How Not To Paint a Bedroom
We Decided to Paint Oureselves
Though there is new paint throughout the house that actually looks really good, I wanted my kids' rooms to have fun kid colors. We decided to use subtle, soft colors because they're still fun, but the house will remain looking nice. Sometimes bold colors make homes difficult to resell. And this is kind of a chore so I want to do it one time, before we move in. We are, however, amateurs for sure. I helped a friend paint her bedroom back in college. I think my husband helped his parents paint the inside of their house, but I'm not sure. At least he did some Internet research. Painting is pretty fun, but there are a lot of ways to screw up. I'll share with you all the ways we may have ruined our house / kids' rooms / perfectly fun painting evening(s). Enjoy!
Bring the Baby Too! And Forget All His Pacis
I'm nursing so we didn't really have any choice but to bring the baby. Although, I guess I could have pumped and given my mom some bottles, but I thought he'd just sleep in the other room. He's pretty easy going.
When he started crying, I simply swaddled him and reached into my bag for his paci. … Not there. Oh my gosh! They didn't put it in his daycare bag! Ok ok, it's fine. I know I have an extra in my purse (I ALWAYS carry extras!). Nope. What a disaster!! As my husband pulled out of the driveway to go *buy* another one (for $4.50 even though we already have like 6 of them at home), I had an idea and flagged him back inside. I swaddled him in such a way that his arm stuck out and I got his thumb right into his mouth. A natural pacifier! So if you do forget all the pacis, try that.
Eat the Paint.
It looks like cotton candy. Just kidding! You shouldn't do any of the tips in this article if you want a nice looking home, and in this case, if you want to stay out of the ER tonight… OK I didn't actually taste any paint, but I had to write something to go with this crazy picture, and this certainly is sound advice.
Don't Hire a Sitter, Just Bring Your 3 Year Old!
"It'll be fun for her!" we thought! "She can handle it…" we were sure. Alright, it wasn't so bad, but she definitely got paint on her hands more than once, messing up some of the wall we just painted. And we had a couple of tantrums. Also, the dryer vent we purchased (for another project) fell apart in her hands.
We brought our computer and a movie thinking that would keep her occupied while we worked. I shudder to think what our night would have been like had we NOT brought those things!
Other Things We Could Have Brought to Occupy the Preschooler, But Didn't Think Of:
* Her LeapPad
* Coloring Book and Crayons
* Toys
* Stuff to Unpack
* "Chores" to do
* More movies
* Our Nook for the drawing app
We pretty much really dropped the ball. Haha!
If our Internet was hooked up, we could have showed her some you tube videos. So I guess we could have set that up.
Forget Socks
Did you know that bare feet will stick right to your plastic drop cloth?! It's true! So if you forget socks, your feet will stick and you can easily move the drop cloth around, and even rip it off the wall! It's an even faster and more efficient way of making sure paint drips onto your carpet.
If you do forget your socks, and get annoyed with not being able to walk while you paint, you can just fashion socks out of paper towels! Simply, put paper towels around your feet and wrap them with a strip of painter's tape! I'm pretty smart, readers.
Go With a Plastic (over Canvas) Drop Cloth
See... plastic doesn't absorb any of the liquid paint so when you move the drop cloth or it falls off the wall, the paint can drip right onto your brand new carpet!
Canvas / cloth soaks spilled paint (and it will spill or drip no matter what you do), saving your carpet. Who wants that?
For only $0.97 though, we thought it would be fine. If you like your carpet, spend the extra money.
What did YOU do?
Paint Yourself? Or Hire Painters?
How to Paint a Bedroom
I hope all of these non-tips help you when you decide to paint some bedrooms. Especially if you have kids. And often go out in flip flops. And like to eat paint. For some real tips on how to paint rooms in your home, try googling. There's a lot of great info out there. Here's a video I found of a really nice guy explaining as he paints this room a yellow-gold color. One thing I'm happy about is that we're painting the kids' rooms before we move in. This way we won't have to worry about putting drop clothes over the furniture like this guy did.
Please share YOUR painting tips or non-tips in the comments!! Do you enjoy painting? Let me know all about your experience! :)
Thanks for reading! <3