Little Girl Room
When we found out we were expecting again, we decided with Sarah Graves being 2 1/2 when the baby comes it would make more sense to move her to a big bed rather than purchase a second crib. We started looking at some big box furniture stores and the more we looked at the furniture, the more we realized that the quality of the pieces were not that great for the prices.
I came up with the idea to repurpose the furniture that we had in our guest room that had been Aaron's when he was growing up and I think a piece of two had been his Dad's. We have had this furniture all this time and Aaron would never let me paint it or change anything about it, but finally he relented and agreed I could make it into little girl's room furniture.
Thanks to my sister and Pinterest, I got turned on to the idea of spray painting furniture. You can read these posts to learn more about how they painted their furniture here and here. Clearly, the easiest way to refinish a piece is using spray paint; however, I had four large pieces to do and figured out quickly that canned spray primer and spray paint was going to cost a small fortune. I decided to buy a paint sprayer and traditional primer and latex paint. I had read that it was recommended to use a semi-gloss paint and I was reluctant to do that because I thought it would be too shiny. I am really glad that I did because I think that spraying it on must keep it from having a real shiny finish and I wouldn't want it to look any flatter.
We started by removing the old hardware, filling in the wholes, and giving each piece a light sanding.
This is the paint sprayer that I purchased at Home Depot, but I would recommend going to their website and checking out the different options available online because I later learned there are many more options on the website than in the store. I highly recommend that you shop at Home Depot :)
The paint sprayer with a quart of paint loaded is pretty heavy. My arms were seriously sore for several days after from holding it up so much. My whole body was in pain from all the squatting and awkward angles trying to get the paint to cover well. There were definitely a few times where I kicked myself for not getting this done when I was first pregnant!
This is one of the pieces after it had been primed.
I have two big complaints about the paint sprayer and one of them is that it would start to sputter and leave big paint drips on your smooth surface. At first, I tried letting the drips dry and sanding them down. I quickly learned that resulted in a lot of extra work and a bumpy surface. I finally decided to wipe the drips away and start again.
My other major complaint is that this paint sprayer leaks paint from the nozzle and down the paint container no matter how full the container is or how clean the nozzle is. I read comments from others and this seems to be a constant problem with this sprayer making it very messy.
I did not choose to put polyurethane or any other acrylic sealant on the furniture because I have read about how it tends to yellow and I didn't want that on my white/cream colored furniture.
Painting the furniture took a full weekend to complete. Granted, having a toddler doesn't make it easy because Aaron looked after her a lot while I was outside working on this project. She nearly broke my heart standing at the patio door pressing her face up to it watching me and calling for me. We brought furniture in at night to keep it from getting damp in the dew. Painting it in the garage probably would have been easier, but the paint sprayer creates a lot of over spray and I didn't want to get paint all over the place. As it is, our grass has a few patches of white that are finally growing out!
This is a view of her little girl room! We kept the same Key Lime green walls that she had for her nursery and we also kept most of the art on the walls. It looks a lot different with the white furniture and the big girl touches. Her bedding has owls, birds, and other little creatures on it and important to her is that it is pink. She told me she wanted her room to be pink, so we added pink accents to it.
I came up with the idea to repurpose the furniture that we had in our guest room that had been Aaron's when he was growing up and I think a piece of two had been his Dad's. We have had this furniture all this time and Aaron would never let me paint it or change anything about it, but finally he relented and agreed I could make it into little girl's room furniture.
Thanks to my sister and Pinterest, I got turned on to the idea of spray painting furniture. You can read these posts to learn more about how they painted their furniture here and here. Clearly, the easiest way to refinish a piece is using spray paint; however, I had four large pieces to do and figured out quickly that canned spray primer and spray paint was going to cost a small fortune. I decided to buy a paint sprayer and traditional primer and latex paint. I had read that it was recommended to use a semi-gloss paint and I was reluctant to do that because I thought it would be too shiny. I am really glad that I did because I think that spraying it on must keep it from having a real shiny finish and I wouldn't want it to look any flatter.
We started by removing the old hardware, filling in the wholes, and giving each piece a light sanding.
The paint sprayer with a quart of paint loaded is pretty heavy. My arms were seriously sore for several days after from holding it up so much. My whole body was in pain from all the squatting and awkward angles trying to get the paint to cover well. There were definitely a few times where I kicked myself for not getting this done when I was first pregnant!
My other major complaint is that this paint sprayer leaks paint from the nozzle and down the paint container no matter how full the container is or how clean the nozzle is. I read comments from others and this seems to be a constant problem with this sprayer making it very messy.
I did not choose to put polyurethane or any other acrylic sealant on the furniture because I have read about how it tends to yellow and I didn't want that on my white/cream colored furniture.
Painting the furniture took a full weekend to complete. Granted, having a toddler doesn't make it easy because Aaron looked after her a lot while I was outside working on this project. She nearly broke my heart standing at the patio door pressing her face up to it watching me and calling for me. We brought furniture in at night to keep it from getting damp in the dew. Painting it in the garage probably would have been easier, but the paint sprayer creates a lot of over spray and I didn't want to get paint all over the place. As it is, our grass has a few patches of white that are finally growing out!
To really give the furniture a sweet little girl look, I ordered these drawer pulls from Etsy. I looked at lots of stores before finally thinking to look on Etsy and I am so glad that I did! There were tons of cute choices and we really had to think hard to make a final decision.
This darling headboard and foot board were given to us by friends of my parents. It was brand new and I hesitated to paint it, but I just couldn't imagine her room having black furniture. I am so glad that I painted it in the white color because I think it looks darling for a little girl. I am so appreciative of them being so generous to us because this is nice quality and very sweet!
The bed has slats and the lady at the furniture store mentioned that you could use the slats instead of box springs. We chose to do that for now because it makes the bed nice and low so that she can easily get in and out. We put the bed rails on the bed (in pink no less) and I am glad that we did because she snuggles up next to them much like she did the sides of her crib.
My mom and dad get the credit for the curtains because mom had the vision and dad helped her execute it. Mom is great at thinking of ways to buy pre-made items like sheets and shower curtains and use the fabric to make curtains, plus she can sew!. These are way cuter than the solid pink panels that Aaron and I were planning to find!
Her new furniture gives her lots of storage for clothes and for a few toys and books. I took a lot of the toys out of her room because I felt like they might be a distractor to going to sleep with her new found freedom in a big girl bed. She has plenty of books and dolls, but not a lot of other items. She is very proud when she brings artwork home from school, so we ordered the magnetic bars from Land of Nod to give her a place to display her work. I think she can enjoy them as she gets older putting up photos and other little mementos.
I didn't do a good job of getting it in the shots, but she has a chest of drawers between the windows where her bookcase used to be. We put a shelf above it to put some of her special keepsakes on and keep them out of reach from little hands that might be too rough.
I am so excited about her room and she seems to love it. She proudly looks at her things and tells me that she likes it. Her favorite is probably the little pink rug that she picked out to go next to her bed!
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