Love For Turquoise - Guest Bedroom Makeover

After drawing my inspiration from the Turquoise And Red Bedroom design board that I had put together a few weeks ago, I finally transpired that vision into reality (after a lot more takes). I chose my color theme from the design board and wanted to introduce it in one of our guest bedrooms (existing wall color was Beige all over).

Inspiration pic:

Outcome:

Plan A:   My vision initially was to get one of the walls with the chevron pattern (beige + turquoise) and keep the rest of the wall as is (the beige color). I and my partner in crime laid out a plan on paper before we actually went on to create the chevron pattern on the wall using painters tape. Soon my unwilling husband realized this method had diminishing returns and that I was being penny wise and pound foolish.

Plan B:   So, we order the Chevron pattern stencil and use that instead of marking and masking the wall with painters tape. I was trying to save my money on the stencil (40$). It took a couple of weeks for the stencil to arrive. My enthusiasm fizzled out and I had to stop abruptly when I wasn't able to get the perfection despite using the stencil (probably due to improper techniques and lack of experience).

Plan C:   Just paint all 4 walls the beautiful turquoise by taking the simpler route. It took just 4 hrs start to finish getting all the walls done. Unfortunately, I wasn't happy with the color after they went up on all 4 walls. I couldn't do much about it at that point but to leave it like that for few days and see if the color would grow on me. My feelings didn't seem to change. It still wasn't sinking in.

Plan D: After continuous thoughts, I decided to paint it in insipid white (back to basic). So went and brought primer. While at the store I decided to get a quart can of tomato red color (the accent color as per the design board). Thought I would create some easy geometric pattern on the white wall and will use the leftover turquoise and  red paint sparsely on the patterns. Even though I bought all the supplies I was going back and forth with the idea. Afterall it is hard work to repaint and start from scratch.

Plan E: I had a couple of visitors in between and they did not have a negative response like I did to the turquoise walls. They suggested me to leave it that way (at least for few more years) and not to hurry in painting it over. Thanks to Usha aunty who suggested that instead of painting it all white I could use a little white color (may be some design or something) to tone down the turquoise a little bit and that should probably do the magic. That gave me this idea of creating just a single line of the chevron pattern using white paint over the turquoise wall. I already had white paint left from my other painting projects which would be just enough to do the chevron pattern. I eventually also made use of my stencil in giving the final touch to this rather pesky guest bedroom project.

After 2 rolls of painters tape,  multiple coverup plans and some scrub-a-dub with carpet cleaner, this project would not have seen the light of the day without my dear darling hubby's strong muscle, laser cut precision and unconditional patience. Even though it's quiet not what I imagined it to be, I still think it is a beauty (in the eyes of its beholder).

I intend to change my accent pieces down the lane for this room. But for now, the bedroom is more than ready to cosy up it's guest in its new adorned look. So, who is going to be the lucky one to enjoy this fresh new space?

Details:

Color - Brand:BEHR ULTRA Number: 500B-4 Color Name: Gem Turquoise Finish: Eggshell.
I gave only one coat and got that color. But it did take a couple of days to actually show up this true turquoise.

Roller - I used semi rough to smooth surface microfiber roller for the turquoise and used a smaller size "high density foam roller" for the chevron pattern.

Stencil - CuttingEdgeStencil.com

Quilt Set: Online Target Mudhut Brand.

Accessories: Garage Sale finds and used some spray paint for the pop of red.

Fun And Flamboyant Orange Radiates Warmth And Energy - (Color Theme For My Boy's Room)

Atlast I got his room done. I had promised my son that I would paint his room before his birthday. There you go I am way ahead. The tough part was to convince him (and convince myself) to refresh his (my) mind from his (my) very own vision of how he (I) wanted his room to be.
When we moved into the house, the first thing he said was mommy "I already have chosen which room I want for myself". Little did I know he would take me to the "Master Bedroom" and said "This is going to be my new room". I asked him why would he want to take the biggest room? Isn't that too big for just one person? I had to talk him out of it and he agreed only if I would promise that I will be sharing "The Master Bedroom" with his dad and not have the whole room for just myself. For some reason he thought we each (3 of us) would get our very own room and that mommy would take the biggest of all (Not a bad idea!).

So he picked out next biggest room that was available. I casually told him to "start thinking" about how he would want to decorate his room and blurt came the answer I want "Space Theme" and "Dinosaurs". Typical of boys that age I may guess. So I kind of knew what he would want but I did not expect that he had already been planning it. His answer to my question did not end there. He said - "I want my room in Orange Color (Wall and Ceiling), I want a bunk bed and I want the bed to be right in the middle of the room like an island!". Then he showed me where he wants his toys. There was no mention of school books or any desk. When I asked him about that he said - hmmm lets keep them in one of the shelves in the kitchen. Reason for that - Since he is going to need help for his homework most of the time, it will be easy for me to help him if its in the kitchen. Well thought! but I wasn't ready to share my kitchen at that time, now its a different story - I finally gave a cabinet for him in my kitchen.

