We finally got Jenna's play room pretty close to finished. We decided we wanted it to be a little more fun and cut loose in here vs. the rest of the rooms so we went with stripes on one wall.
I love how they turned out. We used all the paints that we had used throughout the house. Most all of the paint we used came from Kwal Paints. The lightest blue is from our master bedroom, bathroom, and the craft room and is Everlasting Peace. The dark blue is what we used in the hall bathroom and is the darkest color on the same color spoke as Everlasting Peace. It is called Superstitious. The green is left over from our old house, and I used the last of it painting this room and can't remember what it's called...sorry. The yellow is from Jenna's bedroom and is Kwal's Hypnotic. And lastly, we the turquoise from Jenna's ceiling and the laundry room in Kwal's Poetic. I'm glad we used the same paints because it felt like this room ties all the others together.
I upcycled the ceiling fan instead of buying a new one. I took it apart and painting the base and blade holders. I then added scrapbook paper to the fan blades using spray adhesive and sealing it a spray lacquer by Rustoleum.
The fabulous Heather Kearl came over and we framed out each of the stripes. I was really struggling with getting my stripes completely strait and not bleeding. Truth be told, I just got lazy. And this seemed like a easy and cute solution. I love it! I really didn't want the framing to stick out too far from the wall but I was having a very hard time finding wood or mdf that wasn't so thick. Then I stumbled on the perfect solution. We used outdoor decorative vinyl. Not only was it the perfect width, but it was already white so it didn't require any prep time and if it gets dirty, I can just wipe it down. Could not be more pleased with the end result. Nick is going to build me a little awning to go over the window. Pictures to come when that eventually gets done.
For the flooring, we finally decided on the paper bag technique. I originally saw the idea on Pinterest. I did a ton of research and I would say that one of the most helpful tutorials was a YouTube video from An Oregon Cottage.
I did change a few things from their technique. First of all, as my paper was going directly onto cement floors vs. wood sub floors we couldn't glue the paper directly to the cement. I found out that if we did a coat of the polyurethane first then we could have used poly to seal the paper down. I chose not to go this route for a couple of reasons. I didn't want the paper to look like paper, I wanted to stain it a really dark brown and by doing poly on poly the stain wouldn't have been able to get through to the paper. Also, the floor would have been lower than both the carpet in the craft room and the wood floors in the living room. So we laid a plywood sub floor down instead {see photo above}.
So as to allow for easy removal in the future, we just kind of tacked down the plywood with glue in the corners. If I had to do it over again, I think I would have gone directly onto the cement or at least attached the sub floor to the cement better. When you walk on it the floor almost bounces. Plus, even though I filled the seems between the pieces of plywood with wood filler and you can still definitely see each of the seems and the pieces of plywood aren't all the same height so the flooring is uneven. It drives the perfectionist in me crazy!
I read another tutorial on a blog {and of course now I can't find said blog in order to give proper credit...so, so sorry} that said she ironed each piece of paper before she started gluing them down. I am so grateful I did take that piece of advice. It made gluing them down so much easier. One thing the An Oregon Cottage peeps didn't have a clear answer for was what the the Elmer's Glue to water dilution ratio. I used a 2:1 glue to water ratio and it worked really well. I also used a squeegee to get all the excess glue off the pieces of paper when I was laying them. I loved that tip. Another thing learned is that the more glue left on the less the glaze absorbed into the paper.
Prepped and ready to glaze. I used VanDyke Brown glaze because that is what I had. If I had to do it over, I would have bought stain and used that instead. I didn't feel like the glaze went on very evenly and their are huge seems where the glaze stripes overlapped as I was putting it on.
I did five coats of Varathane High Traffic Indoor Flooring in Satin. Truth be told, I was completely intimidated by this step. I was really worried about going to all this work only to end up with bubbles in my poly. Because let me tell you, nobody likes bubbles in your poly. But it's all about the tools, as we all know. I found this Water Wiz Applicator specially for applying water based polyurethane and it was the best. It was so easy and this step became the easiest and quickest step to complete. You want to make sure not to shake your polyurethane. Pour it into your tray, dip your applicator, and sweep the floor. Fantastic. I waited two hours between coats and let it cure for 24 hours before we walked on it. I think you can see what I mean about the excess glue causing the glaze to not absorb as those are the lighter areas of the paper. And toward the back of the room you can sort of see the seem where my two rows of glaze overlapped.
Update: I learned a lot during the process and would totally do it again. I love the concept and have not had any problems with wear and tear yet. I've vacuumed and mopped just like I do with our hardwood laminate and haven't had any problems at all.
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