I'm not one to shy away from dark colors on my walls, as the 5 of you reading this probably know. I had originally painted the kids' rooms brown when we bought the house. I was going for a rich creamy tan. It was much darker than I anticipated! I didn't bring any strips home for testing before I bought it, so I had to just deal with it. But with the mismatched bedding, the blanket on the window (that replaced the once-again-torn-apart blinds) and very little space between the twin beds, it was feeling too dungeony. The boys refused to play in there. Max was always afraid to have the door shut. So we are slowly making changes. I wasn't going to post anything about it until it was completely done, buuuuuttttt that might be a while! The first thing we wanted to do was get more space. Rob built bunk beds in the space of a few hours.
Yep, he's pretty cool.
We'll take them outside this spring and paint them, maybe. I bought a shelf from Ikea to store toys and books in their room, instead of the hall closet. It is so nice to not have a gazillion toys strewn about my living room!!
Those two things already made a world of difference. The boys would actually play in their room! Aaahhh, peace. I bought some cute bedding. This weekend I painted.
Huge change! The color we picked out (I wisely chose to bring home samples this time) is called Parmesan. I love it. It's a very very light, creamy yellow. It's tranquil. I'm hoping it will help induce sleep. So far... well... maybe it takes time. I'm just glad it's light enough to help me see where I'm going in there.
Next paycheck I'm going to pick up some window treatments and pray that the boys don't destroy them. I'll also try to find things to put on the walls. Once again, that's the hardest part for me. I'll be roaming pinterest for ideas in the meantime.
The BEST PART OF ALL: Before and after pictures.
This shows how dark it was. The boys discovered a sun beam. It was pretty epic. The window ...ugh. It's the bane of my existance. It's a south facing window, so their room gets melty. You break a sweat 30 seconds after walking in. I know you can buy those temporary shades for the arch, but they don't really block the light, and they would probably last a day before turning to ash. So mom and I threw together this.. thing. Styrofoam covered with fabric. It was nice at first, then got pulled down by some unknown imps and smashed up. Now it's very fragile and I'm going to say that's also why it's so ugly. It's been fairly successful in blocking the sun, so it's stayed there.
I turned the light on. You still need a flashlight to navigate the murky waters. (AKA toys.)
Fresh, new, not to mention adorbzies, bedding! I really did just use that word. Mazie is enjoying her perch. (That's Max's stuffed giraffe, his version of Connor's Froggy)
Glorious.
Just so y'all know, the pictures and the moon will eventually be hung back on the walls. When I figure out where. I also plan to re-upholster the little rocking chair. It's stained and ripped in places. Imagine that. And it no longer has equally depressing decor surrounding it to make it feel better about itself.
That's it for now! I will leave you with these images of perfection:
