I think we are crazy, at least I know I am. tsk. We have been working our hind ends off, and we can’t stop yet. One of our recent projects for the home is our boys’ room, where our oldest and next to youngest get to live together. We’re calling this our teen room makeover because our new look will suit both, giving a chance for the younger one to feel “grown up”.
They love living together, even though it takes some work to keep things sane, but I know they wouldn’t have it any other way. When we first bought our home back in ’03, their room had brown Berber carpet, peach painted walls, and a giant funky plug-in light fixture on a brass chain. How’s that for retro for you? Honestly, with a little fixing up, it would fit right in to today’s modern decor and I’m sort of kicking myself for not keeping the fixture. Ah well.
Here’s where we were at the beginning. This room has been that peach then followed by this current beige color with pink carpet for our daughters. It wasn’t long ago that my hubby finally let me rip out the carpet to expose the gorgeous wood floors (thank you, Lord!). We’ve flip-flopped this room so many times, but now it will stay for our boys because the girls outnumber them and need the larger room.
This is a nice sized space, approximately 8′ x 12′ with closet. One mistake I have done, was to keep adding storage space in every inch I could. You may be wondering why that’s a mistake because storage space is good, right? Well, it tends to cause a person to keep more than they normally would. I created a monster by giving my kids too many places to store things and then we have repeated interactions about keeping it clean and how to maintain the “junk”.
In this makeover, I’m REMOVING some of that storage, so that we can all be a little less cluttered and enjoy time for other things instead of wasting it in disagreement.
So far, we replaced the window last summer and have decided it’s time to give the rest of the room a fresh look.
The dresser set was our first purchase when we got married, and I painted it red about 11 years ago when we gave it to our son. That mirror was one of those hutch-type 1980’s ugly beasts – you know, the kind with a little rack in the middle and shelves on either side. bleck. I tore it apart and rebuilt the frame to be a wall-mounted mirror. Then there’s the dresser. The top had been covered in contact paper so that when I removed it, it left bald pressed board peeking out. Painting was a must.
In the room, we originally stippled the ceilings to hide the ugly panels, but it’s time to change it up. Our home is a Gunnison house – an old-school manufactured home with stick built frame, so we do not have drywall panels, but wood. It has it’s pros and cons, and if you look close, you can still see the panel seams on the wall.
As with any remodeling, the prep work is by far the hardest and most time-consuming. We had to tear down the trim to put the ceiling planks we found at Lowes. This made for an affordable fix, far cheaper than any other material out there. You can find them in the trim/paneling section and come in a bundled pack of 14 square feet and made by Evertrue.
Just nail up with a nailer (add glue if needed), and it’s pretty much self-explanatory. A quick and eye-pleasing fix for sure. I loved seeing my guys work together.
Projects like this are a great learning experience, and my son loved being able to help in his own space.
Much better, right?
*this post was sponsored in product by HomeRight and does contain affiliate links so you can find the things I love to use too!
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We could have stained the wood, but I wanted this room to feel as big as possible and raise the look of that ceiling. We painted with the HomeRight Heavy Duty paint sprayer. I can’t tell you the time savings a sprayer affords. It’s WONDERFUL! Without it, we would have had to roll the ceiling and then back-brush into the grooves. That, my friend, can make for one sore neck and back.
After the ceiling came the walls turn. I originally picked out this Universal Gray by Glidden before we did our bathroom remodel, but when I saw the color and how cool and refreshing it was, I decided to use it in there first. You can see our bathroom remodel over here.
I had a big helper in my job and wouldn’t have it any other way. ♥
Now onto the furniture…since we’re going with an industrial feel, I wanted to take the bunk bed and make it look like a rack found in a warehouse. We got this bunk set free off of Freecycle, and then later got the rails from there too and then added them on.
There wasn’t any way I was going to brush all those board faces, so I whipped out my hand-dandy HomeRight Finish Max Fine Finish Sprayer to get the job done lickety-split.
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aaahh…sooo much easier. You can also see how much I love this thing when I redid a 1980’s dining set and a highchair.
Here’s the bed done with its base coat of an eggshell gray I found in the seconds stash at Home Depot. To create an industrial feel, I’m going to use my faux zinc/galvanized steel technique.
I can’t show you yet, but I LOVE how it came out. (stay tuned!!)
Now for the dressers. Remember, this is a somewhat junky set with a pressed board top, and pine sides and drawer fronts. Here they are in the works. I’m going for a faux wood top and drawer fronts with dark charcoal cabinets.
Here’s a sneak-peek at the after…
Not bad for junky 80’s furniture, eh? We still have to put up our light fixture (the room didn’t have one, but had a dedicated outlet you had to plug your lamp into and hope not to fall in the dark while reaching it….soooo much fun!), and the window treatments.
Otherwise, I’ve taken these thrifted items and gave them new life in the room:
a velocipede that had lovely fake flowers glued to it for less than $5 (I had a coupon!)…
..a garage sale doctor’s stool recovered in a my remnant plaid wood…
…a nightstand made from my son’s recent table makeover and a plant stand scored for $1…
…this antique radio cabinet will soon become something fun…
…and found this answer to prayer on eBay for their beds…
So, do you see how it’s coming together? We’re excited for the reveal and hope you are too! Become a follower or sign up to get the update in your inbox coming soon.
Here’s more of our home remodeling to check out:
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