A Labor of Love

I've been MIA for a while, not really on purpose, but there's been plenty going on,  I'll have to play catch up later, but, this is what I did this "fall"/Christmas break.  It was intended to be a nice project to keep me busy without a husband (aka while Targhee was finishing up his last semester of college with 18 credit hours, working two jobs, and doing an internship!) Turns out, I had plenty to keep me busy...  so it got done the week before Christmas. 

Before:  

It was time for this amazing wall paper to go.  Leilani was super sad to say goodbye to her pink walls and blue flowers.

This section took me three hours to remove the wall paper. This project took some learning.

AH ha!  Figured it out.

Once I got going it came off fairly easy.

The one and only time I let Leilani color on the walls:)

Awwh a clean wall!  It stayed this way for several months... 

After Targhee's graduation I could solicit his help.  I honestly wouldn't have been able to do it without him.  Good thing we're a good team. (p.s. see all those spackle marks?  Times that by about 40 and you'd have how many holes I covered and sanded.)

The cursed PINK walls!!!

I did NOT choose pink.  I chose a very pretty tan color.  It looked tan in the bucket, it looked tan on my paint brush and it even looked tan on my fingers, but on the wall...it was pink. I gawked at it the entire time we were painting.  Why on earth would I remove pink wall paper just to paint the walls pink again???

When Leilani saw it the next morning she exclaimed happily, "It's pink!!  Just like it was when I was little!"

*Sigh*  

Much to my relief, the bottom color neutralized the pink one and I was very happy with how the colors turned out.

I decided to be even more ambitious and add stripes to the top layer.  It is the same color, but flat and gloss striped.

This is how Leilani helped me (even though she REALLY wanted to do more.)

This is how TJ helped me (even though he really REALLY wanted to do more:)

Sadly this is probably the best picture I could get of the stripes.  I don't know if it's the lighting in the room or what, but they are barely noticeable.  Which is quite disheartening considering the amount of work it takes to paint the dang things.  Next time I choose to do stripes I will for sure use different colors so you can see the work put into it.  I like to idea of the flat and gloss though, it gives the wall dimension. 

Adding the final touches.

"Oh ok, that's how you do it Dad."

"Now let me show you how it's really done."

The Finished Product!

I am very pleased with how it turned out.  Now to get up enough courage to put a nail in the wall.  They're just so pretty:)