Pretty in Teal – Bedroom Renovation for Two Sisters

Redecorating girls rooms is always a favorite of ours, well because we are girls!!! It is so fun to get into all the girly colors and accessories. There is so much available out there theme-wise it is really hard to choose just one. Now that the girls are getting older it is not all up to me anymore…it is time to give them a little bit of a say in their own rooms too.

Removing the Old…

Skyla and Saylor are really close and both knew they wanted to be in a room together. Our new house had a great size bedroom that was a perfect size for sharing. I could fit both their full size beds into the room. One on each side, still giving them their own space as well. Of course this room was already decorated for a teenage boy… Yikes! It had a military theme to it, with tan walls and a wallpapered Army Tank border going across the center of all the walls. Below the border was a textured dark tan paint that was made to look like sand. I guess they were going for a true desert feel, like you were really fighting in the war!!! The tank/military theme border was the first to go…then on to removing all the textured sand paint that covered the bottom portion of the wall. Removing textured paint is not easy and takes a lot and I mean a lot of sanding. Be sure to have on your mask for this process. Debris gets everywhere! When it came to remove it, I opted out and choose to go in another direction. I decided to use some of the texturing to my benefit to avoid the sanding and ended up adding a DIY board and batten on the bottom-half of the wall to add a more feminine touch to the room.

Creating the New…

Once the walls were cleaned, it was up to the girls to decided on a paint color. This is our big tradition in each house that we have lived in. Being a military family, we have lived in so many different houses. It’s amazing how a little paint can really turn a house into a home! I’m a Benjamin Moore paint girl all the way, but in true girl form my girls went in a completely different direction. They choose a light teal color -SW6477 Tidewater in Eggshell finish from Lowe’s. Win, win for me…you should see some of the colors they have chosen in the past! They actually choose the teal from their bedding set. I should tell you that part…I normally start with one focal point when decorating a room…an item that I base the room around. For the girls bedroom, it was their bedding we found at Home Goods.

I cut the ceiling and corners first when painting. One note, as you can see in the photos all the flooring was removed in the whole house, which was really nice to not worry about getting paint on the floor. You will want to make sure to have your floors properly covered before sanding and painting to avoid having to get them redone as well! I only had to paint half of the walls with the teal and I made sure to go just a little further then where the chair rail was going to be placed.

Next was the Board and Batten on the lower part of the wall. I included a more detailed tutorial for that part of the room transformation.

DIY Board & Batten Wall

Supplies:

• Finish Nailer and Charger or Compressor
• Mitter Saw
• Circular Saw
• White Caulk and Gun
• Heavy Duty Adhesive Glue (I use Loctite- Power Grab) and Gun
• Level
• Tape Measure
• Lattice Boards (1 1/2″wide)
• Chair rail (3″ wide)

First up measuring…Measure twice and cut once…right? That doesn’t always work for me, but I sure try. Normally, I measure 10 times…lol! I measured lots of things, length of each wall, height of batten and the distance between each board. I started on the longest wall and made sure that the boards would be even on both sides from the middle point. I’m not sure anyone would notice this, but I am so OCD and notice all the small details. To have the boards even along the long wall of the room, they needed to be 18″apart from each other. This is a personal preference, you can have them closer or further apart depending on the look you want.

Next, I cut a scrap piece of 2 X 4 18″long, so I could use it as a guide and make sure each board was the correct distance apart. Then, I started looking for studs and marked each one. The horizontal boards I used are actually lattice boards. Super thin, super light you don’t need a stud for them, just lots of glue and nails. The chair rail on top however is heavier and it’s better to anchor it in correctly to the studs with your nail gun. I choose to keep my existing baseboards to save money. A little primer and paint made them look brand new.

Measuring…check! On to cutting! The lattice boards were mostly 32″long. A few were shorter to go under all the windows. So I cut about 20, 32″lattice boards to get started. I started in the middle of my long wall where I had marked off and went in each direction from the center. Then split the difference of 18″and moved 9″from the center of the wall. I covered the back of each lattice board, one at a time, with a clear heavy duty adhesive glue. Once it was in place, I used my 18″measuring board to position the next board into place. I moved the measuring board from top to bottom make sure it was level and in placed correctly. Once it was in the correct position, I used my fun nail gun. I love that guy, something about a nail gun makes you feel like you can run the world! 😉 This was very repetitive, but moved fairly quickly. I had my sister help. One would glue, other would nail and measure. Bonding!!!

After all the lattice boards were up, we moved to the top board and added the chair rail. I’ve seen a lot of tutorials were they use a 1″ X 2″ or 1″ X 3″ board. I choose to go with the chair rail because it has a rounded end, lining up perfectly with the lattice board. It made a nice clean finish. It also added a more feminine touch, seeing as this was for a little girls room after all. Make sure to use your level when lining up the chair rail. Also, pay attention to your stud marks to make sure you are nailing the wood into a stud. I used the mitter saw to cut all the angles in the corners of the room so they lined up nicely. If it’s not perfect… no worries, that’s what the caulk is for…it’s a real life saver! Once all the chair rail was up, I went back and also used my caulking gun to fill in all the gaps between the wall and each lattice board, Both sides!!! This was a very tedious job, but makes all the difference in the world. Remember…it’s all about the details!

Cutting, gluing, nailing…check, check, check!

After all the caulking and adhesive dried, it was time to get painting! I primed everything below the chair rail. The chair rail was already primed. After the primer dried, I did two coats of paint on the chair rail, walls, lattice boards and baseboards with Benjamin Moore’s paint in Chantilly Lace (OC-65) in Pearl finish.

Boom…Board and Batten finished!!

Now on to the real fun part, the decorating…all the large furniture pieces went in first. Then the star decals on the walls, bookshelves, curtains, fun pillows, collections, names, etc. The girls had fun with this part!! Lets be serious …so did I!

We would love to see your girls room remodels….comment below with your pictures!!

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