Colorful Room Update
I redid this room for our 5 1/2yr old grand daughter who lives with us. It was our teenage son's room before. She was very happy. Our son was a little jealous, but he moved out months ago. :)
Supplies
1. Nail gun or Stapler
2. 5mm Plywood for front of shelves - 13-15.00 Lowes
3. Particle Board - I bought the particle board at Lowes for 5.00, it is normally around 14.00 The reason I got it so cheap was because it was the top piece of the stack, that was cut slightly smaller than the rest. My understanding from the sales person is that they always do this with the top sheet, so it is considered scrap. Ask and you may be able to get some nice scrap for cheap. They were even nice enough to cut it all to size at no charge :) BONUS!
4. Car door edge guard in Chrome Diamond - Ebay 25.00 for 150 ft As you can imagine I have a LOT left over, but I will use it for other things. This is the only seller I found selling it in rolls for so cheap http://stores.ebay.com/carid/
5.Paint - I used sample sizes of Olympic One for the stripes, circles, and inside the shelving. They were 2.98 each. I used a gallon of Olympic One, in the color of Beach Ball for the top half of the walls (yellow). I used basic SpeedWall semi gloss for the bottom half of the walls (white).
6. Little paint trays with rollers 2.48 each. These little rollers were great to use, also easy to clean and reuse even after I left them sitting a day or two.
7. Tape - I discovered I did not like the blue tape much. I mostly used the 3M 2020 masking tape. I got it in the paint section of Home Depot. It was 2-3.00 depending on the width you purchase.
Optional Supplies If You Want to Add LED Lighting
NO SOLDERING NEEDED - Cut , connect, and stick. Very Simple! :)
1. LED Dimmable Touch Control - 9.99
2. 2 Pin (single color strip light) wire connectors for LED Strip.
4 Pin if you want multi colored strip lights. 20 of these were 7.44 on Ebay
3. Additional connectors without wire attached. 20 for 3.99 on Ebay
4 LED strip Light - 5 meters for 7.39 (could be cheaper elsewhere) Note:The strip lighting has adhesive on the back. Mine did not stick well to particle board. I had to add more adhesive.
You will need to drill holes in your shelving to connect the LED strips.
The Fun Begins :)
Decide which wall you want your shelves to be. Remove baseboard, outlet covers (I paint over them most of the time, as you can see in the pictures) Sand high spots, and patch holes if needed. I did not need to. PAINT the wall your color of choice. Measure, measure again, and build your shelves. I am not giving exact directions for building the shelves since our room sizes are likely not the same.
I was undecided on whether I was going to continue the stripes all the way down the wall to begin with. I decided not to in the end. I painted the cubby holes solid. These are the colors of my Olympic Samples -Rose Glory (left shelves), Aloe Vera (center shelves), and Kingston Aqua (right shelves). The colors I used are the same as the stripe colors.
If you are painting stripes as I have done. I used 3 different sized rolls of tape and taped down as far as I wanted to go then removed every other line of tape. I know it seems like a waste of tape, but it is easier for me to get straight lines this way. I painted white (the same as the wall color) over the tape after I removed every other strip. I did this to avoid the paint color bleeding/seeping under the edges of the tape.
If you are only painting stripes and do not have the original base color of your wall you should buy the Orange Frog tape Kit - 15.00. I posted a picture so you can see what Im talking about. The kit comes with tape and an adhesive to block paint seepage. I also posted a picture of some other Frog Tape I discovered after I was almost done with my project. It looks awesome! It comes in 3 patterns - chevron, scallop, and waves. I will definitely be giving these a try in the future.
Face of Shelves - Projector Instructions (pictures)
I made a projector out of a box, my cell phone light, and an old picture frame to draw the first oval onto my wood. I am not good at free-handing. I cut out the oval and used it trace the other 3 ovals. I posted some pictures of how I made the projector. You can use glass, plastic, saran wrap, ect for the screen. I tried it with glass and a plastic bag. Olaf was my test subject. They both worked nicely. I preferred the glass because I could clean it off and reuse it.
Face of Shelves
Measure your shelves and mark your plywood. Cut out with a jigsaw. Stain or Paint your plywood. Add door guard to finish rough edges.
Use your nail gun to attach plywood face to the shelves.
Take the cut out pieces of scrap wood left from making the face of the shelves and draw, or trace shapes onto them. Cut them out and paint or stain them. Attach them to the wall with your nail gun. Whew...I think I posted way to many pictures. Sorry this was so long.