The girls and I worked almost all day on Saturday priming and painting Lauren's room. It looks so nice. When I first put the coat of gray on the ceiling (it's one chip down from the Pale Oak color downstairs, BM Seapearl OC-19) I panicked. It was much browner/pinker than I thought but there was no way I was going to repaint. So we continued. I figured since it was upstairs, I wouldn't have to look at it much. Fortunately it dried a nice light gray color that I love.

Because the walls and ceiling are highly textured, I chose a flat paint to hide the bumps. It does a really good job actually.

Lauren chose green, Valspar Fiddlehead Fern (color matched in Miller Paint) and Maddie was testing the color. We went all renegade and didn't even get a paint sample first. We're such rebels.

But it turns out I love it and so does Lauren and Ellie. Next step is to put a second coat on everything and then get the chair rail moulding up between the paint colors. It is going to look so nice in there and I think bigger. We used to have a green color all the way up the wall.

See:

Inspiration pictures: