My daughters had been asking me for a pink room for months. (They’re 4-1/2: pink isn’t just a color, it’s a way of life.)
I loved their gender-neutral yellow and light blue room, but it’s been 4 years since we’ve moved in, and some rooms have gotten more paint attention than others…It was probably time for a fresh coat of paint anyway.
When Design House preparations reached the “hurry up and wait” stage several weeks ago – items chosen but work not begun – I decided to spend a weekend painting their bedroom. Here are befores:
(I’d make excuses for the mess, but honestly, this is usually how it looked.)
On that Saturday, during that grey time between night and dawn, I felt a presence next to my bed. It was one of my daughters, fully dressed. “Mommy!” she stage-whispered. “We have to go! We have to be FIRST IN LINE at the paint store!”
Yes. I’ve heard that the Saturday-morning crush at the Monarch paint store at Chevy Chase Circle is pretty serious.
But here was the real issue: I wasn’t exactly sure which paint color we were using. There’s pink and there’s PINK, if you know what I mean. I wanted to try a Martha Stewart color, just because I haven’t used Valspar paint myself and want to know what it’s like. But when I was at Lowe’s recently, I couldn’t find the display, and I really had to go to the bathroom, so I just left.
I ended up doing what I advise my clients NEVER to do, and that’s put up a paint color without testing it first. I used Benjamin Moore, Aura flavor.
After non-stop painting from Sat. a.m. to Sunday afternoon (with only a quick break for a fantastic dinner party at a friend’s house), here’s what I learned:
– Peach Kiss 2089-60 is more pink than peach in a north-facing bedroom
– Peach Kiss 2089-60 is darker than you might expect in a north-facing bedroom
– Peach Kiss 2089-60 is probably not the color I would have chosen had I had the luxury of time, paint swatches, and clarity of thought
– Peach Kiss 2089-60 really grows on you after a while
– Peach Kiss 2089-60- might be the best shade of pink on the face of the earth, come to think of it, and finally,
– Pink is pink to 4-1/2 year olds, and they love you regardless.
Here’s how it turned out:
When I’d removed the wildly unsuccessful “denim” (note the quotation marks) slipcover we were using on the sofa, I was reminded that the upholstery underneath was actually pretty nice. We decided to work with it.
I’m a sucker for Ikea suspension lamps. There’s no switch, though: you turn it on by plugging and unplugging, which is kind of a drag. (A switched outlet would be great.)
The green rug, duvet covers, and curtains also are from Ikea, of course. I think the entire shopping spree cost less than $150.
These are my husband’s lino prints by Walter Inglis Anderson. At one point we intended to collect the whole alphabet, but something came up. Oh, yes, the children. They came up.
The girls love maps, which happen to be a cheap and easy way to cover a lot of wall.
I’m usually against pushing all furniture to the perimeter of a room, but for kids’ bedrooms, it makes sense. We were always tripping over the little table we used to have in here, and it was just another surface to clutter up.
I love using “real” art in children’s rooms. This pastel is by a friend and former colleague of mine, Crisley McCarson. It’s called “Two Blues.”
We moved the Cubitec and I resolved once and for all to neaten it up. So far, so good.
And here are lessons learned about Aura (some I knew, some I learned through this hands-on experience):
– It really is low-odor
– It’s thick but easy to work with
– It does not cover in only one coat.
All in all, it was a successful project. Bye-bye from Christopher (left) and Sunny:
This blog post was sent to you from jury duty. Nice waiting areas, D.C.!
I updated this post on 5/5. Know why? Because I wrote this blog entry, forgot to post it, then forgot I WROTE it, wrote another, and posted IT. Think I might need a vacation?
