Bonus Room Fix-up

Everyone has one.  A room that you close the door on when company comes.  It's that catch-all room that you'll "one day" decorate.  Well folks, I have one too.  And its day has come.  Well, phase one anyway.  However, phase one has made a huge difference in how I now feel about this room.A place my son has chosen to study, do homework and art projects.  It's now neat, organized and really stylin' with that decorative painted back wall.  This is also the room where the extra house guests get to crash when we have a house full of family.  The back wall was painted from a stencil and it took me most of four days to complete!  But I think the way it turned out it was worth the time.  It makes such a great impact.

As you can see from these before photos, this room was nothing to brag about.  And, I'll admit, I'd already started cleaning out the clutter before I took the pictures.  With only one oddly placed window, I didn't want to go dark on the paint color, but I did want to add a little drama.  I decided to use a stencil to amp it up. 

As you can imagine, it was quite a process to keep the stencil straight and level so that it wouldn't be on slope by the time I got to the other side.  I used a yard stick and made a tiny little mark on the wall where the design would match up all the way across the wall.  I only did the mark about two stencil widths out so as to not loose my place.  I also used a lot of painters tape.  Going around the window and doing the corners were particularly challenging.The paint color I used was Sherwin Williams Modern Gray, which has just enough taupe in it to make the room feel warm and not too cool, which can be a problem with the color gray.  The accent color of bright green is in the window treatment.  I decided I wanted to make something in an ikat pattern, and I love it.  There will be more green to come with pillows, but I also found the cute green storage baskets on line.The only art on the walls now are framed art projects from my children's elementary school days.  (see first picture in post)  I'm so glad I've hung onto those.  I plan to frame a few more to add color to the walls.As I said above, this is phase one.  Phase two would include a black futon and great lighting to go with the cool updated look of the room.  In the meantime, my son and his friends can enjoy this space.  Check back, I'll do another post when I finish the room.Happy Decorating!