The Sherlock Home: The Baby's Room

A while back, I figured that my Christmas break would be the best time to paint the nursery. I knew that it would be more than a weekend job, and painting is hard to stretch over 2 or 3 weekends. I also knew that if I waited until Spring Break, I'd only be a little over a month from my due date, and probably not in prime painting shape. As I learned, it was hard to get around, and up and down the ladder at 5 months, so waiting would not have been a good idea.

This bedroom was our unused bedroom until Kassie came to live with us. I knew when we bought the house that it's what I would use as a nursery if and when the day came. It was the only room we had not yet painted. I didn't want to spend the time painting, just to redo it for a baby. It still had the off white builder paint that is terrible. I hate flat paint as it is - it's just not practical for cleaning up. Kassie was pretty rough on the walls in that room, so if it didn't before, it definitely needed fresh paint after we moved her out. Over Thanksgiving, my brother Todd came over and helped John install some extra shelves in our closet and in Kassie's (what used to be the guest room) closet. We were using our guest room closet as extra storage, and not everything in there could be put into the attic. John and Todd also put down plywood in our attic to increase our storage space up there. When we were buying the house, if I knew everything then that I do now, I would have done it differently. The house is only 3 bedrooms, but has a huge living room and a game room. Our thinking at the time was that we weren't buying this as our "forever" house, anyway, and we could have a baby, and still have a guest room. We didn't feel a 4 bedroom house was a necessity then. Little did we know that we would acquire a teenager and have a baby in a little over a year's time. Bye bye guest room. That was hard for me to come to grips with, because none of my family lives here. There really wasn't another choice, though. For many reasons, buying a new house/moving wasn't even an option we could discuss, so we have to do the best we can with what we have. I also wish our house had more closet space in general, but there's nothing I can do about that now.

With adding storage space in the attic, and in the upper parts of 2 closets, we were able to completely clear out the baby's closet, except for my wedding dress (which I need to get cleaned and preserved . . . 3 years later) and some scrapbooking stuff. I considered that a major accomplishment!

The bedding I found (but didn't buy) on Craigslist is what gave me my "inspiration." The bedding set had some fabric star wall hangings. When I didn't get the bedding, I thought "I bed my mom could make something like that." Then, I thought further "I could paint stars on the wall." I knew all along I wanted to do something gender neutral. If we have another baby while we still live here, I don't want to completely redo everything. So, I had my idea in my head, and even though I knew it would be a lot of work, I was up for the challenge.

So, my mom and I found fabric over Thanksgiving. We bought a glider that is a kind of sage green, so I had to keep that in mind. I really don't like all the pastels that are used for babies. Blah. So, I decided I wanted to use the primary colors (plus green) but a slight variation. I didn't want a kelly green and royal blue. My mom could see my vision, so we worked well together to pick out material that fit.

Christmas vacation came, and I had zero motivation to do anything. I knew I didn't have a choice, though. The walls in the closet were pretty beat up, so I decided I wanted to paint that, too. John ripped the shelving out for me, which ended up leaving some pretty big holes. I took a day to get the prep work done, and then a day to prime. At that point, I was really kicking myself for deciding the closet had to be painted, too. All of our bedrooms have ceilings that are angled in different places, with parts higher than others. It would be easier if I could just use the stepladder all the way around, but I couldn't. On top of that, most of the closet has a high ceiling, so I had to put the 6 foot ladder in the closet and climb up and down it. Not fun.

Once I got to the paint, it was a little more fun. I wanted to use the green as the base coat, but John thought we have too much green in our house already (our bedroom and bathroom, and the guest bathroom). So, we decided on yellow. I always use semi-gloss when I paint, because I have dogs that sling a lot of slobber, and it's more durable and easier to clean up. I have learned, though, on the downside that semi-gloss turns out a lot brighter than if I used a satin finish. The yellow was pretty bright when I started getting it on the walls. I don't think it looks bad, but if I was doing it again, I would choose a paler shade, or a different finish. It is what it is, though, and I'm still happy with the overall results.

My goal was to get the base coat (yellow) finished before we left town for Christmas. Even with primer, I have learned that 2 coats of paint really makes a more finished look than just 1. I was able to finish by Thursday afternoon, just in time to have my in-laws over for dinner. When we got back, I had to start on the stars. I also wanted to do a chair rail or something to break up the room. I thought it would be easier, cheaper and quicker just to paint a mimic chair rail on the wall. Before school was out, I used my projector to make 2 different sized templates on poster board. I traced the stars onto the wall, and then taped around them. On an episode of Design Star, I learned a little trick for painting something you have taped on the wall. After you tape, you should paint a light coat of the base color over the tape to "seal" the tape. Then, you won't have as many problems with the paint bleeding under the tape, especially on textured walls. I wish I had known this when I did our game room, which took days and days to touch up!

The "trick" worked pretty well. The painting of the stars went really quickly, and I had very minimal touch ups. My touch up time in all was probably only about an hour or so. My New Years Eve was spent touching up and getting the room back to the way it belongs. We didn't keep the horrible shelving that was in the closet before, because we want to do something different. So, right now, there's nothing in there. We also don't have our crib or dresser yet (they've been ordered), but we do have a changing table that we're borrowing from my brother and sister-in-law. We are keeping the twin sized bed in there for right now, because we know my mom is going to spend some time here when the baby is born, and we want her to at least have a bed to sleep in. At some point we will take it apart and store it in the attic with the trundle bed that is already up there.