Superhero Room

The boys share a room and have had a super hero decorated room for awhile, but this past weekend we completely redid it and switched up some rooms. The current guest room was bigger and had a much bigger closet (which I used to store photo props and misc. other items in), but with 2 boys sharing and their clothes seemingly getting bigger by the day, it was time to swap.

Their current room was blue, picked to match the color in their bedspreads. I had wanted to get some really nice Pottery Barn ones several years back, but my budget just didn't allow for 1 of those, let alone 2 complete sets. I knew the color scheme that I was going for and I ended up finding a bedspread set at Target that would be great. They only had one in store, but when I looked online, they turned out to be on clearance! Score!

We were keeping the bedding for their new room, but changing up the paint color and adding the coolest superhero surprise for them. The old room had tin superhero pictures (found at Hobby Lobby) on the walls as well as 2 lights that hung on the wall. One was Captain America's shield and the other was Thors hammer. I loved these, but Caps shield had been pulled on one to many times and just wasn't going to go back on the wall. I'm a little bummed by this as they are really cool (found those at Target), but the boys didn't seem to mind.

To start this project I first had to clean out everything that was in the guest room. With the kids gone I was able to pile it all in the studio or Belle's room, and let me tell you there was a lot!!!

 Like I said, A LOT! And that didn't include items from the closet. Some of those boxes are the same as they were 3 years ago when we moved. YIKES!!!

Once all the stuff was cleared out, I started taping and getting ready to paint! I really like painting! 

 I have been wanting to paint some things gray, so this was the perfect opportunity to do that. I knew I didn't want to go blue again (just because I wanted to change things up), but there really wasn't any other color that was grabbing me, so gray it was! I ended up choosing a color from Sherwin Williams called Online, but again, got it made into Behr paint from Home Depot. I liked that it had more of a blue undertone and that's what was going to work best with this room.

Once I started painting I knew I had chosen the perfect color for the room.

I had to let the paint dry, which surprisingly didn't take long. While I was waiting for that I started to move everything out of the new closet and then bring everything else in from the old closet. That was a chore! We decided to hang most of their clothes and combine the other stuff into one dresser. We also decided that dresser would go in the closet. There is a certain monkey that sleeps in the room that likes to climb on top of the dresser and then launch himself off! 

Once the walls were dry came the next step. Both Chris and I were looking forward to this. I had purchased a superhero wall mural months ago off Zulily. It is from a company called Room Mates. This is the one we purchased. It was cool all rolled up, but once we got it on the wall, it was AMAZING! It was time consuming to put up, but not terribly hard. I suggest having two people to put it up. You could do it by yourself, but it was far easier with 2. We ran into a few bumps along the way and have a few spot that have creases, but unless you know where they are, you can hardly tell. I highly recommend this product to add a huge statement to a room or just added fun! Chris loved it so much he thought he might sleep in the room that night to admire it. I was right there with him as Thor is on the wall! It looked great with the wall color and I was happy I went with the blue undertone here!

Lastly we were able to move all the furniture back in. There was far more room now, which is good for two growing boys. We hung up 3 of the tin superhero signs by the closet and plan to get some floating shelves and put one above each bed along with a tin sign and some other fun memorabilia to complete the look. 

I think the boys were quite pleased with the new room, and really what 6 and 4 year old boy wouldn't be!

Painting Our Front Door.

Last weekend, my parents were kind enough to take my kids for the weekend (all 3 of them!!) I deal with them daily so I know what a mind boggling event this can be! They brought them home Sunday, so I was still able to see them on Mothers Day. After all they are the reason that I get to celebrate this holiday (or in reality treat it like any other day). It was also our 7th wedding anniversary so we got to go out for supper Friday night without having to find a sitter and pay for a sitter.

But the really reason that we had a kid free weekend was to get a few things done around the house that we had wanted to for awhile, but find it near impossible when there are 3 small children "helping" you at ever turn.

I managed to accomplish 4 of my items on my To Do list, so I was quite pleased with this. The first task I started on right when we got up Saturday was to paint our front door. I have always wanted to paint our front door red. I think it would look nice and match a majority of the holiday wreaths that get hung on it through out the year.

This is the before. I probably should have also cleaned the finger and probably lip prints on the side window and washed off the outside where some birds thought that I might let them build a nest. My kids had fun with the hose that day!

In the end I changed my mind and I painted it blue. Commodore to be exact. I went into Sherwin Williams to get some paint swatches. I was also painting several things gray and I knew I wanted the Mindful Gray color that they had. I have grown to like the Behr paint from Home Depot though and so ended up going there and having them color match it. The price is right there and they offer a military discount, so I will happily give them my business.

 

My husband was around to help me get the door off the hinges, then we took the bolt out, but left the handle on as we weren't sure exactly how to get that off, with still being able to put it back on. In the end I wish we would have found a way, but all's well that ends well! Once the door was removed, I required some good coffee for my long day ahead, so Chris willingly ran to Starbucks for some fuel while I washed the door down. Surprisingly it wasn't that dirty! I also ran the magic eraser over the door heading to the garage, as my daughter decided to kiss it several times one day while eating a chocolate chip cookie. (Just smile and nod)

I then started on project #2 and the largest project of the weekend, while Chris sanded the door down a little and used a tack cloth to clean it up. I was a little worried after painting the first coat on it as you could still see the white (I didn't expect it would be completely gone with one coat, but you know) and the brush strokes. I was worried I had just made a huge mistake and that I would now be investing in a new front door so that we didn't have to have this Pinterest fail as the first thing that guests saw when coming over. 

 The best way I found to paint the door is outlined below. Start with the groves, and the follow the numbers. This helps to show less brush strokes if you follow the flow of the door.

Thankfully once the second coat was applied I was feeling far more confident in my decision to alter the door and was very pleased with my color choice. So was my husband, so then we got to have a lengthy discussion about how there was not going to be orange letters spelling out Chicago Bears or a giant Bear head in vinyl on the front door. (He's a bit of a die hard if you didn't already know)

After 2 coats of paint.

After 2 coats of paint.

 We ran a small tower heater on the door while it was drying in between coats. We only really had one mishap when the garage door was opened and the wind blew some dried grass in an right onto the bottom of the door. I thought I might cry when Chris came to tell me, but luckily we let it dry, then I took the tack cloth and was able to remove the grass without wrecking the paint. Crisis averted! 

Once the door was dry I removed the frog tape from the handle and unfortunately had a little bit of the paint peel up as well, so I had some minor touch up to do there, but nothing major.

The door was dry and we were able to put it back up by supper and it looks fantastic. The next day I added the hello. I simply cut the vinyl from my silhouette and stuck it on. Easy peasy. I really still want the hello to be yellow, but I will need to order yellow vinyl to make that happen so for now it is red and very patriotic!

The finished door.

I choose this image from the Silouette online store for the Hello and just removed the Sunshine.

Vinyl red hello.

I love the different look it gives the house, but I still have to get used to it. Every time I leave the house or come home I instantly think someone left the door open due to it being dark. I then remind myself that it is just the blue door. I think I may have had several small heart attacks.