Boy oh Boy! none of his idea resonate with me. I did not want to say "No", so I said - Lets think more about it and plan. Whenever we spoke/discussed we never were  able to reconcile. Finally I had to say "No to Orange color" and "No for Bunk bed" and " A definite No for keeping the bed in the center of the room".

My reasons for saying
"No" to bunk bed" - because he doesn't want to sleep on the higher one, I did not see a point in a bunk bed then (maybe later when he is ready for that I would trade his current bed for a bunk bed for sure).
"No for keeping the bed in the center of the room" - Come on need I care to give a reason!
"No to Orange color" - Well this is where the debating actually started. I knew Orange is my son's favorite color so I thought I would try to bring in some orange in the form of bedding, accessories etc. But he kept saying he wanted Orange on the walls. I did not want to enter a room that looked like furnace for sure. But for Seattle's weather I bet Orange is actually not a bad one to see on the wall. So the debate was actually in my mind rather than with my 6 year old.

I started to ransack the internet to find one inspiring pic that would make me say an affirmative "Yes" or even "Ok" for the "Orange" color. I couldn't wrap my head around this. One funny thing that happened in the mean time though is - One day G came to me and said - "Fine if you don't want to paint the walls Orange, Can you at least paint the closet Orange?!"...Poor guy, It appeared like he finally just want to get this over with and was haggling with me to at least get it done :)

After the scavenge hunt I eventually found one to which we were 100% onboard. Here is the inspiration pic.

Here is the final outcome of our attempt -

Even though the brain behind this is me the effort is a collaborative one that includes my husband and my little one (with clean up) - Thanks Sweetypie.

Few things that are noteworthy here are -
I bought some furniture legs from IKEA and used those to make this vertical self lay horizontal. The shelf is a typical IKEA one that I had in my apartment as a showcase near my TV cabinet. I asked my husband to remove the doors (Dear door please don't feel separated, I will upcycle you later).

Those black geometric pattern thing is from one of my favorite online shopping store Overstock.com. They are actually sofa chair's seat cushions for outdoor furniture. I bought those as seating for my bay window. They did not fit so I had been using it as floor cushions in my prayer room. After I put my son's room together it just occured to me why don't I just stuck it in as headboard since his platform bed did not have headboard anyway.

I bought some shelf brackets (Amazon.com) and used them to hold his skating board. The skating board was gifted by one of our friends on his 4th birthday and I really don't think he will be ready for it until he is 8. So while we still hold on to it in the garage, I just thought I would use it as display shelf until then.

The unique car shaped lamp is from my another favorite online shopping store Wayfair.com. There were very few options for kids (Boy's) room . But the ones that I loved were a little expensive ranging from 210$ to 270$. I had a price watch on those for a long time and I found that one of the lamps had a huge price slash (just in time while I was planning to paint his room). I bought those using one of the gift cards that a friend of ours gave us as house warming gift (Thanks Swati and Saurabh).

The space theme stickers I bought from Sherwin William's paint store while I was shopping for paints. They were on sale for 10$. I had those on his walls when we moved in and since they are peel and stick it was easy for me to reuse those after I finished painting. Between, Venus is my son's favorite planet!. Thanks to Chitra Aunty who suggested that I should do some art on that black patch through out. I am not artist so I decided to go with these stickers.

The white shelf where the casio is resting is a spice rack that I bought from IKEA.

The panel curtains are from IKEA. Shamefully it took 2 hours for me and my husband to hang this.

The monogram is my self creation of my son's initial 'G'. I used nail/thumb tacks to create this.

I bought those orange metal baskets from dollar store for storage purpose.

My reward - After the paint was all coming through while I was doing some clean up, my son came running to me and gave me a loving hug and said - I Love it so much mommy, thanks for listening to me! LOL.

Something For The Wall

For a very long time I have been wondering what could I do to dress-up my family room Mantel area. I couldn't come to terms with the idea of buying something from the store and having it placed. But I am no artist to do a canvas painting. I even thought of doing some abstract painting but I was reluctant to buy that big piece of a canvas (costs quiet a bit) only to find that oh well there it goes in the pooper!

One of these days while I was doing my usual browsing on the internet (Pinterest specifically) I came across a picture with no description or anything. Here is the picture below. WOW, that is it, that should be an easy one to make, big enough for a mantel. But I had no idea where to start, what to look for.  I tried various combination of search words for the candle holders but nothing I could find that I liked or that could drive the effort.

                  Months went by and had totally forgotten about this until.........

