Monday, February 20, 2012

Ta-Da! Alyssa's Room DONE!

Okay, so I'm calling it done. I still want to get some lights behind a curtain hung up behind the little bench, a hammock chair in the corner, and some kind of curtain door in the closet, but the room is otherwise DONE!

Here are the pictures.






We stapled some sheets up to the ceiling rafters, because they were bare. Alyssa did not like sleeping downstairs because she was worried about spiders. Now she will know her room is sealed in and she won't have to worry about spiders anymore.
I made the canopy over her bed using a hula hoop and four panels of sheer white curtains. The light fixture is a simple candlestick lamp and lampshade from Dollar General, screwed upside down to a ceiling rafter and plugged into the original light socket.
I painted all the furniture white, and free-handed the flowers and butterfly mural on the wall.
Turned out nice, don't you think?

Alyssa's Room update #2

  • Primer paint night tables - DONE
  • Primer paint dresser - DONE
  • Primer paint bench - DONE
  • Primer paint bed - DONE
  • Paint night tables - DONE
  • Paint dresser - DONE
  • Paint bench - DONE
  • Paint bed - DONE
  • Make canopy for bed - DONE
  • Make yarn lanterns - DONE
  • Hang new light fixture - DONE
  • Hang "ceiling" - DONE
  • Make hammock chair - not done, can't find the hammock I wanted from Wal-Mart. Maybe I should try ordering this online.
  • Paint mural - DONE
  • Put up curtains with twinkle lights behind bench
  • Set up and arrange furniture
  • Finishing touches - decorations, etc
So you can see I've made some progress. I'm about to grab the clean bedding and make up the bed, and do the finishing touches. The hammock chair and twinkle lights behind the bench might have to wait until later. I will post pictures when done. I'm hoping Alyssa will be sleeping in her new room tonight!

Sunday, February 19, 2012

Alyssa's Room update

Thought I'd put a checklist here of what I've done and what still needs to be done on Alyssa's bedroom.

  • Primer paint night tables - DONE
  • Primer paint dresser - DONE
  • Primer paint bench - DONE
  • Primer paint bed - DONE
  • Paint night tables
  • Paint dresser - DONE (except for 2 drawer fronts)
  • Paint bench 
  • Paint bed - DONE
  • Make canopy for bed - DONE
  • Make yarn lanterns - DONE
  • Hang new light fixture
  • Hang "ceiling"
  • Make hammock chair - not done, can't find the hammock I wanted from Wal-Mart. Maybe I should try ordering this online.
  • Paint mural
  • Put up curtains with twinkle lights behind bench
  • Set up and arrange furniture
  • Finishing touches - decorations, etc
So you can see, I actually still have a lot to do. Sigh.

Happy Birthday to Alyssa

Celebrated my daughter's 5th birthday yesterday. I'm such a horrible mom I didn't take any pictures. I'm really bad about that. But after the fact, I took a few pictures of the yarn balloons I made. These were hung up on the ceilings at the four corners of the table, and will go to her room when I've finished it. And no, I didn't get her room finished in time for her birthday. I have one more day off though, and hopefully will be able to get it whipped up into shape and ready for her to sleep in Monday night.

Here's a picture of the yarn balloons.
They took about an hour to make, collecting the supplies: balloons, vaseline, white glue, corn starch, and water, mixing it up, coating the yarn, coating the balloons with vaseline, and wrapping the balloons ready to dry. They dried a good 24 hours, then I let the kids pop the balloons. They looked great. the yarn ended up pretty stuff and held their shape well. I got compliments on them at the party, so I was pleased with the way they turned out.
For those of you wanting to know how to make these balloons, they are really easy, but very messy. Here's the link where I found the instructions. Yarn Lanterns.
I do highly recommend the plastic under where you are making these, and where they will dry. The glue does get drippy as you are squeezing out the yarn and wrapping the balloon.

Wednesday, February 15, 2012

Getting Worried...

So I have 3 half days left (really only 4 hours in each of those days) before the Big Day. The Birthday Party. And I don't have the room ready yet. I still need to finish painting all the furniture and walls, but then I hope the decorating will go quickly. I do need to work on the yarn lanterns soon though, so they will have a chance to dry. I think I will do a bit of painting today, but mainly work on the yarn lanterns. They really need to dry before I can hang them, so I want to get that done.

Thursday, February 02, 2012

Remodeling Project

So, I got the bright idea to remodel a room for my daughter, hoping to have it done in time for her 5th birthday. Which is on Feb. 18th. Wow, time is running out quickly.

I found several cool photos online that I thought were great and that I thought I could make cheap versions of. Cheap as in, little to no budget. So far, most of my budget has gone to paint. The room I chose was a storage/guest room, and she was already using the dresser in that room for her clothes. I swapped out beds for now because I plan on painting all her furniture white. In a later post I'll show some before and after photos. For now, I want to share my design plans.

The bed is a wooden twin size bed, with headboard and footboard. She already has a striped bedspread in pinks with a touch of aqua blue. I plan to paint the bed (and other furniture) white. Over the bed I will hang up a canopy like this one:


I plan to make one using sheer white curtains, a hula hoop, some feather boas, and some rope and hooks.

On the short wall between her door and closet door (a 5 foot space) I plan on painting a small mural. It will be a picket fence similar to this:
Without the ivy. And with some flowers and butterflies like this:

Her walls will be the pale pink, and I have some darker pink and of course the white for the furniture to make this mural. She loves pink, so this should be great for her.

In one corner of the room, I plan to hang a hammock chair similar to this:
But I will make it out of a cheap hammock and a seat cushion. Total price, around $5.

I also want to make an interesting light fixture. I was thinking some sort of chandelier, like this in concept:
But I will make mine using coat hangers, an old stick lamp, and some tinsel. (bought on clearance for 10 cents a package.

I also want to make some yarn lanterns to hang in the corner for a pop of color. Like these:
And I will use the same yarn to make a pom-pom rug in pinks with white like this:

For the door, I will paint the inside white, but the lower half I will paint in the pink mixed into chalkboard paint, as a ready made art easel. She loves to draw on walls, so why not direct it somewhere it won't hurt?
On the doorknob, I'm thinking about crocheting a cute little flower cover, the middle one in this picture:
For the outside of the door, a cute button monogram to designate her room, like this:


Then for the wall, I'm thinking of a few framed pictures, similar to this:
But with maybe a flower or butterfly instead.

Then she'll have a bench for her dolls on one wall, and behind it I want to do something like this:
But will likely make it using christmas white lights and sheer curtains similar to this:

So far, my progress has been slow. I do have the two night tables sanded, and ready to be primed. I need to finish sanding the dresser, and the bed, and the bench, and then put primer on all of them today. I say today because the primer recommends 7 days to dry for best results before painting on top of it. Because I'm doing the lazy way and using bonding primer, and just roughing up the surface of the furniture instead of sanding all the way down to the wood.
Call me lazy if you want, but even lazy sanding is hard work.
So, now I've shared my ideas, and need to get back to sanding.