Home Makeover: Flawed Edition
I’ve been intending to blog about my adventures with a paint can (or 10) for quite some time now, but I’ve never quite gotten the homestead neat enough to do it. (If you’re a regular reader you know I’m a messie. I make no excuse for this.)
I finally decided I had to post, neat or not, because otherwise we’d move before I ever got the chance to show off my hard work. But here’s the catch: I’m doing it one room at a time. This makes it much easier for me, because I can shift all of the clutter from one room to the next while I take pictures. That way everything looks fake beautiful for blogland, and I don’t have to do any actual organizing and de-cluttering. Genius, right?
Our house is about 2 1/2 years old. Weird that I felt the need to re-do everything? Well not if you know me. First of all, I love to paint. Love it. And while the shades the builder selected are quite lovely, there are only two of them. And that just doesn’t work for me.
It all started with the kids’ playroom, which was quite dull. The color was builder’s choice, a golden camel-ish color that is attractive in our master bedroom, but looked dull and depressing in the kids’ areas. We could have had him use different paint colors (we bought the house while it was being built so we chose all of our finishes) but what would be the fun in that?
Much to my husband’s chagrin, I announced I wanted to paint it lime green. He was not on board with this decision. And really, he is the only one with a decent paying job which pays for the paint. (Although it’s worth noting that the only reason my stay-at-home-mom gig pays so poorly is because he’s the one underpaying me. Humph.) However, unfortunately for him, I am the one who does the actual shopping and painting. So guess what color we got?
No, I didn’t really buy it against his wishes. That would be wrong. I first helped him to understand that his wishes were misguided. And then he of course realized that he would never win anyway I was right all along. And when it was all said and done (entirely by me, I might add) he decided he likes it too. And I didn’t even have to tell him he likes it, he realized that all on his own.
I The girls love VeggieTales so I used the same Veggie decor from the playroom in the old house, and made a new valance for this window. (Pardon me if it’s picture overload. I’m kind of a home voyeur and I love to look at pictures of other people’s houses, so I’m assuming you’re the same. Right?)
And while the end result may not be worthy of posting on ‘Rate My Space’ or anything, I’m pretty happy:
In fact, I love the green even more now that it’s on the walls. It made me happy the whole time I was painting. And since our playroom is the bonus room above the garage with only one window, the amount of light is always an issue. This color made that room 10 times brighter and more cheerful! It’s a lot more fun to hang out there now.
And if any of you were looking at these pictures and thinking, “Does she seriously think that is a straightened up room?” the answer is yes. Yes I do. I have low standards, and it’s a playroom after all. If the mess is contained within and I can walk through barefoot without injury, then all is well in my book. So cringe away tidy ladies, I have made peace with my mess. 
Next stop, kid’s bedrooms! Tune in next week for more of my Makeover Mondays!
*Makeover Monday will be a weekly feature, and this is the first installment. I hope you will consider joining me! Feel free to snag the button above (Thanks, Nicole!) and link up with pictures of your own projects – painting, room decor, furniture, landscaping, your wardrobe… Shredheads feel free to post the all-new, shredded you! Any kind of makeover works for me, and it can be an older post too. Just link back here and sign Mr. Linky!
Oh, and I know there was no advance notice, but just in case you’d like to play along THIS week, here ya go:
Tags: crafts, DIY, home improvement, makeover, Makeover Mondays, paint, playroom
Crafty Stuff, Makeover Monday | Heather July 6, 2009
Facebook comments:
By Nella, July 6, 2009 @ 9:36 am
Cool stuff, Heather! I´ve always loved lime green on walls too. We have almost the exact same color in our guest room walls. Most guests haven´t complained, they´ve even claimed to have had a good night´s sleep… Can´t wait to see your next Monday´s post!
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By Kate, July 6, 2009 @ 10:54 am
Looks great!!! I would totally play this week, but the kids’ bath isn’t 100% done as of now. I was planning on posting anyways, but will for sure play with Makeover Monday soon!
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By Diane Campagna, July 6, 2009 @ 12:18 pm
Love the lime green walls. It’s funny how men are when it comes to color. I had a similar disagreement/discussion with my DH when painting our living room (they’re midnight blue, not lime green), but once it was up, he came around.
And I think that’s pretty neat for a play room.
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By Darcie - Such The Spot, July 6, 2009 @ 12:43 pm
Love that color. But then again I’m partial to anything in any shade of green.
Darn. You should have given me some sort of warning so I’d be prepared to play along. Maybe I’ll come up with something mid-weekish…
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By stephanie, July 6, 2009 @ 1:59 pm
Love it! But, I also love color!!
We can’t paint because we rent .. but in our “old” house we did. I was very happy with what we did, but the covering it up when you move is the not-so-fun part that I don’t ever look forward to doing again, either.
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By Melissa, July 6, 2009 @ 2:31 pm
Love the green, Heather! Kaelyn’s room is 3/4 apple green and one wall is pinkish-plum with big colorful flowers on it. So bright and cheerful — I love it! Now I’m thinking of painting my kitchen a little darker apple green too. Thanks for sharing!
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By Jo Y, July 6, 2009 @ 2:41 pm
What a lovely bright colour, just perfect for a play room
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By Rodd Cohen, July 7, 2009 @ 5:15 am
I understand your method of madness in painting one room at a time for the clutter moving issue but what is more important is the mental approach of applying paint colors with a whole house attitude. I find that my clients who do the “one room at a time” thing tend to wind up with a paint scheme I call the “lollipop tree house”…none of the colors relate to each other. The result is a disjointed and uncomfortable experience for the people living in the house. Colors are visible energy and as such have a profound influence upon your being.
I think that the lime color is fun and a good thing that it is isolated in the bonus room. More than likely, the builder used paint in your house he had leftover from another job. I find his “builder’s choice” to be an odd color, usually the builders just spray the house with some sort of off white.
The cost of a gallon of proper paint is not inexpensive and if money is a concern, it is best to choose wisely the first time rather than have a basement filled with unused and unliked paint choices…ask my clients, most of whom have their own little museum of paint cans in their cellars. :O
In your playroom, I would have taken it to the ends by painting the slanted ceiling and ceiling planes as well as the walls. These types of rooms (long and narrow) tend to look a bit like bowling alleys if the ceilings are not treated as well.
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By mary b, July 10, 2009 @ 11:26 pm
I think the green is great for the playroom! It goes so well with the Veggie Tales, too. Green can be such a fun, vibrant color, we have a very bright green bathroom.
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By Meredith, December 18, 2009 @ 10:44 am
I’m a fan of the green too… We actually painted our master bedroom that color in our last home. We had a nice french door in the room, that opened up to a lush green oasis in the backyard – so our feeling was that the green would make us feel like we were living outside. The empty green room scared us a bit. The color was “asparagus”, we joked that it was really “nuclear asparagus” or that kermit blew up in there. But after it was furnished it was crisp and fresh. It’s nice to go with bold colors!
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