Sarah's room details

Thank you for all the super nice and validating comments about Sarah's room (both here and on Facebook)! I thought you would enjoy a bit of info about the process.

But first, my sources:

Wall Paint: Behr Sandstone Cliff, Behr Possibly Pink (closet and niche), Behr Powdered Snow (ceiling and trim)
Mural colors: (All Behr colors) Possibly Pink, Egyptian Nile (green), Gallery Red, Contemplation (blue), Dusty Mountain (gray from my living room), Donegal Tweed (yellow from these projects). I mixed colors together and with white to acheive the different shades I needed.

Flooring: Ikea TUNDRA laminate (white wasn't listed when I went to link so I'm not sure if it is still available...?) We choose this because it was only $1.15/sf. At that price we can change our minds in 10 years and we don't have to feel guilty about it. For now, it brightens the space tremendously and I'm pretty happy with it! It isn't real wood, which I would have loved, but it was significantly less expensive.

Rug: Cozy Shag Rug from Home Decorator's Collection. I'm totally impressed with this rug. It is super soft. I got one for Eva's room also.

Chandelier: Thrifted, Craig's List

Bed: Thrifted, Antique Barn, Bozeman, MT.  The bed is a 3/4 size and I had to buy a custom mattress, which I found at US-Mattress.com for less than I expected custom would cost. It did end up making the bed a little more expensive than I initially thought, however. 

Bedding: Target, Threshold Collection

Desk, Chair, and Mirror: Thrifted, Craig's List. I bought these as a set. 

White cupboard: one we purchased a few years ago and Home Again in Utah. 

 

The Mural:

You may remember that I based the mural off of a paint-by-number painting I found on Etsy ages ago. I saved the digital photo—I don't have the painting. 

I took a photo of the wall in Sarah's room after it was mostly empty. Then (in Photoshop) I pasted the painting in the file and determined the layout. To get it to fill the wall I needed to repeat the image, but I didn't want an exact mirror. I flipped the image, rotated, and rearranged it a bit. 

I then borrowed a projector to cast the image on the wall. I had to do this in two sections because I couldn't back the projector up far enough (something to be aware of if you want to cover the entire wall). I then traced the image as well as I could and marked each area. (I used a simple code: LP, MP, DP= light pink, medium pink, and dark pink, etc.) I tried to keep the colors as simple as possible. I purchased 4 colors of paint, and used gray, white, and yellow that I had on hand. I mixed the rest. (See paint colors listed above.)

 

This is the cutest picture ever:


Eva wanted to help paint so I gave her a paintbrush and a cup of water.

This is what it looked like after I painted the background. I traced the roses but free-handed the background. 

 

Mostly this project was fun, but it did get tedious after awhile. I can't imagine doing a more complicated picture. I used latex paint for mine (not sure if it would be easier to use acrylics or not) and each color required two coats. Doing everything twice definitely made things more tedious. If I did this very often I would want to find a type of paint that would cover in one coat. I used a smaller artist brush for much of it.

Painting the furniture:

The desk sat in our garage for some time, so it was pretty dirty. Aside from that, it was missing hardware and was scratched up. 

The matching chairs and mirror were in similar condition. 

I decided try Annie Sloan Chalk paint for all the furniture. Her paint isn't cheap and it is somewhat hard to come buy. I bought the paint at the ONE place it is sold in my whole state, four hours from where I live. (Don't worry, I was going there anyway :) Unfortunately they didn't have one of the colors I wanted and I had to find an online retailer that sold in the US (the Annie Sloan site doesn't). 

I painted the desk and night stand in Pure White. It definitely requires more than one coat over darker colors. I painted the chair, mirror, and bed with Duck Egg Blue, and it covered well in one coat. You have to apply a wax over the paint, which wasn't difficult, but I did think it left things feeling a bit... waxy. It might be better after time or with a good buffing.

The bed took forever to paint. In hindsight I might have been better off trying to spray it. As it was I went over each and every spindle 3 times with white, then duck egg, then wax. This paint is ideal for a distressed finish, but I wanted a cleaner look and didn't want any of the wood to show through. 

Here is the desk with it's new coat of white and adorable new knobs. I think it turned out great. The thing I've learned about kids is that they love to collect "things". This is a great spot for her to display her treasures. It is contained to one spot instead of all over her room, so it satisfies my minimal tastes and her treasure-seeking heart.

I just got word that the curtain fabric I ordered has arrived. Hopefully I can get those done soon. And then onto Eva's room!