Playroom DIY Decor before and after

We had Spring Break this past week and had planned on taking an 8-day driving trip to Oregon to see friends and visit some college campuses.

Instead, a stomach virus hit the house and I canceled everything.  By mid-week we were feeling better and decided it was time to tackle a painting project in the playroom that the kids and I have wanted to do for about 4 years.

When we moved into our current home, we were super thrilled that it had just been fully painted, inside and out.  The walls were a nice neutral and everything was move-in ready.

The color wasn’t exactly something I would have picked out on my own but I liked it plenty and it worked well with our furniture and somewhat-minimalist style.

After 4 years, though, the walls have started to get dingy with fingerprints and normal family life wear and tear.  The kids have each painted their bedrooms, and I had wanted to redo the playroom walls but lacked the motivation to do it on my own.

So when we were all home and housebound over Spring Break, Adam and I dug through our gift cards and found that we had quite a bit of money on cards from Home Depot and Orchard Supply Hardware.

The girls and I watched a Fixer Upper episode where they painted a playroom in “ombre” style and really wanted to give it a go — so we did!

Here is the “Before” of our playroom:

The room is completely and totally functional — it just lacked a bit of style and personal preference.

The kids picked out three blue hues — which took a VERY LONG TIME for us to agree upon.  Some people buy little samples to take home to try out on their walls before committing to a color for ever and ever.

That’s not what happens in the O’Dea family.  😉  We are sort of All or Nothing kind of people… 😉

One of the best things about conducting this project over spring break when we were supposed to go on a vacation is that Adam was off work.  I know that the girls and I could have figured out how to measure and make everything level on our own, but we were happy to pass that task on to Adam…

FYI:  that is not sexist.  that is using your resources wisely….

#nojudgement

The girls started off painting down low while I did the top section. I do have three daughters, BTW….

my oldest is 16 1/2.  She did not help.  At all.

#againnojudgement

We went through A LOT of Painter’s Tape.  (note to self:  buy stock in 3M products…)  Adam guesses we went around the room 6 times…

One of the biggest projects was that Adam installed crown moulding in the room.  I don’t seem to have remembered to take any photos during the installation.

#oops

And here is the finished project:

The colors we chose were from BEHR — and they are (from top to bottom):

Journey’s End S520-2u

Jean Jacket Blue S510-4m

Durango Blue S510-6d

I could not be any happier with the color choices — the room looks much larger and has a calm and peaceful vibe.  The bright white moulding and trim really makes everything pop and now I want to go through the rest of the house and update the trim and walls.

Fun stuff!

So, since we didn’t go away on an 8-night vacation, and we had giftcards for the Home stores, and we did everything ourselves, I decided just now that I

(I could say we but we all know who the puppet-master is in these sort of situations..)

saved us about $4700.

YAY me!! 🙂