Sneak Peak... My Little Girls Room

Hello!

Well, I've been MIA for a while, but I do have a good excuse.  I've been promising my little one a bedroom makeover and the time for "waiting for some free time" had come to an end.   Even a five year old can tell when you're procrastinating apparently!!

Anyways, it is not finished completely, but the painting is done (thank goodness).   Dont' let anybody fool you into thinking you can paint a little kid's room in a weekend.  Well, maybe you can.  I couldn't.   Especially if said little kid is under foot most of the time. 

Anyways, we started by picking out some colors.    Prior to this, her room looked like this...

Terrible picture, I know, but this poor kids room is TINY.  I think it is literally about 10 x 12.   And, there are no closets.  Anyways, it was really pretty with a lavender colored walls and lots of purple and pink.  But it has been this way since she was a baby and it was time for a change.

We had the "multiple personality" look going on with the curtians too. 

Her color choices for our makeover??    Yellow, Green, Red, and Pink.    Now, tell me:  How does one incorporate Yellow, Green, Red and Pink together and make it NOT look like a clown threw up?

Well there might be a way.

Step 1.   I taped off all of the edging

This was probably wasted time now that I think about it.   When I moved to the other side of the room, I did not bother taping and just used a nice angled edging brush and it all went fine. If you are careful and slow, you can probably edge out the room just fine without the help of tape.    Live and learn I guess.

Most of the furniture and accessories junk got moved out of the room and into my dining room for the duration, but we did leave a few big pieces in the room and I worked around them.  

Here are the two main colors that we chose

A Laura Ashley Home paint in yellow called Tulip and green accent called Gentle Landscape.   I was smarter on the accent color and tried out a couple of different samples first.   Home Depot carries Glidden paint and they have The.Coolest.Thing.Ever.

A tiny bottle of the color of your choice with a built in brush under the cap.  Makes it SO easy.   Unfortunately this first green was a bit TOO green and we went with something else.  

The yellow looked like a very soft and almost buttery yellow on the chip sample and in the can.

  We went with a NO VOC paint and it cost about 2X as much.   It supposedly does not release all kind of nasty "paint smell" vapors and whatnot into the environment, but I have to say I definitely did still detect a painty odor and it took almost 3 coats to cover.  Anyways..

This was after 1 coat.  Not so nice.  I was starting to get a bit nervous at this point.  

Two coats later and it was a Bright SPONGE BOB Yellow.  She loved it, but it was not exactly the "soft and soothing" I was looking for.   But, I will say that after it truly dried and kind of settled into the room, it did seem to mellow out a bit and I was pretty happy with it.

Here's a shot of our first attempt at a matching green...

There is really only a very subtle difference between this and the one I finally went with.   The colors are difficult to show in these photos.  But the little tester bottles make it so easy to paint a larger area and are only about $2 bucks a bottle.  Well worth the invenstment!

I didn't mind the first green along the window trim, but I also had these to work with....

Along one wall of the room there are built in bookshelves.  We had initially thought about removing them entirely, but with such a small room, they become a HUGE asset for storing things.   I just did not want THIS much area to be a bright  "Hello There I Am Green" Green.    So our search for the perfect accent color continued and we settled finally on a color called Gentle Landscape.   Very very happy with it.

I was only covering an off white color with the green and so only needed two coats.  I am SO HAPPY to be done with painting this room.   My hair has had green and yellow "highlights" for days and if I never see yellow paint again I will be happy.   Well worth the effort though.

Like I said, it is nowhere near done - I've got a few ideas in mind to put cute knobs on her dresser, some pretty artwork, and maybe a new rug or bedspread.   But this is how it stands right now...

The yellow looks a tid too bright in this photo - I've been trying to take pictures at different times of the day, but never seem to catch the lighting right!

The curtains are a simple almost sheer panel with some pretty tie backs attached.   You can read about the tie backs in this post.

I was very happy to find a way to get some cute accented tie backs that we both liked, without buying them at the store and that she could help put together!  So easy peasy lemon squeezy and defninitely inexpensive!!

And don't think I forgot about the red she wanted!   We've got a few ideas of how to incorporate that into this room as well.   Also on my to do list for this room is somehow making the outdated ceiling fan/light fixture resemble a sunshine.  

So please stay tuned as we continue the bedroom makeover - I've got lots more to show you!!

Smiles and Hugs,
Joyce