I officially started on the girls' room this week, but I ran into a snag! Had I not, the project would have been finished by now, and this post would be more of a "How-To" instead of a "What NOT To Do!" Haha. Feel free to learn from my mistakes!
As you know, from our previous post about our plans for the girls' room, we are painting large daisies on the wall behind their beds. This was my inspiration to give you an idea of what we're going for, a mix of this:
And this:
(Thank you Elise and Emma of A Beautiful Mess for the inspiration!)
I bought sample paint of the Magnolia Home paint line sold at Ace Hardware in Pure White and Brushed Clay for a total of $14! Woo hoo! Pretty cheap project huh?!
I took down all of Callie's wall decor. Which, despite how excited I am to tackle this project, I was really sad to do! It was like the end of our "Baby Callie" era. So many emotional strings attached to that wall decor. I’m NOT good with endings or goodbyes; they sit differently with me and I can get really down. When I start feeling depressed about these little endings, I have to look forward and focus on what I'm excited about instead of the parts that make me sad. With that in mind, I took a deep breath and plunged right in!
Callie's commentary when she saw all her wall decor sitting on her bed was, "Uh Oh! It broken! It fell! Mommy, ee (you?) fick (fix) it?!" Haha, I thought that was hilarious.
I filled in the nail holes with mud; some of which needed a little sanding to flatten out the edges of the hole before mudding. I then sketched out where the flowers will go and about how big I wanted them to be.
Then, because I couldn't find my painter's tape, I used these yellow plates to mark where they would go on the wall! Turns out yellow plates are a much better visual than green Frog Tape! Ha!
I felt like the plate's true size was just a little bigger than I wanted, so I cut out the center and used that as my stencil. I then traced my circles onto the wall with a pencil.
I took a small brush to paint around the edges and a normal paintbrush to fill it in. I'd recommend getting one meant for ridges to keep your edges clean. Buying a nicer brush may mean you spend $15 instead of $5, but trust me, you don't want to skimp on your paintbrushes. Especially in this scenario where I won't be using painter's tape to create clean lines - this project just has too many rounded edges for that!
(Gotta love Purdy paint brushes - highly recommend!)
I began painting the edges first, then going back and filling in the circles with my brush!
The first coat looked... we'll let's just say I figured a second coat would do the trick! After the second coat had dried, I realized it look much better. However, the yellow was darker than it should have been. That's when I realized magnolia only offers sample paints in FLAT paint.
I'm sure you've heard me rant about flat paint before, but let me reiterate why flat paint is bad:
It is 100% matte
It absorbs light instead of reflecting it, thus causing your colors to look darker and, well, flat!
Because there is no gloss to flat paint, it not only absorbs light, but it also absorbs oil and grime! It will show more marks on your wall and all marks are basically permanent. Your walls are not washable. NOT conducive for a children's room.
When you do attempt to wipe your walls clean, it takes off the paint! How ridiculous that?!
Because the paint isn’t sealed in any way, it leaves your walls feeling dusty and chalky to the touch. Yuck.
You'll HAVE to apply 2-3 coats to get full coverage.
See how it looks like it needs a third coat? And the wall has a slight reflection but the circle doesn’t?
Blegh! I HATE flat paint! Haha. So you can imagine how upset I was when I put two and two together after painting almost all my yellow circles. Dang!
Just as a side note, my recommended paint finish that you should have on your walls is Eggshell with Magnolia Home paint, or satin if you’re going with any other paint brand. They are literally the equivalent amount of gloss as an eggshell. It has just enough gloss to make it cleanable, but enough matte to where your walls don't look like plastic. It's also more affordable than high-gloss paint (which is falling out of style).
Do I leave it as is and stick to my $20 budget? Or go back and buy half a gallon of white and yellow (easily $60) and start over?
Here is what I decided:
I am going to buy half a gallon of Pure White in an eggshell finish. I'll use this white for the flower petals as well as the shiplap on the back of our breakfast bar! We need to fill in the nail holes and repaint it anyway, may as well kill to birds with one stone! The shiplap came preprinted, but with flat paint! (Insert eye roll.)
What about the yellow? I really have no use for half a gallon of mustard yellow paint, nor do I want to spend more money than I have to. Thanks to all the suggestions I got in response to sharing my dilemma on Instagram stories, I'm going to buy a clear gloss paint. It comes in a liquid form that you can apply as a topcoat or just mix in with the paint.
I'm headed to Ace Hardware this evening to get a glossy solution (no pun intended) and hopefully knock out the project this weekend! Which me luck!
Speaking of luck, Tyson has his first Spartan Race this weekend - be sure to wish HIM some luck as well! Even though he feels underprepared (we joke that he's only going to make it halfway and pass out haha), I'm still genuinely impressed with his dedication to preparing for this race. I'm so proud of him!
Sincerely,
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