Teenage Bedroom

Quick! Grab the camera!  This teenage bedroom is CLEAN… and heaven knows it won’t stay that way for long.  It’s got a pretty spiffy paint job too, if I do say so myself.  Just the fact I used the word, “spiffy” should have my daughter’s eyes rolling…right…about…NOW!  Ahhh, the joys of raising a teenager!  Before my daughter’s room was blue with pearlescent stripes and covered in One Direction posters, it belonged to a little girl who still played with the toys you now see put away on top of her closet.  But as she entered her teenage years, it was time for a more grown up look, and she knew exactly what she wanted. 

THIS was the comforter.  It was thee only comforter my picky daughter liked.  It was the perfect shade of blue.  Not “boy blue” and not overly “girly” either.  We found it at Anna’s Linens and it was super cheap.  So even though it didn’t come with a matching pillow sham, it was no big deal.  I just bought two comforters, and cut up the second one to sew my own sham.  I even used some of the leftover fabric to make a valance.  I just had to take apart all the quilted stitching as well as the stuffing, and then iron the fabric really well before sewing.  I then took a scrap piece with me to the hardware store to pick out the exact shade of paint I needed.

While at the hardware store, I was lured by a can of pearl glaze, and I thought, “Wouldn’t that be fun? I think I really NEED this.”  Next thing I know, it was in my shopping cart!  I knew I couldn’t paint the entire room with it, but I could  use it for accent.  And that’s when the idea for painting three mismatched pearlescent horizontal stripes with brown borders was born.

I almost didn’t want to share these photos, because I look pretty scary in them, but I figured sooner or later the truth would come out anyway.  Unlike, June Cleaver, I don’t work wearing a dress, heels and a strand of pearls.  There.  I said it!

Once the stripes were up, it still needed a little something.  So I pulled out my fine paint brushes and hand painted the same scroll and flower pattern inside the widest stripe.  Now, I’m happy.

My daughter was pretty happy with the way it turned out, too.  Here’s a look at her finished room:

It’s been two years, maybe a little more, since I painted this room, but it still makes me smile.  (On the rare occasions when it’s actually clean.)  I love the reflective quality in the pearl stripes when ever the light hits it just so.  I would have killed for a room like this when I was a teenager.  My daughter, on the other hand, who’s already had a safari painted room, a purple & lavender vertically-striped room, and who seems to think every kid is born to a mom who is obsessed with painting, just asked me the other day:  “For my 15th birthday, can you re-paint my room in an ombré effect?”  To which I immediately replied, “WHAT!?!  You have got to be CRAZY!!!  There’s NO WAY I’m going to… wait a minute, what’s an ombré effect?  Is that the really cool fading of one color into another, going from darker to lighter?  SWEET!  I already know how I can do it…”