Summer has been keeping us busy with all things summer… swimming, watching movies, building snowmen named Olaf, general mayhem, be have a little update for Cora’s room. I recently shared how I made her a pillow sham as practice for a quilt that’s on my to-do list. You can see how you can make your own in a weekend here.
Purple is her favorite, favorite color, but she also really likes blue. From a design perspective, this is a great way to break up the purple so it’s not so overwhelming. Last time I shared her room, it was to show the bright blue side table make-over to great the perfect nightstand, complete with butterfly details. This was an easy one-day project that you can do, too!
I still felt that the rooms as missing something big and wanted to see how some wall paint would look. At the same time, I didn’t want to overwhelm the room with purple everywhere, so we decided to try just an accent wall. Since purple and blue are both cool colors, I wanted to find a warm purple. Sherwin-William’s SW 6828, Rhapsody Lilac, fit the bill perfectly. We had a quart mixed in Home Depot’s Behr paint in matte finish. Since we weren’t covering a bold color, a single coat was all we needed and the quart covered the entire wall.
Chloe is newly 3.5 and was really excited to help paint. I like involving the kiddos whenever I can. Having both girls help sounded like serious trouble, so Chloe helped me paint during Cora’s nap time. They can help more than you think. She of course got out her tools and I bought her a small, economy paint brush. The best way I know to cut down on paint mess when letting a little one help is to give them their own paint container and provide them with only a tiny bit of paint at a time. Chloe’s paint container was the lid to the quart of paint, and I dabbed a bit of paint onto the lid as need with my brush. I never gave her much paint to work with.
There’s still a lot going on so we are looking at storage options for the opposite wall. The difference between a catalogue-perfect room and most people’s every-day homes is clutter. It’s especially difficult to beat kid clutter, but a couple times a year, I have our kids go through their toys to help pair them down. It may sound daunting, but I promise, you can do it. It’s not as tough as it sounds.
If you explain that the toys will be going to younger children who need them (using the term”babies” works with our bunch), they get really excited to help someone out. Let them put everything they are willing to part with (for the good of the babies who need toys!) into a box/bag/container. If it’s a keepsake, don’t make issue of it with the younger kiddos, just quietly move it to storage before taking the box to donate.
I tend to have mixed feelings about accent walls, but I think this one works since the curtains are close in color and other finishes will bring the color around the room.
We plan to add more details when time/energy/funds allow, including a special feature over her bed.
Cora’s favorite new feature, by far, is the addition of small, low shelves where she can keep her little figurines and trinkets. The girl loves her character and animal figurines. These are from IKEA and were in the girls’ shared room at our old house.
I’ve been toying with placement and may end up moving it, but I’ve been wanting to display this antique family heirloom baby quilt for some time. It has hand-embroidered animals on it which is right up Cora’s alley.
Chloe was so proud of her work that she photographed the room (for her blog).
What do you think of the Rhapsody Lilac accent wall? We painted it during Cora’s nap time with just brushes since it was a small space. Easy peasy! Little to no prep work and a big impact.
