Our house was built in 1983. Not old, like turn of the century, but old like totally out of date. 29 years. Now, I can't complain really, my sweet father-in-law built this house. Lots of love and time went into building it.
My favorite part...it's solid rock. Hubby's mom would place a row of rock everyday, then when his dad got home, he would mix the mortar and place each rock where she had. It was built with love, devotion and family. I love this house for all that it stands for. I happen to love the style of it, it's just dated. We've been planning out renovations for it for the last few years.
I decided that most of it was fine except for the wood paneling all the way through, but that I really wanted to start with the bedrooms. Caroline's was 1st on the list.
Of course, it would have been great if I had remembered to take before pics...blonde moment, ahem. But I found one from Christmas that showed a little of what it looked like.
Horrible yellow walls. The paneling was painted years ago, and really needed to be re-done. And I have to admit, the orange carpet brings back childhood memories. But it had.to.go! I added the chalkboard heart a couple of years ago for some fun, and really wanted to keep it. So I decided to paint around it...
So I made the whole wall a chalkboard wall! Not that having a black wall thrills me, but I figured she would love it, and it would be tons of fun for her and her friends! 3 more walls...she wanted lots of color. I'd been buying quarts of discarded paint when I could find them. Very cheap way to get paint, and very effective when you need multiple colors.
We had pink, lavender, baby blue, and the yellow is really lime green in person. I couldn't figure out how to use 4 different colors, but decided if I followed the panels, I could stripe it. A little out there for me, but she's 9. If I had a striped wall when I was 9, I would have thought my mom totally rocked. Just sayin'.
I only striped the one wall. The other 2 walls are two-tone. Blue on top and green on the bottom. Oh, and a pink stripe in between :) These are painted horizontally. And I didn't take pics of that either. Oopsies.
We're putting up white molding top and bottom. Then in between each stripe there will be a 1-inch white trim board.
I still have to tackle the floors. That horrible orange carpet. Uggghhhh. I ripped up the carpet, hoping that the concrete wouldn't be too bad and that maybe I could just paint it. I didn't want to put in new carpet, because hopefully in a couple of years I can talk the hubby into wood floors through out. So I figured painting it would work too. But what color? She thought it would be "cool" if they were white and then splatter painted with all the colors on her walls. When we ripped up the carpet, this is just a small taste of what I found.
Hubby and his brother used the floor as their very own canvas while they were building the house! So stinking cute! I almost don't want to paint over all of it.
Ohhhh. It might help if I mentioned that she had NO clue what her room was gonna look like. I did it while she was at her dad's for the month of June. So when she came home, it was a big surprise. Which she loved. Adored. Screamed like a banshee when she saw it. Yay me!!!
We still haven't finished. We've been too busy playing. We're finishing the floors and molding next week. I'll take pics then and show the final result of our craziness. I have to mention that one of my best friends and her 2 kiddos helped me do ALL the work! If it hadn't been for them, I couldn't have done it!
Once it's all finished, then I get to start on her new pieces of furniture. I have a lot of furniture that I'm re-doing to put in her room. Her bed was my grand fathers, possibly my great-grandfathers. It's old, haha! It's getting a new vintage look as well as the antique buffet that's been in my family for generations. My guess is that it's getting within 10-20 years of being 100! It's gorgeous and one of my favorite pieces from my childhood home. It makes me unbelievably happy to put it in her room. My mom would be so happy. Then she has my antique vanity. And I still have to find something to use for her TV/radio. I'm on the hunt!
