What's Underneath those floors? (Part II, Our Room)

Like I was saying, when you do one project it often turns into something more.  After I redid the boy's floors, I couldn't not do mine.  And if I were to redo my floors at all, this was the best time to do it since we could use the empty guest room to store our furniture.

For our room, I decided to try an exciting Pinterest project.  It seems like the current trend is to use plywood everywhere in a home.  You can use it on the walls, on the ceiling, and even use it as a cheap way to replace hardwood floors.  For a 300sq ft room, I spent $150 on 10 sheets of plywood cut into sixty 8-inch planks.  I heard that Lowe's would cut it for free, so I kept my fingers crossed and gave them a call.  I ran to place my order with them before they could change their minds.  The next day Ben helped me haul sixty 8-inch planks into the car and I started my project.

Before Picture; As you can see, it really did need to be redone.  

A good quality carpet should not look like this after 4 years.  As you can see, the installation was bad as well.

I am going to let the picture tell the story.

Ben was kind enough to give me a few hours of his time doing what he hates most in all the world.  But that just shows how much more he loves me right?  : )  

After a painstakingly long time of sanding down sixty 8-inch planks, it was time for the install.  At this point, I didn't even care to thoroughly clean the floors. I was ready to quit but my work was long from being finished.  

The floors are installed, yay!  I began by gluing them into the floor and then nailing them in with a nail gun.  After a few planks, I decided to forgo the liquid nails since it was going to cost me another $100.  I'll let you know what happens.

So...if you give Samantha a floor project, she is gonna want to paint the walls too.  

Paint Color 1 - Grey

Then I had to decide whether to stain or paint the floors.

Stain sample- 1st coat of PolyShade in glossy Espresso

Stain sample - 2nd Coat.  It wasn't as dark as I had hope for and too much grain was still showing.

Believe or not, the floor was the easy part.  Trying to decide on what to do with the walls, not so easy.  First I wanted to do stripes (thanks to Pinterest again)

But then it looked too much like an American Flag.

I decided to paint the floors black since I wasn't crazy about how much grain was showing.  I wanted white floors, Ben wanted black.  Since he was so nice to let me work on this project, I gave in as a way of compromising.  Even though I used paint, you can still see a lot of the grain, which is what I wanted.  I thought about adding polyurethane to make it shiny but I decided against it, I kind of like the matted look better.  Beware, black floors are hard to hide dirt....I know right?

Then I cried for three days because it looked like a teenage boy's room

So I changed the stripes to a baby blue.....and it looked like a baby boy's room

The baby blue just didn't feel quite right so I changed it to a deep nautical blue color.  Since I changed the blue, now I had to also change the other wall colors to match it.  I think I must've repainted the room 10 times.  By this time, I was inhaling too many paint fumes and was not thinking straight and I was very tired and emotional.

Finally it was time to move all the furniture back into place.  This was the really fun part.  I moved the bed to the other side of the wall which worked out soooo much better.  Now I don't have to look at the bathroom sink from my bed anymore.  I also got to pick out a fun new rug for the room.  I picked out three rugs and let Ben choose one, he chose this one which was surprising because of the bright colors.  It was also the most expensive of the three.  I was starting to really warm up to the floors.

Right away the kids brought toys into the room and started playing on the new rug.

These kids love their little brother and Ezra thinks they are hilarious.

And now, the room.  I got some nice decorative pillows, and a soft new throw to go with the bed.

I LOVE the deep calming blue.  I softened it up with lots of silver and feminine decor like the soft bedding, and the mirror.

 Ben got his reading chair right by the corner, looking out the balcony.

My new picture gallery.  I didn't fill all of them with pictures to keep it from becoming too busy.  I think empty frames add visual interests to the space.

We Love C.S Lewis

That's my work space in the corner, I love it.

Little details matter.  There are reasons why some things look good in certain places and not      another.  I can't explain it, it just does.   I got these mirrors from Goodwill for $5.00.  I painted them and I think they have so much character.  Decorating doesn't have to be expensive. Isaiah picked up these branches for me off the school ground.  They were even more perfect than the ones I planned to buy. 

Cost: Mirror $5.00, paint $3.00

Vase: Goodwill $2.50 (New from Target)

Branches (Free)

Before: Not bad except for the carpet

After: Better 

What I wanted from the beginning was a modern glam look and I think I achieved it.   With the masculine looking bed, the dark walls, and floors, I wanted to soften it up a big by adding color, texture, and curves to different elements of the room.  I try to avoid buying things that all have straight lines to them to keep it from looking too clean and sterile.

This room is now so relaxing to be in.  We love having the TV in our room.  It's a place where we can really let go of the day and enjoy a good show while eating dessert in bed.  Our kids are always in our room watching TV with us, cuddling, wrestling, doing homework, and reading.

This project was painstakingly long to do.  I worked a little here and there in between taking care of the kids, house chores, picking Isaiah up from school, and attending extra activities.  By this time, I was pretty burnt out from projects but it was definitely very rewarding.