I decided that I needed to switch my kids' room to make room for the new baby. My little girl's room was painted purple, and my little boy's room was blue and green....so if I wanted to switch I would have to repaint everything!!! When I first started out, it didn't seem too bad....but then after the first room and having to do 2 coats of primer and 2 coats of white to cover the blue and green up, I was ready to cry......and being 6 months pregnant at the time didn't really help matters much. ( if you want to do a room overhaul, make sure you have help doing it and that the person who said they would help actually shows up.....) I just wanted to post some pics of the befores and afters and then show off the cute technique I did for one of the walls.
This is a before picture of my little boy's room (soon to be the girl's new room). We had a Buzz Lightyear wallpaper border in the middle. I found some great stuff at Home depot that I sprayed on it and the stuff came off so easy....my daughter was actually able to peel most of it off. It took 4 coats to get those bright colors covered!
This was when I was done painting. All the walls were white and them I painted the purple on with a feather duster. Yes, a feather duster. =) To recreate that look here's what you do:
Put your paint in a wide bowl or paint tray. Lightly dip the edges of the duster in the paint. I would suggest getting some scratch paper and just trying it out before attacking your project. Then just lightly "dust" the paint on the surface. I had mine barely touch the surface and then i sorta swirled it around to get some lighter spots too. If you want to do multiple colors, (which looks really neat!) apply the darker color first, let it dry and then just go over with the other color. I wish I would have taken a video of it because it would be easier to show, but seeing as how it's hard to video and paint at the same time and my only other option was having the 3 year do it....I didn't think it would work out too well.....but believe me....it is easy! If you can dust, you can do this! And the best part is that it takes hardly any paint. You could get away with about 1/4 of a pint of paint....or you could easily get one or 2 of the sample paints and just use those.
Here's the up close shot.
See what a simple feather duster can do?
I can't really get a wide shot of the room, but Brenna is quite pleased with her new room, beds and everything =) It looks completely different! The other walls are all white but I found some super cute wall decals that were flowers and butterflies to put up, plus I have a cute picture I am going to make for one of the walls. (so stay tuned for that)
This was Brenna's old room. A nice bright purple. By the time I finished the other room and was getting ready to start this one, my hands were killing from the roller and my back was killing (remember, I'm 6 months pregnant while doing this.....) Lucky for me I have a sweet husband who helped a bit. He got out his paint sprayer for me to use. I couldn't in the other room because the primer had filler in it and would clog the gun. I was using a different primer here. I was told by the guy in the paint department at Lowe's that the primer I got would cover this in 1 coat and that the white paint/primer combo would cover in one coat.....he lied!!! the paint/primer combo was the one I used in the other room and I needed 2 coats. So just plan on doing at least 2 coats to cover up bright colors. Anywho....as I went to use the gun, it wouldn't work. I was on the verge of a meltdown because I didn't want to roller paint it all. My hubby came in while I went to pick up my daughter from school to see if he could get it working. When I got home he had a discouraged look on his face. He told me "Well.....I made a mess in there trying to fix it." I almost threw myself down on the floor and had a tantrum. (hormones!!) So he took me to the room and showed me his mess....while I was gone he got it working and painted the primer on the walls for me. Yay for an awesome hubby!! So then all I needed to do was wait for it to dry and then do the white with the sprayer. I was much happier =)
I did the same feather technique on one wall in Ian's new room. He is super happy. When I showed him his room his eyes got all big and he had a big grin "My room is green!" I am decorating his room in "silly monsters." So I wanted something bright. I also couldn't find a blanket with cool monsters anywhere (everything was Monsters, Inc) So I made his comforter for his bed. I will do a post later about that. I am also going to do some canvas painting of monsters for his walls, so that will be another post.
I'd say all the hard work paid off for the smiles my kids had.
I know this isn't really an tutorial, but maybe it will give you some ideas the next time you decided to paint a room.
