Gavin's Room

I'm excited to share this one with you all because it was so much fun!

So anyone that knows me, knows that I LOVE remodeling rooms. (I usually have about a million ideas on how to change a room..paint that wall this color, that wall that color, put that there, rip up the carpet and put this floor down, put that shelf here...and it goes on like that forever!) So when I found out I was pregnant, I was already planning the nursery!

Our house was built in the 70's (I think..?Ha!) and it has different trim in pretty much every room, in all the bedrooms had they had pretty nasty (in my opinion) carpets... so room by room I am slowly trying to update our house and make it, project by project, more of a home :)

So here are the Before pictures of Gavin's room

We found out on March 24th that we were having a little boy! :) That night, this is what his bedroom looked like...

Oh yes. We came home that night and ripped up that old carpet and tore off all the trim..but saved the trim because I was going to paint it all white!! (I don't waste any time with my projects)

It was really handy having to take all of the trim off to get rid of the carpet and lay down the new floor..I took all the trim, gave it a good sanding, primed it, and painted it all white just using a brush! I did 2-3 coats of white, because the trim was pretty dark! I also painted his side of the door white...same technique as the trim. A real good sanding, a coat or two of primer, and 2-3 coats of the white paint.

I painted the walls what I like to describe as a steel gray/blue. Originally I wanted it to be slightly more gray, it's a little more blue than I thought, but I love it :) FYI- it's sooooo much nicer to be able to paint BEFORE you put down any new flooring! I didn't have to worry about any wayward drips, or moving around some big, heavy tarp, it was so nice!

As much as paint will change the look of a room...man does a new floor just totally change the entire feel of a room! We decided to go with a lighter laminate wood floor, that works really well with many different paint colors! We laid the floor on our own, and once you get the hang of it, wow is it easy!

In the picture above is our dog Harley. He was just as involved in this project as we were. We like to call him "Furry Human"... because we truly think he believes he is just as human as we are. You will probably see Harley somewhere in the majority of the pictures I post. :)

In the pictures below you get a better feel for the paint color.

It only took us maybe a day to get the flooring all done....start to finish!

Then it was the fun part- putting all of the pretty white trim back on the walls!!! PS- number your trim (and I even put the corresponding number on the wall where the trim goes, and obviously in a place where the trim would hide the number, once back on the wall). You'd be surprised at how hard it would be to try and remember where each piece of trim went... essentially it would end up like being one big trim puzzle...and you'd end up wasting a lot of your time.

As you can see above, I framed out a rectangle on the wall where I wanted to put his name. It was actually surprisingly easy. We bought the wood from our local Menards store, and the 4 rosettes from there as well. I panted them all white to match the trim, and that was that. We did need 3 people (it was Aaron, myself, and my dad) just to be able to get everything level, hold it in place, and use the nail gun. We used an adhesive on the backs of all the wood pieces, then got it in it's place and used the nail gun to nail it all in place. The letters were the easiest- I got them from Michaels for a couple dollars each (if I remember right) and they were already painted! The finishing touches were just using some white spackle to fill in the nail holes, and there you have it!

I desperately wanted a wooden rocking chair for Gavin's room. My mom had a rocking chair that always made the same creaky noises when you rocked in it..and for whatever reason I just wanted a rocking chair that was just like that! (although now that I have one, and it makes the same creaky noise, it kind of drives me crazy..so I may need to fix the creaking, which is pretty simple...) So my husband and I desperately hunted around town for a good old, wooden rocking chair. WOW, we had no idea how hard that was! A- in all of the furniture stores we went to we never saw ONE white, wooden rocking chair..not one! B- ummmm hello EXPENSIVE!! We did not want to spend $300+ dollars on a rocking chair that we would still have to paint... not to mention spend more on a chair than we spent on our crib! (You will come to notice I love being thrifty) So anyway, we kind of gave up on our rocking chair hunt for awhile.. and I happened to be scrolling through my Facebook news feed... and OH MY GOSH A WHITE WOODEN ROCKING CHAIR at a local thrift store we had in town! I immediately called them and asked if they still had it- and hallelujah- they did! Oh, and the best part.... $25!!!!!! It had a lot of wear and tear, lots of scratches..it needed some TLC. I was ready to give this thing some new life! I took it outside, sanded it down like crazy, and gave it a few good coats of white spray paint! I did this all in one day! Let it dry for a day or two outside on my parents screened-in porch, and there you have it! A gorgeous, wooden, white rocking chair all for UNDER about $35 dollars! We have spent lots of time rocking our sweet baby boy in this chair. Best $35 dollars I've ever spent! Take a peek at the transformation of it below.. Top pictures are before.. and bottom pictures are after :)

So as you can see below, there you have it...Gavin's room all said and done. No "theme", I like to just say it's "anything boy". I have some vintage looking decor (a truck, a motorcycle and some other random "boy" things on his shelf..all of which I got from Hobby Lobby). I chose to leave the closet doors off of his closet... we did keep them just in case in the future we want to put them back up. For now we really like having them off because it just makes his room feel bigger, and it helps us keep his closet looking neat and organized! ;)