Sep 17, 2015

Bedroom Makeovers

9/17/2015 — cori
I spent an inordinate amount of time painting this summer. Bennett and I had already planned to redo his room and bring it up to "Teenager Cool". It only took a week and a lot of squats, multiple trips to Home Depot for extra paint, a tiny mental breakdown over my ancient sewing machine, a few vinyl letters and a lot of tape and sweat - but we pulled it off. He was my right hand man. We did it all by ourselves (except for installing the vinyl letters - that needed Chuck's steady hand and detailed precision). His room is the perfect reflection of him. He can't help but smile every time he walks in it, passes it or does anything in it. But that's also who he is....he's a smiler, he does everything with a smile on his face (except painting - I don't believe I once saw him smile while we were painting).


Our school mascot is The Farmington Tigers. He bleeds school spirit. His favorite colors are black and orange - so that worked out pretty good for us. He didn't want to go with any tiger print though (I knew he inherited some of my design sense - animal prints are not cool). He picked all the colors (I only helped with the orange since it had to match the curtains I found).


I found those curtains pre-made at IKEA. Unfortunately, they were like 3 feet too long. I spent almost an entire day re-reading my 1930's sewing machine manual trying for the 759th time to remember how to insert the darn bobbin. I was spitting nails by the second hour of messing with my sewing machine. I think a sewing fairy must have appeared out of nowhere while my head was bowed in frustration and fixed my ineptitude that eventually allowed me to finish my course and hang up drapes that actually had a straight hem in the same color thread (that is a miracle)!


Chuck was also responsible for hanging the mini basketball hoop. I don't know if you noticed the theme yet, but it is something like "Basketball,Tigers Basketball, Michael Jordan, Basketball, Dirk Nowitzki, Teenage Appropriate, Basketball Cool"

And then I don't know what seized me, maybe being in 'Designer Mode' I just couldn't help myself, I asked Gavin if he would like a cool new room for the TWO YEARS he has left living with us. After I blinked away the tears upon realizing the stark reality of time, I think I heard him say, "Sure".

I know with makeover pictures you're supposed to show before and after shots. But it seems I always forget to take the before shot. I'm so excited and focused on the after. I'm sure I could dig some out of my picture archives, but...oh well, you're stuck with only 'after' shots in this update.


Gavin had very particular opinions. He wanted his room to be gray and he wanted to make the ledge on the one wall navy blue. He has a basement room that has always looked a little 'cave-like' to me. Not anymore. It now has the light and bright appearance of a normal room with a normal sized window.This room is such a vivid representation of who he is. He is calm. (disclaimer - he is not calm when he is painting. He is huffing and puffing like he is going to blow the house down. He is telling me all about how from now on he will pay someone to paint for him. He will never again paint a wall. However, he was super pleased with himself after seeing the finished product. I let him vent and then I let him feel the joy of a job well done). He picked out both pictures. I honestly didn't know he loved nature prints. I would have picked out those pictures. It also makes perfect sense with his new love - archery. 


We made the bow be like art work above his bed. It is a fun way to store and display his bow. I love how he has a remnant of his boyhood past displayed proudly on his top shelf. He organized his shelves the way he wanted them. It took much encouragement, but I was finally able to get him to rearrange his furniture in a way for optimal space planning. He is such a creature of routine/habit, that this was really hard for him. The only way he let me do it was by promising him that if he didn't like my new configuration, I would gladly put it all back the way he originally had it (yes - I was that confident he would like it). He ended up liking my way better and the rest is history.


He picked out that super cool hanging light at IKEA. It was his second choice. The first one looked a little more robotic and was way over budget. He put the entire light together on his own. We even took out the old light and installed the new one all by ourselves. We were beyond proud of that accomplishment. We didn't even get electrocuted. I also had the same battle with my sewing machine while working with Gavin's curtains. I won the battle in half the time it took me to do Bennett's. I consider that 'learning from my mistakes'. 

Chloe did not get a room makeover this summer, but she kinda got one this past Christmas when she got her new loft bed. I wanted to remember what an 11 year old girl's bedroom looks like so I snapped a bunch of photos. Chloe has a wee bit of a problem with the whole pack-rat thing. She also loves to arrange things in ways that only seem to make sense to her. I love this precious little girl room. Not too long from now we'll be making it a "Teenage Girl" room. I want to just live in the moment right now.


She still plays with her stuffed animals, especially horses. She always has a ton of crap on her dresser. To her, this is clean. I don't see things her way. But it is organized and 'cleanish' so I let it go. 


This is possibly the cleanest I've seen her desk area since we put it together. She is the Queen of Trinkets. 


Here's a nice view of the side of her loft bed. Everything is in it's place. Having a decorator mom must be hard because I have an instinctual knowledge of what looks good and what doesn't. Chloe doesn't really care about my 'knowledge'. She likes what she likes and no one is going to change her mind. I love that about her. I love that I can't connive, control or convince her. She is so her own person and for that I respect her and love her all the more for staying true to herself.



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