Remember way back in August, when I decided to get started on redecorating Brea's room bc she was getting ready to leave for college? I thought I'd make it nice and pretty for her for when she visited home, and I was very excited at all the possibilities - especially since she'd given me carte blanche for the task.
Here it is after we had painted some sunny yellow swatches on the walls...
I was a little disheartened when I realized she had used purple fingernail polish to stick various objects to the walls.. and when I tried removing said objects, the paint came off with them, revealing the drywall beneath.
I was also a little bummed when I realized that it was going to take more than a little elbow grease to remove the border.
That was back in August.
When I decided just a few days ago to resume the task of redecorating, I'd recovered from the shock of all the nail polish adhesive and 6,000 tack holes and 27 makeup base spills on the carpeting. I was ready to get on with the painting.
But painting was not in the forecast. Instead, I would be spending the next 4 hours removing about 18.5 million staples from the walls. All the way toward the ceiling.
Then I had to fill all tack holes with spackling, which I'd forgotten all about having to do.
See that nice long strip of exposed drywall? Sticking a bumper sticker there seemed like a good idea at the time, I'm sure.
After filling the holes, I sanded the walls and wiped off the dust and washed the leftover border remover off and then rinsed the walls again and then wiped them down and then taped the baseboards and then opened the paint, only to find that the special plastic pour-lid I'd put over the top of the can wasn't on all the way, so the entire can of paint was dumped into the paint tray.
Breanna, I know you're in college, but I can still ground you. So I ground you. Forever.
I have, in fact, finished Brea's room, with lots of help from Sabrina and Sophie. And it's a bittersweet thing, bc my Breanna won't be able to use her new room after all. Since my father-in-law's death a little over a week ago, my mother-in-law has finally been released from her two-month stay in the hospital, and she'll be living with us now. My husband has promised Brea her own room to be added in the basement though, so maybe she won't be so sad about losing her old room. After all, that space has seen everything from Barney bedspreads to sunflower drapes, and my sweet girl spent lots of time with her blankie in there, hiding from her crazy family. ;)
Once again, here is the room before:
And here it is now...
The artwork over the bookshelf is by Sophie. :)
Don't you just love that little bird on the shelf?
We left Brea's desk in there that she got when she turned 10, and I put a couple pictures of Frieda's little pooches on top.
Here are the curtains up close. I can never get enough of toile, and since Frieda's favorite color is blue, I thought it was a good combination.
I bought a slipcover from Target and put it on one of our old dining room chairs... and there's the plate I bought at the Good Will with my friends Kim and Kimm!
I'd like to thank my painter-ladies Sabrina and Sophie for getting the details done for me, and my mother for making the final selection on the paint color. Sabrina suggested a warm brown, and Mom went with Au Lait Ole. I think I should brew some Starbucks to celebrate such a lovely choice.
I'm very happy with the way it all turned out - and so is Sabrina, who didn't want to get up off the bed, but promised to smooth out the wrinkles when she did finally remove herself. (Btw, she also put the finishing touch on the wall: a photo of young Frieda with her family in Augsburg, Germany, back in the 1930's.)
My back aches, I'm exhausted, and I need to invest in a new staple-remover. But eventually I'd like to get some red samplers stitched and hung in there. (Feel free to stitch them up and send them along, okay?)
I love you, Brea. You'll get your room...after you're ungrounded.
