01 March 2010

Blank Canvas

I'm nesting.

I think it was the fact that I officially hit the 3rd trimester that put me over the edge. It instilled in me a panic that I haven't felt in a while: this baby is coming. And soon.

Although we had starting cleaning out the room a few weeks ago, I told Bob that we needed to clear everything out and get it finished by this weekend or else I might drive myself mad. Too late.

As I've mentioned before, the nursery furniture has been ordered and has actually be in for a while now, but we didn't want to go pick it up until, well... we actually had a place to put it. Duh.

Now we do.

Let me first show you pictures of the blank canvas that is baby girl's room... We'll call it "the before pictures."

The closet was a hot mess. We Bob was able to clear everything out of there and tear down the one shelf and rod that was up. There was even ugly green carpet on the floor. Ew.


It's a small closet, but we plan to maximize the space with a closet organizer {that we've already purchased and is awaiting instillation} and some shelving with baskets. But first, it needs a fresh coat of white paint.

Now for the room... let's take a tour, shall we?

Not much to say about this view... the closet along with the door to the room {and the stairs leading up to our master bedroom.} Carter's room is directly across the hall from Brynn's bedroom door and the bathroom is in between the two.

The plan is to put the changer/dresser along this wall with the glider in the corner. The wire's hanging from the ceiling are for the new fan {that is also awaiting instillation.} The charcoal and white rug will then go in front of the dresser and the changing pad and lamp will go on top of it. Above the dresser, will be 4 beautiful pictures that were drawn by Bob's sister, Brianna.

The crib will go in this corner of the room with shelving and her name directly above it and the black chandelier wall decal directly on the wall to the right of it:

We plan to put the high 5-drawer dresser on the wall next to the closet, with the mirror above it.
So those are the plans so far. We're hoping that everything fits in the way we want it too, but when does that ever happen? Exactly.

Now let's talk paint. The room is currently "Sterling" by Behr, which is a soft gray color and I love it. I think it will keep the room nice and bright with all the black that's about to take over.

One thing that I do plan to do is put up a white chair rail around the room and then paint stripes on the bottom half. What color stripes? Why, "Sterling" of course. Let me explain...

Right now, the paint finish is in "satin" which is just above a flat paint finish, but it has a little sheen too it {more than a flat finish but much less than semi-gloss.} I bought the same color "Sterling" paint but in a high gloss finish for the stripes. I wanted them to be subtle, but not take over the room.

Here is a picture of the "look" I'm going for with the satin finish and high gloss finish stripes {in gray of course, not red. Oh, and on the bottom half of the room, not the top}:
Nice, right?

My question to you is: how thick should I make the stripes? I was thinking 12 inches each, but I've never done stripes in a room before so I want to hear from you!! I also put a poll on the side just to get your opinions {even if you've never painted stripes before either!}

Now that the room is cleared out, here comes the fun part... taping. Yikes.

I absolutely hate taping a room in order to paint, so sitting in baby girl's room for hours on end measuring out stripes, taping them so that they're perfectly straight, and then marking out the section that needs to be painted sounds like my worst nightmare {besides filing, sweeping, or being stuck behind a slow car in the fast lane.}

I don't think I will be a very happy girl this week, but the end result is what I'm trying to focus on. I think it will look awesome. A girl can hope...

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17 comments:

Sweet Little Lovings said...

I painted vertical gloss stripes in our old master bedroom and they were 12 inches. When we moved I decided to paint horizontal gloss stripes and made those more around 16 inches. I think for you, since the stripes are only going on the bottom half of the wall, 8 inches would look best. :o) Obviously just my opinion, but I think 12 inches might be pushing to big.
Excited to see the finished project. Whatever width you decide, it will look beautiful! :o)

danielle said...

Ok, so I just went upstairs in Cambelle's room and measured her stripes... they are 24 inches long. I know very big... but since Jeff is a math genius he measured it out perfectly. I also was nervous about doing stripes and I think that's why I went big, b/c I didn't want them to look circus-like.
I like them though! But, 12 inches seems perfect too.
Here's a pic of her stripes that I blogged about..

http://thebotbylgirls.blogspot.com/2010/02/big-girl-bed.html

You can only see the stripes in the first pic... good luck!

Suzanne said...

Please come nest at my house. Thanks :-)

Shan said...

Hey hon!

We did the stripe at 6" horizontally around the room, and it definitely looks big enough. So...if you're doing them vertically and alternating glossy/matte (which I want to do in nursery #2 on the exisitng yellow!) I would probably do them about 8"...not too big, not too small. Maybe 10"

Anonymous said...

You're right. Taping sucks. But it will be well worth it. Stripes look so great in a nursery!

Bethany said...

I just did this is DD#2's room. Chair rail with stripes on the bottom of the room. I used a paint stick we got from Lowe's as my guide so the stripes are as wide as the stick - whatever that is. Probably b/w 8-12". It was super easy to tape off because I didn't have to fool with a tape measure. Just food for thought.

Nicole said...

I did stripes, although smaller and different sizes in my daughter's room. You can see pictures here: http://babymatteson.blogspot.com/2009/05/show-us-where-you-live-friday-nursery.html

The taping was a lot of work, and because we did 4 different colors, it took us a while to finish, but I LOVE the way it turned out. Good luck! :)

jenni from the blog said...

Wow, thanks for all the advice ladies!!! I'm checking out all the stripes in your blogs now =)

Brianna Gilmartin said...

Well, I've never done stripes in a room but I've painted them plenty of times. I wouldn't go bigger than 12 inches, but I think 8-10 Inches would be a good size. Any smaller, and it would look too busy and distracting. Any bigger than 12 would look weird with picture frames, which might be over thinking it. If a picture frame was exactly 12inches wide and was flush with the edges of a stripe, that would be a bad tangent. This probably doesn't help in real world application, haha, but I just wanted to put in my opinion 'cause I'm avoiding studying for a liberal arts course, haha.

jenni from the blog said...

Annnnnnd guess who I'm recruiting to come help me??? BRIANNA!

CFO said...

We did the matte/gloss stripes in DD's room in a chocolate shake/beige color, they really turned out nice. I did 10" wide stripes, and they were just right.

Katie said...

We (well my husband and his BFF) did them horizontal in Em's room and they are 12 inches wide. They had some system with measuring and dividing and came up with 12 inches. It worked out well since it is 4 stripes regular and 4 gloss. And I don't know if you have acess to one but they also used a laser level so the stripes are nice and straight! Good luck and can't wait to see what it looks like :)

Katie said...

Sorry that should say access not acess :)

Katie Lane said...

Wow, those bright stripes really took me for surprise. They look great though, best of luck!!

Shauna said...

Those look GREAT Jenni!!! I'm gonna vote 12 inches too...can't wait to see the finished product!

Alanna said...

We did 8" stripes. We tried from 6"-12", and 8" just looked the best. They are a lot of work, but totally worth it! :)

Georgia_Peachy said...

We did the shadow stripes in our kitchen. 8" seemed to be the best size (we tried 6 and 12 too, but 8 looked best). You might want to do just one stripe before chair rail though to make sure it will look right. I just wasn't as happy with the kitchen as I thought I would be. I had a color similar to the Sterling and you can barely see the stripes. The technique really works better with darker/saturated colors.

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