Ever since we bought this house one of my huge pet peeves has been the walls. They are just sooooo dirty. There is crayon, dirt, footprints, fingerprints, food, smashed bugs, etc. It's just gross. But any time we try to wipe it off we end up rubbing the texture off as well. Needless to say the builders did not used primer or any type of high quality anything on the walls.
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So now with 3 boys and 1 girl and Michael and Vivian getting too old to share a room we decided we needed to put all the boys in one room and Vivian in her own room. But we are a little concerned about her being ok by herself. So we decided we would have to really make it a girl room with an actual place for all her girl toys. (There has never been a real area for girl things)
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One day I brought up this to them and asked Vivian how she felt about having her own room and how Michael felt about sharing a room with Theodore and eventually Lawrence. Vivian got all excited about a pink room with Rapunzel toys. I don't know about the Rapunzel toys but I can do Pink. Then at the last church swap I found a 5 foot tall castle that will stick on the wall. Pretty cool. Then Michael decided he wanted a Space room. He wanted the whole room painted black and I said, "NO!!! But we can paint the ceiling dark blue and the walls light blue for the sky."
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This whole conversation happened at least 4 months ago and it is all I have really been able to think about. John and I started something different with our money so that I actually have control over how some of it is spent. Plus I have still been doing the vending for my dad so I started saving and putting money aside until I finally had enough for paint. So now the project begins.
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Since the walls were so horrible and cheaply done we needed to do this right. So Conference weekend, John and I primed the walls. Then on Wednesday I put some tape up to prepare for painting the ceiling. I decided to just jump into it and get the corners done. (I don't think I have enough muscle power for the roller, so that is waiting for John to do) So here are the pictures of the room so far. I am including the top 3 inches of the wall into the space part because I didn't want to have to paint in the corners twice with each color. I figured it is a lot easier to only have one color in that region.
Oh yeah and John wanted the closet frame and the window frame painted with the dark blue as well. It is actually turning out a lot darker than I expected but oh well I'm sure not taking it back and starting over. ~~~
I thought I would also share with you my vision for the room and then the problems I am still trying to work out. So you know the basic colors of the room... dark on the ceiling and lighter sky blue for the rest of the room. My vision is to have planets and stars painted on the ceiling. Maybe a shuttle, a couple rockets, some comets, a tiny astronaut somewhere. Michael insists that Earth, Mars and Saturn are up there. I am still debating on if I am just going to have all this random up there or create some type of order. Like if I pretend the ceiling fan is the sun I could put all the planets in their correct orbit order around it but that sounds like a lot of measuring but it would help him learn it right I guess. (I don't even know or remember the correct order) And I thought about using the 3 inches of wall space to just do a border of stars evenly spaced around the whole room but if the rest of the ceiling is random I'm not sure how this will look.
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What is your oppinion: Should I put the planets in order? Should I do an even border of stars (stars would be about 1.5" wide and probably 2 inches in between each one) around the room?
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Then on the wall I wanted to paint a couple airplanes and other air vehicles as well as a few random clouds and such here and there and out of the back of one of the airplanes I want to pretend like it wrote words in the sky and it will say "Oh the places you'll go" in cloud letters. Also above where the crib will go is a huge area to decorate so I thought about a fleet of hot air balloons. The ones closer to the crib would be about 10-12 inches tall and closer to the ceiling they would be 1-2 inches tall. I also have one of those color your own posters, (the kind with the black velvet) of a carnival scene that I was planning on framing in there but I'm not sure if it will really fit in anymore.
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I was also considering painting a border of clouds right against the space line. That way I could leave the tape there, paint the light blue underneath it and then after I move the tape I could use white paint to create a solid border of clouds. I guess this would end up being an atmosphere border between earth and space. It seems like a smart idea but it sounds like it would look a little cheesy but not too bad.
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What is your oppinion: Should I still put the carnival poster up since I've already colored it? Should I use the tape line to create a border of clouds?
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So this is my vision but I do have a small issue to consider... I am not an artist. In my head it looks so cool and good. But in reality I don't have the ability to make it happen. I have heard of using an overhead projector to project the image on the wall and then you can trace it the size you want and then paint it in but I have a feeling that I will not be very good at that. I am an expert colorer. I can stay in the lines and win a coloring contest no problem. But when it comes to using paint and a paint brush it is a different story. So I have a few different ways I could carry this out.
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Method #1: Stick on Decals. I don't like this idea because we will have bunk beds in the room and they will be able to reach and probably pull off and ruin it. Plus they are expensive.
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Method #2: I could print pictures from home and color them. (This would tie in with what I am doing for Vivian's room) or I could use someones color printer and print them in color. Then I would cut the images out and decoupage them to the wall. I'm not sure if this method will look good with the texture of the wall and someone pointed out it may be hard to remove for future uses of the room.
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Method #3: I have a few stencils already, basic planets and stars. And I can make stencils out of laminate. If it's a stencil I am using I can just tape it to the wall and paint the different sections the right colors. Which may require at least 2 stencils per picture, one of the big shape cut out to get the basic color of the item on the wall and then one with the details cut out so I could add the appropriate accents in the appropriate colors. This method may be the best option for me but it will take a lot of time (preparation of stencils, taping and painting and drying and painting again). The pictures will turn out to be basic images like in a kids book (which may not be a bad thing)
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What is your oppinion: Which method should I use?
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Now onto a different kind of problem. One area I want to set up is a dress up station. My kids have a lot of dress up stuff and I need it to be more organized. I will have an area in Vivian's room for the more girly stuff but I have a bunch that is more boyish that I would like to put in the boys room. The only wall space I will have available is right under the window and inside the closet. I will need a small shelf to put all the accessories on, long hooks for hats and hooks for clothes. For example, I have a fireman coat and a heavy plastic fireman hat, a construction hat, an ironman mask, a cowboy hat and fancy top hats. I have a doctors smock with a stethescope, construction tools, sunglasses, magnifying glasses. All the hats require a hook that would stick out at least 3 inches and preferably point upwards. They have those hooks one for a jacket and one for a hat. Those would probably be ideal but cheap ones look kinda cheesy. I did buy 8 knobs that stick out about an inch and a half but they are designed for knobs on a dresser or cupboard not hooks that go straight on the wall like I thought. These knobs would work for hanging all the other clothes items if I can figure out how to get them on the wall. I do have quite a bit of scrap wood as a resource but not sure of what to build it into.
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What is your oppinion: What could I use or build (with limited funds) to hang my hats and organize the dress up stuff?
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I really want feedback on this. I might not be able to incorporate everyones ideas but I still need more ideas than I can come up with by myself. Like I said, I've been thinking about this almost nonstop for the last few months and now that I am ready to do it, I need to decide the best way to carry out my vision. Thanks so much for your time and help.
