Two Thirds Blue

We had the baby!  Our little Maxwell is doing awesome and we all are so hard in love with him it’s kinda crazy.  I honestly did not expect to go into labor on my own and was counting on this past week to prepare for his arrival (hence no posts were ready!).  We still have some small tasks to do for him to get fully settled in but thankfully it’s not my first rodeo and I have plenty of boy stuff 🙂  The funniest part of his early (can I say one week late is early?!) appearance is that we are still getting used to his name.  We actually decided to go into the hospital with two name options and he came out with neither one.  I’ll share more on that later as well as a whole bunch of other pictures and I really wanna knock out his birth story fast this time…so be on the look out for that in the coming weeks.

Until then, I really am so excited to continue sharing the big boy’s room makeover.  It was one of my biggest goals to finish this space before Max arrived and I love how it ultimately turned out.  If you remember, this was the space before…

Some of you may be thinking “WHY THE HECK?!”….and you might be right.  Why the heck would we go through the effort to redo a perfectly good room when we have so many other spaces that need addressing?  I mean…their sink nook is still PINK and has cracked tile.  Well….it’s simple really.  This room is now Will and Weston’s room.  And I wanted to make sure that both boys understood that this room was their shared space.  One of the best ways to give a space a different meaning to a five year old (because let’s be honest, Will was the one that we really wanted to make understand) is to make it DIFFERENT.  We didn’t want Will to feel like it was his room that Weston slept in….it was both their rooms.  It was equally both boy’s.  It may be silly but to us, this is the best way to get them to understand.

Another question might be “Why are you making them share?”.  Well…we feel like the kids could benefit from sharing.  I shared with my sister growing up and look back at that as a learning experience.  In our home, we have plenty of space inside and outside and we feel like it’s not a big deal to share a room which is basically just a sleep space.  Also, with only three bedrooms upstairs besides the master, and four kids now….Bower’s gotta share.  It’s simple math.  This is going to stay their room for a very VERY long time.  Dear Will & Weston…love you, get comfortable 🙂

So one of my favorite things previously about the room was this burlap wall.  It added so much texture but ultimately I knew that I would have to remove it when we repainted.  I am in the process of trying to narrow down all the paint colors in the house so that they keep with our “house color scheme” and that meant that this room (painted Martha Stewart’s Sisal in the photo above) would get a fresh coat of paint and the burlap would say goodbye.

I put together this photoshop pic a long time ago when we repainted the beds…I still was a huge fan of the 3/4 wall look so I told Jeremy that I wanted to redo the paint but use this as a fun wall treatment.  Thankfully Jeremy didn’t hate it.  That happens and then I have to pull out my “I’m pregnant and crying” card.  Just kidding….that never happens….kinda.

The burlap was pretty technical when it came to uninstalling it.

Yeah.  I literally had to use brain power to rip it off the wall…with BOTH HANDS.  I used needle nose pliers to get the staples out.

The holes weren’t that bad actually.  I used a little drywall filler to fill each one and then we sanded till smooth.

I like the joint compound that is pink in the can and then turns white when it is dried.  It’s the best way to not waste time.

Then we whipped out the white paint and painted the upper third of the walls.  It only took us one can of paint to do the entire room.

I use eggshell finish on all the walls in the house.  It’s not as cheap as flat paint but it cleans up better.

In this case, I just went with untinted brightest white paint (Glidden brand since they were having a sale).  This helps me in the long run because I won’t forget the color for touch ups.

LJ really wanted to help.

The story behind this photo is that he is like a ninja going up the stairs.  He is seriously the quietest kid when he sneaks upstairs and it is always to get into trouble.  We need a baby gate BAD.  Jeremy had called me downstairs to help him address a diaper situation with Weston….and we heard him….this was pre-support-belt for me so I was slow as a snail….I yelled “JEREMY!  LJ IS ON THE STAIRS!  THE DOOR IS OPEN TO THE PAINT!” and Jeremy SPRINTS.  It was like code red, def con one….and sure enough, as Jeremy reaches the boys doorway he sees LJ reaching into the paint can.  The thing you can’t see is the other sock is at the bottom of the can.  I found that gem later.  Thank goodness for drop cloths.

After the paint was dry, Jeremy went around the room and marked 26″ from the bottom of the crown molding with a little pencil mark.

He did it every three feet or so.  This helped us when we went to put up the tape.

Since this was freshly painted surfaces, we used sensitive painters tape on the top and regular painters tape every where else.

The sensitive tape doesn’t stick as well….but it also doesn’t pull off the fresh paint either.  Fresh paint might be dry to the touch but it’s not fully cured so that means it can come off.

I made the line extra sharp by doing a little pre coating.  Basically you paint the edge of the painters tape with the previous color (in this case white) so that the new coat (blue) will have no chance to bleed through.  Most painters tape is so advanced that this isn’t needed but honestly, I feel like this isn’t extra work and it absolutely ensures no touchups.  #worthit

Also…don’t ask how I got paint in the armpit of my shirt.

After I went around the room with the white, it was time for the blue.  I used the same color as in the laundry room….Martha Stewarts Kerry Blue Terrier.

I cut in first….I knew that if I tuckered out, I could count on Jeremy to do a good job rolling so I just did this task first.

I love this color.  It’s kinda like a denim color in a way….blue but not in your face and not too crazy saturated….it’s kinda like the perfect pair of jeans….goes with anything.

Speaking of going with things….it really goes well with the fan.  We did the makeover with gray stripes and they even have this blue undertone that matches the walls.

So after the walls were done with two coats, it was time to peel off that tape and start putting the room back together.

And that is where I leave you.  Isn’t it amazing how a little paint can make a room feel so different?!

Before, Will asked me if I was going to paint the walls red (his current favorite color).  I told him that Weston’s giant “W” was going to come in here and it was already red and he seemed satisfied with that answer.  Crisis averted!  And then after we painted it blue, he told me that blue was good and that he was going to “love it forever”.  (the picture below is crazy and shows the rug as having bright blue stripes but they are actually dark navy.  I don’t know how that happened.)

Next up is the curtains and a quick furniture rundown for the room (we had to tweak one piece and it’s so cute!).   After that…adding headboards to the beds, costume boxes, art, and finishing touches!  Then the final reveal!