A Tale of Two Bedrooms: Part Two

The second bedroom was orginially a pale blue, with oak closet doors and white curtains. The room's new owner selected a very bright, almost tropical, blue from Sherwin-Williams called "capri." Because it was such a bright blue, I also suggested stripes to break up the color. It was just by luck that this blue happened to compliment the green selected by his twin brother in the next room. 

"Take my picture in my room!"

Taking pictures with his leap pad,
while Mommy used her camera

The first thing D did was to remove the track lighting that was illuminating the closet door. I don't understand why it was placed there in the first place. It's the only light in the room and it shines directly on the closet. Weird. We were able to re-purpose the light in our laundry room make-over; I always feel good about re-using things if it makes sense.  He also added a ceiling fan and wired a new switch to have wall controls for the light and the fan. We had new carpet installed throughout the entire second floor. When we ripped out the old carpet we found original hard wood floors in this room as well. They were in horrible condition. Prior to the large renovation, this room was smaller and had a short hallway. There was also a tiny 3rd bedroom in the area we call the loft. From what we can tell, the wall was shifted over to enlarge this room and the floor was badly damaged. It didn't hurt my feeling too much because I don't prefer hardwood in the bedrooms, especially not in children's bedrooms. I know that goes against most interior design but that's my preference...but on the main floor, that's another story! Can't wait to have new floors throughout the main level. Several projects will need to come before that one....

Painting the built in bookcase

This room is smaller than the "green" bedroom but is still plenty big for a bedroom. It has a neat little nook next to the closet which was set up with shelves. I couldn't decide how to paint that area and finally decided to carry the stripes right through the nook/bookcase. It wasn't easy to do the stripes at times, but I am happy with the end result. 

As with the green room, I painted the gray stripe in the mid-to-upper third of the wall. Then I used Frog Tape to around the room and went back through with the blue paint above and below the gray. The Frog Tape was amazing. I wouldn't bother with any other brand. If there was any bleed through, it was only a tiny amount. I believe was only noticeable because of the bold colors. It took a bunch of tape to do all the stripes, but it was worth it!

I had originally planned to do two accent stripes in each boys' bedroom, but after I did the main stripe in the larger green bedroom...and taped...and painted...and taped...I scratched that idea and went with one larger stripe. But the thing about twins is, I don't want them to feel like they have the exact same stuff all the time. I wanted the rooms to look different even though they used complimenting colors and had the same general design. Plus both boys have the same furniture, same art wall, the same beds and bedding. So I sucked it up in the smaller of the two rooms and added two accent stripes. I'm not going to lie, it look a lot of tape, lots of measuring and time to snap chalk guidelines. However I think it's good that they have different rooms (copying what brother does is a big fight around here these days).

Green Frog Tape in preparation
for the green paint stripe. I kind of liked
the green tape!

I carried the stripe through the bookcase

Speaking of copying, we had a fight over the wall decals. One brother wanted airplanes and the other brother wanted....yep, "the same as T." I can't tell if he really wants to have the same things or if he does it to bug his brother. In the end I was able to convince him to go with paper airplanes and his name written in script. They're hard to see in the photos because of the orange color and the sunlight coming in the window but they are very cute. B has also started copying the scripted writing when he writes his name ("I'm writing it in 'fancy letters.") Adorable.



Without further adieu, presenting the final result....

Attempting to get a shot of the paper airplanes.
Full name edited before posting. 

We still need to battle the oak in this room, eventually replacing the closet doors and entry doors with a six panel style in white. Sometime down the road the closet interiors will be re-done with dual rods and shelving...but that will be after the master bedroom closet is properly organized. 

This room is now bright and cheery, just like the little boy who lives here! :) 

Update 2/23/15: We've finished the closet doors. A much needed update from the flat panel oak ones.