The Kids' Rooms Unveiled

Since we still have the entire house to redo, this is as good as the kids' rooms are going to get for now. Minus the absence of the closet doors and bedroom doors, of course! J still has those drying in the basement. I'm beginning to feel like waiting for paint to dry has become the story of my life! But, I was up at 4:30 am excited to hang the last things on the walls. There are some small art projects I will come back and add. I want to redo E's lamp shade and I haven't found the kids' books yet. But you get the point. oh, and for whatever reason, when they designed this house, they felt it was a good idea not to have any over head lighting upstairs. Hmmm.... whatever. I will be teaching myself how to do this soon so I can install the chandeliers I bought. Nevertheless, without further ado, here the rooms await H and E's return from Florida:

E'S ROOM:
REMEMBER, THIS WAS BEFORE:

THESE ARE ALL ANGLES AFTER:
(Notice the stuffed animal racks. Those are actually hanging planter baskets. I saw this on Better Homes and Garden several months ago. I love how it turned out!)




I WILL BE ADDING PICTURES TO THIS WALL:




ANOTHER SHOT OF HER BED:


H's ROOM:
HERE IS BEFORE: (Oh my God, YUCK!)



HERE IT IS AFTER: (never mind the mess in the hallway!)










Here are a few close ups of the hanging planter baskets I used in E's and H's room. And yes, I know the outlet cover is missing. I have to run out and buy new ones for every outlet in the house still! :)

The Truth About Painting Furniture

I did A LOT of research before attempting to paint my furniture. I grew up in a house where that was taboo and you did not put color on wood and veneer was absolutely not paintable. I guess that's why I kept waiting for someone to walk in and yell at me while I was doing this whole project! Anyhow, this is what I learned through trial and error and trying a few different things:
First, Zinsser cover stain is your best friend for this project! Note, this is oil based and doesn't just wash right off your hands and brush when you are done. In fact, make it easy on yourself and just buy a cheap pan to toss afterwards and you use cheap brushes for this project too so plan on throwing them away as well. And buy this baby in the gallon size because you will use it a lot once you see how easy this project is!

The other crucial items you need are FOAM brushes... I repeat FOAM!!! Zinsser picks up all and every fiber off a regular rolling brush. I also feel you need a small foam roller, a large foam roller and the giant bag of craft foam brushes for those hard to reach places and cracks. By the way, these are really inexpensive at Walmart. As much as I detest Walmart, it's worth the trip for the pan to throw away to the brushes.


Okay, next item you need is sand paper and wood putty. Here is the truth behind sanding... you don't even need to unless the piece is damaged. I know this because I tested this theory out. The bed I painted had been chewed by a dog and I sanded the crap out of the headboard. But, the foot board I left untouched except where the dog ate it. All I did was fill the holes and sand it after it dried for a smooth look.
CHEWED UP SECTION:

WOOD PUTTY BEFORE SANDING IT SMOOTH:


Now that you know the basics, one it comes to your final top coat of paint here's another tip. I went to Benjamin Moore and bought the paint all the websites recommended. It was $20 for a pint!!! I flirted with the paint man and that was even an employee discount! (Shhh.. don't tell J!) So I painted one dresser with this special expensive paint and one with the Behr Ultra Premium paint which runs $30 a gallon. You do need two coats of paint so the gallon is what you will end up buying. BUT... as long as you use TWO coats of Zinsser and 2 coats of the top paint... it doesn't matter! I had to use two coats of both types of paint and they look identical. This goes for the furniture I sanded like mad and the ones I was too tired to sand and just said "Eff it"! AS LONG AS YOU YOU A FOAM ROLLER, YOU DON'T NEED EXPENSIVE PAINT!!!! I ONLY USE FOAM ROLLERS!!!!

My last tip before you get started with this entire project is cleaning the furniture before you paint. Many people said to go with TSP. It's waaaay more expensive than my homemade version. I just put equal parts of white vinegar and water in a spray bottle and wiped it down with that. It took so much crap out of the wood! I did wipe it down before and after sanding too. You will be grossed out by the dirt it pulls out!! For the TSP... this is non toxic and works amazingly!

So here's the run down one more time:
1) clean
2) sand if you must
3) clean if you sand
4) 2 coats primer
5) 2 coats of paint
AND PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE... wait at least 8 hours between coats so you don't get a tacky piece of furniture. This parts sucks the most!!!

Here are my before and after pictures: (eventually I want to replace the hardware but I'm keeping it as is for now)
BED BEFORE:


BED AFTER:


DRESSER BEFORE:


DRESSER AFTER:



OTHER DRESSER AND TEASER OF E's ROOM:

E's Room Stage 1

We started with E's room first because it was the "easiest" and the farthest away from the main living quarters. The original room belonged to a boy who beat the crap out of the walls. After we removed the border, I went through and patched dings, knicks and holes with joint compound and sanded it smooth.


Her favorite color is green and her old room was a very pale pink. She wanted green and I went searching for a green color I liked that was minty of limey. I narrowed it down to three colors and let them sit for a day before buying the paint. I couldn't bring myself to paint the entire room green so I decided I wanted a chair rail in her room as well.



The molding in the house is all oak and really nice wood. Rather than rip it all out a spend a fortune replacing it, we decided to keep it and spend a life time painting it! Check out this tip for painting the trim near the carpet. All we did was rip down the exisiting vertical blinds and slide them under the gap between the carpet and trim. Then, I just extended the area with cardboard boxes since we have a million right now.



Here are pictures showing the progress of the room: