I painted his ceiling BLACK!

Today is one of those days. I feel depressed, tired of my mal-functioning body and tired of dealing with too many doctors appointments and trips to the pharmacy. My fake it til you make it attitude is hiding under the covers and beckoning for me to join it for a while. So to cheer myself up I thought I'd post some of our progress on J.D.'s room.

BEFORE

This is actually the way that this room was painted when we bought the house in 2007. It's the smallest of our 5 bedrooms and we've moved the kids around quite a lot but have finally settled with JD here. He's asked for a solar system bedroom for several months so I've had plenty of time to plot it out in my mind. In the end I decided to paint the top portion of the walls AND the ceiling black instead of dark navy simply because I felt like the black was more realistic of outer-space. The trim was painted a high-gloss white about three months ago. Then my endometriosis kicked up enough that more painting was just not going to happen.  Poor JD, he really was a good sport to live in such a feminine environment for so long!

During Christmas break I was recovering from surgery and so, so grateful that I have a husband who is so family oriented. He was Mr. Mom, Prince Charming, and EQ Pres. all at the same time and he was so good through it all. One of the things I asked him to help me with was to finish a couple of homemaking projects during the break. I knew that if we didn't finish at least one or two, I would go crazy and be left super frustrated. You've heard the saying having to do with brains vs. braun? I can't quote it here so if you know it, feel free to check that comment box below and tell me - what I do know is that DOZENS of times I've used the word "we" and the only way someone could justify my using that word was that it was me using my brains and imagination and Kurt donating his braun and super hot muscles to the cause!

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Phase one of JD's room makeover was painting the trim white. I use Behr's Ultra Pure White for all of the trim and doors in the house and I always paint the trim first. (The white is to tie all of our rooms together and also serves as one of the neutral elements to keep the color from being overwhelming.) This works for me because then when I am painting the walls, if the paint drips I can just pull out a baby wipe and clean it off. I ONLY tape the flooring when doing the trim, since it's the first color and the lightest I don't worry about keeping the paint off of the walls or having a hard time covering the color.

Also during phase one, I got crafty and transformed a paper lantern that we've had from IKEA for a couple of years and had recently been damaged by turning it into the SUN part of JD's solar system. I started with Modge Podge and though it worked well for mending the tears, it was also time-consuming. My research online in regards to Paper Mache'  found that liquid starch was sometimes used. I knew that since I was using tissue paper (in order to let the light through) using liquid starch would be really tricky, but in an awesome BrAiN bUrSt I remembered the little can of spray starch that I've had for, seriously, 5 years, sitting above the washer, lonely and neglected due to the advent of wrinkle-free dress shirts! It worked amazingly well and was so fast that I finished during the time it took for the pot of water to boil for our noodles. When the SUN  had dried, I did end up painting a coat of modge podge on the top of it as a sealer. The tissue that was applied with spray starch didn't dry hard and I wanted a more kiddo-proof finish. I used high gloss Modge Podge and love how the light reflects both through and off of the SUN!!

The paper lantern is the perfect size for the room and since the light shines through the tissue paper it adds a totally cool effect!

By using three different colors of tissue paper the varied look is totally amazing. The only thing I had to purchase for this little transformation was the tissue paper for about $2.00. Everything else I had on hand!

Also, I have since seen paper lanterns that are orange or yellow - of course after I had already done my own! I would still do this project on my own though. For one, the SiZe of the SUN is more unique to IKEA's lanterns vs. party supplies; and two, the swirled colors and gloss finish are two of the best aspects of the finished project!

Ahhh! Well, I feel much better now that I've had a little writing therapy, dropped JD off to kindergarten, started a load of laundry that includes a new nightgown for me (!), and put the two little ones down for their naps. I feel SO much better that I think I will go switch the wash and take a nap! Which means that part two of JD's solar system bedroom makeover will have to wait until tomorrow!! Smile.