How Much Wood Could a Woodchuck Chuck?

The downstairs room....er dungeon?

I am not really sure where to start with this room. It has a lot of wood going on. Problem?...it has a lot of wood going on.

There was "wood paneling" along all the walls but one. On that one there was wall paper that matched the wall paper border. I say wood paneling with "" because it is not true wood paneling. It is almost like wood wallpaper. It is wood...just thin and placed up on the wall.

Now, for the moment when it is evident that I have no shame. This is pretty much what this room looked like for the last 2 months. Trust me. I looked for pictures that showed what everything looked like and this is the best I could come up with. Keeping it real. 

Notice the wood paneling galore.

Textured wallpaper. 

Mostly it was a cream color with light blue and peach swooshes.

I use the downstairs closets as mine. It makes it easy so that I don't have half of my clothes upstairs and half downstairs.

The spare room was used for storing pictures that hadn't been hung on the wall yet and for storing the paint that I was using on other projects.

It was pretty much a disaster area up until we found the beds on KSL. Then it was time to get down to brass tacks.

Before I painted the beds I set them up to make sure that they would fit well in the room. Once we saw that they would work it was time to pull out the ole paint brush and get to work.

The ceiling was a cream colored acoustic tile ceiling. It was dirty. I wasn't really sure if you could paint acoustic tiles...but that didn't stop me from trying. 

It wasn't hard work...it was just tedious. 

After I had done one coat with the roller using ceiling paint I went back and had to use a brush to do all of the cracks. After painting all of the cracks I applied a second coat and it looked as good as new. Well, as new as an acoustic ceiling can look.

Then came time to work on the walls. I decided to tackle the wallpaper wall first. I assumed it would just peel off. Nope.

I think they applied that wallpaper using superglue in putty form. It was awful! I tried hot water, I tried fabric softener, nothing made that big of a difference. But finally I was able to get it clean enough to paint.

My plan was to paint the room a light grey color. I did one wall and then stood back and looked. It was not good. Blake even made the comment that it looked like a sanitarium with our beds without mattresses in it.

So we tried blue. Nope. 

How about a dark grey? Definitely not.

I was truly stumped.

Then it occurred to me. White. The room needs to be white. When I told Blake that I wanted to paint the walls white he said "in all the years we have been married I don't think you have ever painted a wall white." He was correct. Until now. After painting one wall it was evident that I needed to prime all of the walls.

I also had to prep the desk nook by removing the contact paper. 

It was in sad shape to begin with and peeling it off was a cinch.

The walls were primed and it was time to start painting.

I ended up using the porch and floor paint that we had bought on the walls. It wasn't going to be used for what I had originally bought it for so there was no reason to let it go to waste. I think it ended up being good for hiding the imperfections on the walls.

Once the walls were painted and the beds put together it was time to decorate.    

It ended up being a little more difficult then I thought it would be. I have had the most trouble finding bedding that is affordable, cute, and fits the room.

I found this comforter at Target. I liked it OK for the price. It wasn't too busy...

Problem?

Why make a comforter that isn't even going to cover the side of the bed?

This one was too dark. I did manage to make some pillows for the beds, though.

Once again I settled on the fact that I want white bedding. I didn't think it would be so difficult to find....It is. Do you think the rule of white after Labor Day applies to bedding too?

Blake and I randomly found this yellow chair at a store in Salt Lake. I thought it was fun, but couldn't think of anywhere for it to go.

Turns out....it found a home in our spare room.

The rest of the room has managed to come together in pieces. The curtains were trial and error (15 errors).

The shelves got a mini makeover with some family photos and mushrooms from my collection, to add a little bit of fun.

I finished putting stuff on the shelves and then about 5 minutes later our kids redecorated them. They are very helpful.

Around the room are some other vintage finds (green house picture, blue scale, and blue canning jars), 

colorful accents, and a little bit of fun.

Mostly what we want, is for whoever stays here to feel like they have a place that is relaxing but also makes them feel welcome and happy.

The room seems, to us, like a far cry from the cave it started as.

Still to do:

change out florescent light

find bedding

hang TV on wall

find a small table for in between the beds.

Anyone want to visit?