Sunday, February 20, 2011

Good-Bye Forever, Part One


Good-bye to the wildflowers. This was Zoe Bug's room, and she loathed it for ages. I get no appreciation from that kid, I tell you. It took me months to stencil all the wildflowers and bugs onto these walls, and she has the nerve to tell me that a) her favorite color is brown and she does not even like purple, and b) she hates bugs and flowers.

The nerve. Ever since Zoe BUG was in Mrs. Moeller's preschool class, her favorite color has been brown. Brown! Zoe's first grade teacher pulled me aside early in the year to ask if Zoe was color blind because why would a kid prefer brown over every other color in the rainbow?

A kid who likes chocolate, that's who. It's in the genes, I think.

Well, I told Zoe that I would never be painting this room again, so she better get used to it. And I stuck to my guns for a long time . . . but then we decided it was time to pull up the nasty seventeen-year old carpet in her room.

And when you're pulling up carpet, you might as well repaint, right? You don't have to worry about taping off and you can fling the paint around willy nilly without worrying about the floor.

I couldn't pass up that opportunity. I could be Jackson Pollock for a day.


I started ever so gingerly by painting over my flowers. I had to take a moment of silence in preparation for saying good-bye.


And I got over it faster than I expected. Painting without consequences is very rewarding. I embraced it with reckless abandon.

What? I stepped in the paint tray again? Silly me. Look! Footprints. Oopsie.


Before I knew it, the top of the wall was done. This next part is my favorite.


The color is milk chocolate. No lie.


This is the new flooring. It's a wood laminate, and all of our bedrooms have the same type of flooring as well as the hallway and living room. With the dog and two cats, it's much easier to keep clean. Cleaning carpet is loathsome. Yes, I think I just made that word up.

Nope, I just looked it up and it's a real word. Goodie, I have lots of uses for it.


This was the closet before. Since the carpet had to come out, so did everything else. That means the shelves too. I loathe painting closets, so since I never plan to do this again, and now it's in writing, the closet went white.


Never. Again.


This is the closet put back together, but it's not organized yet. We started this project a month ago, and putting everything back is a loathsome process. 

See, it's a useful word.

As I was saying, the girls both have so much crap, and we are going through everything and purging as much as I can get my hands on, but things keep coming out of the Goodwill box and finding their way back into the room. Which then forces me to accidentally break things in order to make the eviction permanent.

I'm tenacious like that.


I considered decapitating this freakishly large unicorn stuffed animal and playing Godfather with it, but I'm afraid it might scar Zoe Bug for life.


This is the furniture we had in the room before. It's all white picket fencey looking, and it doesn't really go with the new vision for the room. Horsey.

Although, I am not going to stencil horses on the walls. I've had to repeat this statement to Zoe Bug at least 587 times.


I have this Old West Cricut cartridge that I'm going to use to embellish the room a bit. Eventually.

And I am not going to go overboard with this theme like I did with the wildflowers and bugs. 

I'm saying that to myself as an affirmation. I might need reminding.

I tend to take a theme and beat it to death.

Geez, where was I? Oh yeah, furniture. We swapped out this furniture with some of Stinkerbell's furniture because it doesn't scream DAINTY FLOWER! like this furniture does.


And the bedding. Sniff. It's covered in bugs and flowers which are now loathsome.

I'm going to kill that word from here on out.


Here's the new bedding. I got it from Pottery Barn Kids and it's boy bedding. I picked it because it's relatively neutral with no theme, and it has blues and browns. Perfect for the look I'm going for. The dog under the bed was not on the design board and is not part of the vision for the room. The trundle bed is now in that spot. You might see it when I do part two of this post. Possibly in August.


I need to redo the magnetic board, but that's not high on my priority list. For now, it's tucked away next to the dresser.


The window treatments are gone. The vertical blinds were a pain in the neck. The individual slats were always breaking off.


For now, this is all we have up. I'm toying with the idea of a blue bandanna treatment. Since I have to make it, it could take awhile. This works for now.


The toy box needs to be repainted and debugged. Perhaps we'll pull the wings off. I mean replace the dragonfly with a neutral back. Again, I'm not in a hurry.

I also put an old wood dresser in here, but I forgot to take a picture of it, and I'm too lazy to run upstairs and rectify the situation, so I'll get back to you on that in part two.


Meanwhile, this is what Stinkerbell's room looks like. For three weeks all Zoe's stuff was either stuffed in here, or stored out in the living room. It was awful. I cannot stand living around so much chaos, and it made me cranky. I was obsessively washing dishes just so I could have one room in my house that was put together.

No matter that it's always an illusion anyway. In my mind it's very different. But then I'm crazy.

12 comments:

  1. Jill, you and I need to hang out! I started my sons room in Oct-finished Phase I....................................................maybe I will get to Phase II before he graduates! LOL-- I hate chaos too, but somehow don't have the energy to do anything about it.

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  2. I wrote you a nice comment and it disappeared! Oh well, I think your before was gorgeous, sorry it wasn't fully appreciated! We painted our kitchen the same chocolate brown, I think it's marvey! And I think the neutral bedding is really nice as well. Your daughter is a trip! Brown???? My daughters both love wearing shades of brown, but I can't imagine them calling it a favorite!

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  3. Some great work there Jill! Love it! My kids rooms we did over the summer. I just didn't paint. To lazy for that LOL!

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  4. Looks great, Jill! I've been there in changing out a room you've put a lot of work into for those ungrateful ~ I mean darling children of ours! Of course, afterward I realized I liked it a lot more than my daughter did, so I let them guide me in future redecorating.

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  5. I like brown, it goes with everything. I have lots of brown in my house! It makes me feel grown up. :)

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  6. I love brown just for the simple reason it reminds me of chocolate. It makes me feel warm and happy.

    But I like bugs too :) a lot.

    Love how everything is looking so far, you are a great Mom, my kids are stuck with their colors for a few more years... unless I get another painting bug.

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  7. Oh jill sorry your hard work was unappriciated. I hate that. It was super cute! But those troublsome stubborn ones lol what are we to do. Hopefully it pays off in the teen years when they refuse to be swayed (either that or their followers will over throw us ) lol who knows lol it looks very nice now non the less

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  8. I expect to see horseshoes all over the walls by July. Remember, don't go overboard... much.

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  9. Loving the new horsey theme... but then, I have been a horse girl from day one. Not that the flowers werent nice... I just prefer the whole horse thing.

    and how ADORABLE is that old west cart? I LOVE it!!!

    cant wait for part 2!!

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  10. wow Jill, that was a lot of work!!! It looks wonderful. Just remember, do the vinyl thing with the horses and your cricut. :-P you can peel those babies off!!! :-P

    I hear you for living in chaos... and the crankypants that come with it. And now I'm going to have to get off my butt and actually start posting again with all the stuff we've been doing.

    The Zoe's room looks awesome!

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  11. I really like the bug room. It was cute but the brown will grow with her and I like how you did two shades. I can't wait to see when it is finished.

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  12. We are redoing our nearly 14 year old duaghter's room now. She is currently de-junking. Good gracious you should see all the junk!! I think I'll document the process and share in my blog later...wonderful idea.

    And I loved her room before but after is way cute, too;)

    I haven't been here in awhile. Wanted to say hi and catch up!!!!

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