Girls' Bedroom: Makeover Part II

This project was not a complete failure, but I will say it was more of a pain in the booty than I expected.    When the girls were first born, I had purchased large letters to put over their cribs - just the initial of their first name.  It hung over their cribs for the longest time, one purple and one pink.  Then I started dreaming about updating their room.  I knew I wanted to keep the letters, but not sure if I wanted to change how they were hanging on the walls.  Then I saw this picture on Pinterest and fell in love with the idea of framing the letters.

So I started my search for a large frame for each letter, it took a few months but I finally found them at Michael's.  They weren't the exact color I had imagined, but I thought I could easily put a coat of white spray paint on those babies and they would be perfect!!  They had some distressing on the edges of the frame and I thought I should be able to recreate that after I spray paint.  I had read a tip to put a little vaseline over the areas you planned to sand down prior to painting.  I thought what could it hurt, I can do that and if I didn't like it I could just spray paint over it.  

Well, let me tell you it worked...a little too well!!  Here is the first issue I encountered for these frames.  I used a very coarse piece of sandpaper to distress the edges of the frames.  I think the vaseline plus the coarse sand paper was a bad combo - it distressed it too much for my liking.  I went ahead with the look to see if it would grow on me and went to hang them in the girls' room.  As soon as I put them on the wall, the gray colored walls seemed to put a colorcast onto my beautiful, stark white frames.  The frames no longer appeared white in the room, but more of a pale white with a gray hue.  I had put three coats of Valspar White spray paint on the frames and in every other room in the house they looked like the white I had envisioned.   It was so frustrating to not have them look the same in the girls' room.

My next step was to use a sample size of Olympic One White (#430925) paint.  I used a foam brush to paint two coats on the frames.  This white was polar white, I thought it was the perfect white!!  Well, the bubble of elation was soon popped when I went to hang the frames in the girls' room.  Still had a gray colorcast to them.  So back to square one for me!  I sanded the frames down using a 320 grit sandpaper and this time I sanded all around the edges of the frame so I would have a smooth surface for everything.  I purchased a new can of spray paint and put my two coats on them.  The frames were smooth and white outside, but not stark white in the room.  There is still a bit of colorcast on them, but overall I am pleased with the finished product.

For Anabella's side I kept her letter purple, which was the original color.  Purple is her favorite color right now and if it does change down the line I can easily spray paint that.  For Olivia, I had purchased the letter in a pinky mauve, but with the new rug and bedding I decided to go with a green.  The same green I used on the curtain drawbacks, I used for her letter as well.     

Going with the purple and green theme for each girl, I purchased a purple pillow case and a green pillow case for each bed.  The bedding was purchased from Home Goods and I absolutely adore it!!!  Anabella was so excited to get home and put it on her bed - she wakes up every morning (no joke) and makes her bed.   For a three year old that means she puts her "pretty" pillow on her bed and then rolls up her blanket, but hey they got to start earning their keep somehow :)

The quilt is for a twin size bed, which is a tad bit too big for the toddler bed.  However, I do see myself leaning towards a different bed for the girls in the future and when I do I have beautiful bedding all ready to go!!  Here is a picture of Olivia's side of the room.  

One side of the quilt is the flowery side and the other has polka dots, so I decided to give each girl their own design!!  I am loving how their room is coming together, slowly, but surely is the saying around here!  I will say I am not digging all the different wood tones in the room and not quite sure what I want to do about it.  I am not game on painting the cribs though.  I am game to paint the shelving unit, wall shelves, and possibly the dresser (which is on the other side of the room that you haven't seen yet).  Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated??  

With much love, 

Kristin