Saving $$

I have these free-spirited girls, who are really amazing to parent, most of the time.  Then there are the times when they do something so totally off the wall that there’s nothing to be done but laugh and paint over it.

Several years ago, my oldest was having all kinds of emotional adolescent angst and I figured it would somehow be therapeutic for her to have a couple of her friends over and let them repaint her room.  I provided them with several colors of paint, and they opted to go for the splatter-paint look.  Here’s a before picture of them investigating the paint.  See how innocent it all seems?

I go back about 10 minutes later to check on them, and all seems to be progressing as expected, so I close the door (to protect the rest of the house) and go back to baking cookies (I had a new recipe to try).  See the pic.  Just teen girls having a little fun.  No worries.

I come back about 20 minutes later to see if they’re done yet, and open the door to this. :o  :o  :o

WHAT!?!?!?!

The room looked like a crime scene!  What in the world happened here and what were they thinking?!  At that point, there’s nothing to do, but to make them shower, and promise to re-do it the minute she moves out.  

Fast-forward 3-years, and she goes off to college.  I get a 3-day weekend, Home Depot has a sale on paint, and it’s decided.  Repainting a room shouldn’t be that big of a deal, so I’ll just hit the highlights.  

First lesson learned is that you can make the room all one color again, but the texture created by the splatter paint still remains. See those drips!!??

Second lesson learned, is that the multi-colored floor really camouflaged how many stickers were also on the floor. I wound up putting down the first layer of paint, then scraping up the stickers and bumps that it highlighted.  

But the biggest lesson I learned is that spray painting the custom-fit blinds was much cheaper and easier than buying new ones.  I hung them from a post in my backyard and used 3 cans of black spray paint to get a very thorough coverage of the material.  After hanging them back up in the room, I’m so relieved I didn’t just throw them out!

I know the room is rather stark, now, but after all the color, I find it to be a relief.  Eventually, I will convert it to my craft room or something, but it works for now.

Total Cost: $17 for spray paint (with tax)

Total Time: 4 hours, mostly dry time

Outcome: Success! 

Now go make-do something of your own!