Home Decorating and Decor Week - Teen Lime Green Decorated with Clothes

I can't believe I have been blogging for two years now. Time really has flown as I look at all the things that have happened in my life and the life of my beautiful princesses. I am surprised that I haven't posted about my girls rooms before. I will tell you that during my divorce, the girls had a hard time leaving for visitations and when they would have to leave me, they would be very stressed. I prayed to my Heavenly Father how I could ease their stress during that time.

The answer my Father gave me was that I needed to give them something to look forward to all weekend so they looked forward to coming home with anticipation so that they could look "forward" while gone and be excited each time they came home. I was prompted to give some color to their lives in any way they wanted it. While married, I wasn't allowed to paint any color in our home. Every wall, door, and baseboard was eggshell white.

 

I allowed the girls to pick any color or decoration they wanted in their rooms and I would paint it. Before this time, I had painted plain colors on walls. I was a good painter and had started tole painting a few years before but I had never had a lesson or done any type of texture or decoration on a wall.

I told the girls that each time they would go for visitation, I would change something in the house and when they came home, they would have to find what I had changed. This led to a race into and around the house for about a year as I changed up each room. It changed the feeling and emotion of visitation and them missing me. Heavenly Father really loves his daughters. He gave me something to keep my time occupied while the girls were gone so I didn't miss them and at the same time I developed a talent I didn't know I had. I LOVE decorating and painting! It also gave the girls something to look forward to each visitation. Heavenly Father truly knows us and has an answer for each trial we have in life.
When my eldest daughter told me that she wanted lime green on her walls, I was very stressed about that. Having no color to bright lime green seemed a big leap to me. However, I told her I would do whatever she wanted and so I did. I bought some clearance paint that was mis-mixed at Kmart for $5 a gallon. I took a gallon at a time back to Kmart to be remixed to whatever color I needed for the next project. (Read about that post here) I buy most of my paint as mis-tinted paint for less than $10 a gallon. Just pick a light off white or eggshell tint and then have them match the color you want. I have never had a problem getting whatever color I needed doing this. 

I decided I wanted to make different textures, designs and use paint to decorate the room. I also didn't want to use all my paint on one room so I thought if I used the paint to make texture rather than painting all the walls, the paint would go further. So, I grabbed rags and other items such as fake animal fur, feather dusters, cheese cloth, etc to see which texture I would like the best.

In the end, I used pieces of cheese cloth about the size of a small dish towel. I dipped it crunched up in my hand into the paint so that the whole piece wasn't coated. I then then grabbed it by one corner and started to fling it at the wall like a fan. I slapped it one way and then flipped it the other way and slapped it against the wall. There was no rhyme or rhythm to it. I just put more paint on as I crunched it up in my hand and then started flinging it at the wall holding it by one corner.

Here is a close up of the paint. I did the opposite walls base the lime green and used the eggshell as a base for the two other opposing walls. I then used the eggshell to swirl the cheese cloth on the green and then the lime to swirl and slap the eggshell wall. I bought some sky blue for another one of the girls rooms so I used that to paint opposing panels on the door and closet doors as you can see in the pictures. If you look closely the slapped on paint almost looks like cobwebs in places due to the cheese cloth texture.


One thing I really believe in when painting a child's room, paint the frames and anywhere the child will touch regularly with darker paint. Fingerprints won't show up as much. I thought because this was for a 15 year old, I wouldn't need to do the frame and around the door handle dark but I can promise you, they have fingers and finger prints as well as any younger child. :-) I learned that lesson a bit late when it came to this room. Now, I would have done the frame around the door and the closet doors a solid darker color than eggshell or off white.

Tomorrow, I will talk about how I decorated it using clothes and other things to decorate the room on a MINIMAL to low to nothing budget. As I told you before, the paint cost me $5. I'll share how the entire room was less than $50. To be continued....