This weekend has been both joyful and exhausting! You see, my youngest daughter just turned 13. To celebrate her birthday, we bought her a computer, but we gave it to her early. To ease the letdown (ha…some let down!) we asked her if she wanted a gift card to spend for her birthday (a token amount really since we already put in for her computer along with the rest of the parents and Auntie) OR to pick a paint color for her room? I crossed my fingers for the gift card, but once I heard myself utter those words about paint, I knew she wouldn’t pass up the opportunity to beautify her room.
She responded very enthusiastically and offered to go clean up her room and have it ready to prep it for paint. I was all, “slow down Nelly… I won’t be able to get that done until I come back from my tripâ€. That’s when the tears started and Dad convinced me (wasn’t too hard if he was willing to pitch in and help) to start painting it on her birthday. Within 30 min. we were up and out the door to visit the WalMart for inspiration.
On the way there, I was hoping she wouldn’t go for the orange or yellow color scheme she was talking about earlier and consulting her friends about. Somehow I just knew it was going to be a color that would be hard to live with…for me and not for her! Luckily, I am a seasoned manipulator decorator and was able to show her many options.
Once such option was this striped pillow:
She is not a big fan of green, but she said this pillow reminded her of watermelon and so we went with it. Best part about this pillow was it was on clearance and I love me some clearance!! The tag said $5.00, but it rang up as $3.00. Who am I to argue?
Using the pillow as a good jumping off point, we headed over to the bedding section and found the matching sheets on clearance too. They must have put the whole line on clearance because the sheet set was only $7.00 and the comforter was $15.00. So far so good. Running total: $28.00 – yes!! I forgot to add that we also chose a green body pillow cover, so add $4.00 to that. $32.00 so far.
Next we headed over to the paint section and started matching colors to the pillow. The blue stripe is very blue green or a dark turquoise. I thought that would be too dark for her small room since she has only one window, so we went a couple shades lighter.
We went with Jamaican Dream. It’s still a little darker than the previously white walls, but so much prettier! The comforter is green and the sheets are the watermelon color. We chose an accent color of Summer Song and eventually I will paint a border around the top of the walls. I can’t decide if I want to go with a scallop with a white dot in the middle, or just a plain stripe with white random polka dots. What would the HGTV designers do? (Paint: $15.00 for 1 gallon and 1 quart.)
Once we got home with all our goodies, Brenna got right to work on picking up stuff, taking down all her posters and getting it ready to fill the nail holes. I was so excited too that we got started right away! We were ready for paint in a little less than an hour and after Dad was done with his show, we got started with the cutting in.
Let’s talk about painters tape for a minute. I have seen hundreds of shows on TV and most of then don’t tape off the walls. Those that do, have a staff to help them and what would take most people at least an hour, takes them 10 seconds…well because you know, edited TV and all. We didn’t have any painters tape, so I thought I was already an expert on not painting the trim or carpet (even with the drop cloth down). I am still a SEMI expert, but those working me with were not, so we had some oops moments and some cursing darn moments. I figured we would just re-tape the trim another time and paint over it later. And if we never get to that, who cares…right? RIGHT??
Just a taste of the cutting in process:
We’re doing pretty good here, but by the end of our painting experience, there were a LOT of oops moments. But that’s ok. It’s done and it looks fabulous!
So…The whole gallon of blue was used (the walls just seemed to soak it all up! I thought we were going to run out!) and part of it spilled on the carpet after we thought it was empty. The total painting time with 3 helping was about an hour and a half. It didn’t take that long! From concept to completion was about 6 hours and that included shopping and prepping! We rock.
The hardest part was putting it all back together. The longest process seemed to be recovering her desk.
About a year ago I purchased 2 folding tables, one square and the other rectangle. I used them for extra guests at dinner and as a buffet during my American Idol parties. When Brenna needed a desk, she improvised stole the table and put it in her room to use as a desk. In the time it’s been in there, it’s gotten pretty beat up, so I decided I would recover it with a vinyl table cloth I’ve been saving for about 5 years now. I got it at IKEA and loved the color combination but didn’t know what to do with it, until now.
I took the top off and after a very frustrating time of trying to staple the fabric down, (tip: don’t try to use an electric staple gun on the carpeted floor. It bounces too much and the staples won’t go in. I’m just sayin’) I finally got it on there and then we painted the table legs white. Re-attaching the legs was pretty painless and the end result was worth all the trouble it took!
Check it out:
Is that not just the cutest?? I love it and it goes so well with the other colors in her room. I’m glad I save things for years and years just waiting for the right moment to use them!
Putting everything together took longer than the actual painting and even if it seemed to drag on because of little snags here and there, I love how it came out overall!
Here is a picture of the chandelier
that Gramma Rain bought last year
(tee-hee that rhymed!)
Here is a picture of the desk area close up
The baskets on the wall were from the dollar store and I picked those up because A) they are my favorite color
B) because they were a dollar each, duh
C) because I needed to buy like 1 thing from the dollar store and who can spend $1.08 in there?
Brenna asked if she could hang them on the wall to hold CD’s and such since she didn’t have shelf space and I kind of poo-pooed the idea, but now that we did it, I really like it! What a smartie she is! The lamp, magazine holder, trinket box, and wire basket are all from my craft desk that were collecting dust. So I shopped my own collection of crap stuff and found some treasures! I love using what I have!
Here is the finished room:
Let’s break down what we spent for her Birthday Make-over:
Paint and supplies: $22.00
Bedding: $32.00
Shower curtain rod: 7.00
Dollar Store bins: 3.00
Labor: Free
Rug, mosquito net, desk, and accessories: Free
A wonderful Birthday weekend spent with family and BFF’s: PRICELESS
We went on to have a Birthday Party sleepover with 3 of Brenna’s Besties and they wore me out…like I wasn’t already worn out from the decorating and alternating ignoring and grounding my other kids. (Those are stories that will have to come later…I’m pooped.)
Those girls stayed up very late giggling and talking and eating and I fretted over where they would all sleep, but eventually I drifted off and dreamed about weird stuff. Jon made pancakes and bacon as it has become our sleepover tradition. Breakfast was wonderful and I actually got to eat 1 whole slice of bacon and TWO slices of pancake!! It was a win/win for me all weekend!
I could go on and on about all the other little things I did, but the moral of this story is to just go for it when it comes to sprucing up a room. It took a couple of days and about $65 dollars ( I need to add here that we went out to dinner and spent $63 dollars on something that not only will make us fat and unhealthy, but after we consumed it, we had nothing to show for it, unlike improving our home environment. I’m just sayin’. ) to make my daughter happy and in turn, it made me giddy with excitement and motivated both Jon and I to work on other areas of our home. Why did I wait so long?? I have no idea, but I wait no longer! Paint store here I come….look out!! The wanna-be decorator is on her way!
I think my new tag line should be:
“You bet your SWEETBIPPY I can decorate!â€
