Pretty In Pink

Wow, second post of the day. Finally after 2 months of priming, painting, trimming, scraping, fixing, matching, hunting, and bargain shopping, Gracie's new room is complete. Done! This is the color of the room before. You can't really tell it in these photos but the colors are drab. Really bad. The trim was sort of a battle ship grey color and the walls were a bit yellow tinted bordering on beige-ish. The closet had no doors. The walls were streaked and stained with I do not know what. The doors had a poor coat of paint that looked like mold was under it and trying to grow through it. Which is something that often happens in very old houses where the walls sweat with temperature changes and mostly due to notbeing used and left closed up alot -which was the case with the people we bought this house from. They did not use 3/4 of the rooms for anything more than storage. This is Gracie's room today. The paint color is one that will be very hard to duplicate. I have a gallon extra for touch ups in the future. I chose a gorgeous rose colored painted from the Wiliamsburg Collection but it was just too dark for a little girl. The paint store owner and I ended up cutting the gallon of paint with 3 gallons of white. We achieved a color that I can only be describe as strawberry ice cream. These walls were so thirsty. They drank over 3 gallons of paint. The trim and doors are painted in a semi-gloss cabinet paint from the Williamsburg Collection. The color is everard cream. It is not bright white and it is not off white. It is very rich. The paint itself is luscious and if you can understand me this is an incredibly sexy paint. Smooth and rich and thick, the brush marks smooth right out after you stroke it on. Just awesome paint. I know Susie Sunshine understands what I am talking about when I say "sexy". The railing in this photo is a staircase that goes downstairs. It is painted in the Williamsburg porch and floor paints. The floor is also painted in this color. It is a gloss paint the color of dark chocolate. A very rich deep color from the period the house was built. I had thought about stripping the floor and refinishing it but this was a farm house and floors in this room are not flawless. The painted floor still looks as beautiful as the natural pine would. The chest in this photo is a blanket chest Steven and I purchased unfinished a few months after we set up house together. It sat in a little window alcove in the townhouse and the kids used it as a window seat. It is painted in the same cabinet paint and covered with a thick padding of foam and pink quilted fabric. The pillows make a nice backrest and Gracie is able to sit here and read. Inside the chest are her toys and games. The two tall chests we bought unfinished at the same time we got the blanket chest. They were primed and painted in the same cabinet paint. The knobs I found at a closeout at the hardware store and only paid $1 each for them. They are china with small pink roses. These same knobs I would not buy last year at the retail price of $4.98. This room has a large closet. It did not have doors. The opening is odd sized. It is about 1 inch short of a standard door opening and not as wide as a standard double door. To have doors made to fit it would have cost over $400. Instead I chose a stock door from Lowe's and Steven worked on them an entire day. By trimming, shaving, cutting and a lot of sweat they were customized and made to fit. The door opening is twisted, the toe on one side kicks out 1/2 inch farther than the other. They do not meet perfectly at the bottom but it is a far cry better than a gapping closet opening. You can hardly notice it if you don't know it. These windows overlook the side garden and over to the orchard. The blanket chest and staircase. A better view of the tall chests. I have a white shelf that will hang over these. It has to wait until next weekend when Steven can work on it. The closet doors I am too cheap to have custom made. This door opens into the girls bathroom. Gracie chose this mermaid while we were on vacation this past summer as her one special thing. She looks really pretty here. The small bookcase was also purchased unfinished and is painted in the same cabinet paint. The little mirror hanging above it was found out in our barn face down buried in the dirt. Steven and I discovered it one day last winter when we were kicking around out there. I cleaned it up and never really had much use for it. I painted it and hung it in Gracie's room. She loves it. She checks her hair every morning before school and puts on her lip gloss before heading out to the bus stop. This desk is one Steven had as a child. It was marred and had marker streaks on it. It had spent the last 10 years in the town house basement as a stand for his printer in his server room. After 3 coats of Kilz, 2 coats of the same cabinet paint and new knobs you can't tell it is the same piece of furniture. The small vanity stool I picked up on sale at Burlington Coat Factory one day back in the summer because she needed a chair. This bed is one I slept in as a child. Colby also slept in this bed. It is cast iron from the turn of the century. When my stepfather's parents passed away this bed was purchased from the estate for me. My stepfather's parents slept in this bed as did many of their 14 children in a small farm house in rural Georgia until they bought a house in a small a town and it was put in a guest room. When I was a child I still used the cotton ticking, horsehair stuffed mattresses that came with the bed. They were worn and lumpy and you slept in the grooves of the people who slept on it before you. It was my favortie place as a child. It is so tall and high off the floor a step stool is needed to climb up on top. At the foot of the bed is a white vintage chinelle bedspread that I have folded and is used as a throw. I found 2 of them just alike on ebay. They were made pre-1940. They are in perfect condition and add just a touch of old time homely to the bed. The matresses are topped with a feather bed, (of course sheets and quilt and duvet set) and a down comforter I bought on close out at Domestications back in the spring. I always shop and look for things on sale. I wait until winter is over and everyone is pushing spring and summer collections and I buy the leftover winter things at sometimes 80% off. One day my grandchildren will sleep in this bed. Life goes on. This cabinet is a TV armoire -the kind you put together yourself. I saw it online and could not believe the price was almost $300. I kept searching and hunting with determination. I found it for $130 and $27 for the shipping. It is a very solid peice and doesn't look like cheap furnishing. This is the little girl who lives in this pink room as she was leaving for school this morning. She loves her ice cream flavored room with its strawberry walls, chocolate floors and vanilla trim.