One day I was starting to read about Terrarium and saw this pic in one of the related blog. I immediately knew this is what I have been looking for! So its not candle holders but its a Terrarium globe that I need to look for. I was absolutely thrilled and my brain seemed like it had already planned how I want to make it a reality.
I knew I had to buy nails to hang them, I was going to go with wooden board for the back, both of which I knew I could get in Home Depot. I was going to do my little staining project on the wooden board.
But I din't have to go that far. While we were shopping at Home Depot my husband was able to find a pre-cut black chalkboard (made of thick cardboard) that was more or less the size that I was looking for.
From here on my effort ended and I was more of a project manager than the hands on worker. That's right once again ladies and gentlemen introducing my husband :). I explained him how I wanted it to be placed/hung and he diligently measured and drilled holes on the board and screwed in the nails. I painted (black) around the nail drill area that had exposed the cardboard particles.
To hang it my husband drilled some hooks on the fireplace crown molding and used a sort of invisible wire (That is not actually invisible) that could hold the weight up without any issue.
After we hung the board and the globes we felt like it din't pop like I was expecting it to. I had this feeling like "Something is missing". So I decided to buy something shiny that would give it the dimension that we were looking for.
I bought a 10 yard ribbon of rhinestone and decided to stick them as border. While I was using a superglue to stick that I made a blooper! In my defense I did not notice it to be "super" glue, I thought it was just another craft glue. Yes, I got it on my fingers and it was terrible to get it off. I even cried thinking its going to be permanent  and in that 20 min window and out in my frustration my mind was racing with million thoughts  - How am I ever going to get my finger prints back and they won't let me back in the country without my original finger prints!  - OK ...there is nothing to laugh about it. It can happen to anybody.
Diffusing away from the scene above, here is the end result(some pics below). Thanks to my husband once again for calming my nerves down and asking me to soak my hand in warm soapy water (and that helped).

Update With A Tint

What I thought would sound normal to my husband came to him as a jolt. His first reaction was "You have gone crazy". I agree, I am crazy but a sound of restriction to my idea is never good. I will make sure I get my way through it. So, what exactly lead to this reaction. I said I wanted to give a makeover to our dining table, which by the way is already perfect to my husband (and may be to the rest of the world).

I know, I totally hear your reaction. Thanks for all those who support my makeover decision :)
Speaking of perfect, it is so subjective and relative to every viewer. Well I'll give you that it is relatively new (we bought it 6 months ago) but it sure wasn't perfect to me. If it's not my liking then its not perfect - so simple.

For all those who are thinking like my husband, I really don't have any substantial reasoning to convince you.
I read this somewhere around my vicinity, it said - "some minds are like concrete, they are already mixed up and set"  - So if your mind is already set I really don't think I would try to explain myself.
Probably the same saying applies to me too (in a positive way). You see I am determined :)

So, we (I) bought this dining table online after my husband gave his specifics about his liking and budget. After multiple searches finally we agreed on the one that we bought.I always wanted a glass top one for the formal  dining area and my husband wanted a solid wood just like the one in Biju's house (one of our friend). I had a different taste than his of course. But since I got to do the chairs according to my liking, I had to give in for the table choice. When the piece arrived, as usual the online blunder surfaced. The wood stain was not what I was expecting to see. I liked the style but the color looked very non-contemporary (don't want to say traditional). Right away I knew either we (I) will disown the table soon or I will have to update with a tint of my choice.

After watching ton of videos and reading blogs I dared to venture into my very own staining project. I knew I was risking what I already had with my inexperience. But I had to go for it. With my husbands help we disassembled the table and moved it into the garage. We bought the needed supplies from Home Depot (A home improvement store). Then the grueling process of sanding started. My idea was to just take off the varnish shine and not go to the bare wood.It's almost near to impossible to get to bare wood if I was going to sand it by hand. Half way through sanding I realized I may have messed up the whole piece by putting more effort than what is required. I scratched around rather rubbing it along the wood grain (despite knowing the no# 1 rule of sanding at the onset). Well, there is nothing you can do about it, the harm is already done and so I had no choice now but to keep going.

It took me about a total of 2 hours to sand down - (pitched in at different times), I gave the 1st coat of stain (after cleaning the dust of course). I hated it more than ever. Pssstt...I sure did start to doubt my decision and even called it quits and started to search for a new dining table online (again). But my dear darling husband (who was unsupportive at the beginning) did not take this opportunity to nitpick on me.
Instead he encouraged - gave me a pep talk, hugged me and asked me to finish what I started. He gave me hope that the second coat might give what I am looking for.
After my second coat voila, I did it. I brought back life into the table (and also myself). Now it has the finish (close enough) that I was aiming for. I was even able to cover-up the scratches too (most of it). Finally things worked out (I want to think).

So what did I learn through this - Well I learned a lot of things (and so did my husband), here are some:

1) Even-though you may use a brush to do the staining, it is still staining and not painting. It takes time for the the stain to set in (normally 24hrs between every coat). So be patient.

2) Most every DIY project will have some flaws (especially when done by a novice). Majority of the times there will be someway to patch it up. Bing/Google it.

3) we spent 400$ (Cost of the table) + 50$ (On the makeover supplies) to bring it to my liking. If we would have spent a little more time and if I had exhibited the same patience that I showed in my sanding, may be we (I) could have bought a table that had the style and stain to my liking for the same cost. But I would have never learnt the art of staining and put my very own hand stamp on it - feeling accomplished - which is "Priceless" :)

And what did my husband learn? The answer is ....................... well you all know! :)

Here are some pictures for you and the final updated look of my dining.

 I painted the walls myself and took help from  Pankaj (our friend) in fixing the chandelier.