Pluses and Minuses

I think it’s back!

My mojo, I mean.  When we purchased the house, this particular room had been converted from the garage and was set up as a games/TV room. (The door with the black curtain in the picture below is the door out to the hot tub) but in order to appease poor daughter # 3, whom we forced to move away from friends, extended family and everything she held dear, we made it her room and set it up to make her relatively happy.  This included lots of pink.  Like living in a watermelon.  Here’s some befores:

 First to go was the pink wall.  Using my new favourite white – Pocket Watch by Ralph Lauren, I gave the room a fresh start.

Next was deciding what the heck I could do to modernize the look, but not fall back on the easy solution, which is a solid paint colour or even a detailed feature wall that I’d have to live with for a long time even if I didn’t like it.  I am crazy about all the new vinyl decals out there now, big and bold like my polka dot bathroom, and you can purchase almost anything shape-wise you can imagine.  However, as per usual, my inner tightwad screamed BUDGET!! and I reverted to what I know… how to use nothing to get something.

One look I love is the plus signs that are really hot right now and it seemed an easy thing to copy.  But how? Paint? Vinyl? Wallpaper?  Those can cost money and time and planning.  So of course, I found another way.  Electrical tape.  No joke.  One roll.  Under $5.00.  Winning!!  Put on the Jazz music and let’s do this (tape and slogan from Home Depot).
        After adding, subtracting, dividing and multiplying for a long, long time, and confusing myself real, real good (don’t worry, I’m aware that’s bad grammar), I thought I’d just wing it and draw some lines with my watercolour pencil.  I started putting pluses up and went from there.  Lucky me, it actually all worked out spacial-y and although I had to adjust a few to be less crooked or too close/far, I think you’d be hard pressed to show me my mistakes easily.

To quicken the process in making all those perfectly plum pluses, I ran the electrical tape along my ruler, being careful not to pull too tightly since the tape tends to be springy and can recoil if pulled too taut, causing some sections to be too short. I cut every 4 1/2 inches to form equal strips for both the vertical and horizontal. And the finished product:

  

I also painted the little antique vanity, but made my own chalkpaint: 1/3 cup plaster of paris ( available, where else but the Home Depot), 1/3 cup cool water. Mix well. Add paint of choice – for me it is my current aforementioned fave white Ralph Lauren’s Pocket Watch.  Mix well, paint all surfaces. Let dry and wax after with Minwax. If you have any questions about this method, please ask!

Bright, fresh and airy! I am finally feeling excited about some other up and coming projects to blog about AND I’m excited about getting this room back for guests…or maybe just for me….

 

 

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