the life and times of a toddler bedroom, or what happens at our house when paint goes on sale.

Parks' bedroom is not original to our house, which was built in 1921. It was an addition made in the 70's or 80's, I would guess, due to the good ol' wood-paneled walls. Thank goodness that the guy who lived here before Cal thought to at least have the wood painted, so it's not like Parks has been living in a dark brown cave for the last 3 1/2 years.

Still, though, the room has never charmed me as the rest of the house did at first glance. Its ceiling is lower, its floors are lighter, and it has always felt just a little bit sterile, somehow. It has french doors that open up to our deck along with two other windows, so it gets a lot of light, which is nice. However, paired with the light walls and light floors, I could never really give it that cozy feel.

Almost four years later, enter Sherwin Williams and its nice, little 40% off sale. I've been getting the itch to do something new with our den (more on that later), so I popped by the paint store early last week to get some color samples. In the past, I've been "that lady" who I'm sure all true paint stores talk about later. You know, the one who gets the professional advice from the designers they have on-hand, asks for help in picking out colors and brushes, then says, "Thanks! I'll probably be by later this week!" as I hop in my car to head straight to Lowe's. I know, I know. Terrible. But I'm also frugal, and that's not a bad thing, right?

Anyway, the Sherwin Williams lady told me about the sale, so I spent the next few days poring over fan decks and Internet pictures. Cal, I'm sure, was not amused, but he didn't say much. And I figured, if such good paint is on sale, why not take advantage of it and do something with the add-on, as well?

Friday morning, as soon as I dropped Parks off at preschool, John and I headed across town to buy some paint.  I ended up with four gallons: two for the den, and two for P's room. I started with P's.

(Pause here to indulge the mother-side of my identity. This is John in Sherwin Williams. I think he liked it.)

I should've taken some pictures of what the room looked like just before I painted, as it had changed some from the last ones I took. I'll give you a glimpse of its metamorphosis over the last few years just to give you an idea. The first is what it looked like when Parks was a wee little guy, younger even than John is now. If you look closely, you can see those calf muscles that my husband is so very vain proud about.

Note the hideous Walmart curtains, and how they are, unfortunately, the constant over the next transformations. I hate them, but they were in our budget, and when we were new parents grasping at straws over how to get our precious little sleep-hater to scream for just a few minutes less each night (read: merely 54 minutes instead of 58), anything that made the room a little darker was fine with us.

Next is the original "Big Boy" room.

Prior to now, this set-up came the closest to making the room something I loved. What did the trick, though, was also its downfall: it was crowded. Cozy, yes. But, as a result, there wasn't any room for us to walk, let alone Parks to play. The picture above was taken from the door of the room, so you can see that it was packed full with furniture.

We decided to put one of the beds back up in the attic, where it will stay until 1) Parks gets old enough to have sleepover friends, 2) John moves in, or 3) I get bored. The final result was one bed pushed up against a wall, and lots of floor space and cheap rug on which Parks could play (read: destruct) to his heart's content. It was also one that I did NOT love. That's where we've been for the last six months or so.

Enter the paint. Same set-up, but -I think- much nicer.

Better, no? Sure, were I taking these pics for Better Homes and Gardens, I'd have turned the lamps on and removed the trashcan, sippy cup, and various Fisher Price paraphernalia. But you know what, people? I'm not Better Homes and Gardens. I'm a frazzled mom who just spent the past week painting a room during 45-minute infant naps. Cut me some slack.

The color is Valspar's "Royal Gray." It's not the least bit lavender, even though it might kinda look that way in these pictures if I squint at them out of the corner of my eye. Not that I'm doing that. Why would I do that? Anyway, it's not. I promise.

I picked up the chip one day when I was at Lowe's, then went home and googled it. Turns out, it was used by Nate Berkus' design team on a room makeover that he did for his show. And hey, if it's good enough for Nate, and Nate is good enough for Oprah, then it was good enough for me. Love how it turned out.

My next project for this room will be painting the nightstands and dressers (probably a navy) and perhaps attempting to make these. With my luck, however, instead of looking like this, they will turn out like this. Nice.* Oh, Melissa, professional-blogger-of-all-things-crafty, I really think Ford and John need a playdate. At Hancock Fabrics. Then back at my house. Yes?

And the next project for the house is, of course, the den! Stay tuned...

*I so hope that the blogger in the latter link doesn't get notified that she was tagged in another blog. If so, I'm sorry! Please forgive? But, really, I don't like your curtains.