I knew I wanted to use hot pink for my Girls Fancy Room Makeover, because they love it so much (so do I). I’d describe what was in my head to my friends (creative bloggers and locals) and I’d get this look of….”Oh, that sounds interesting.” I fell in LOVE with the wood planked wall look and had seen it a lot for accent walls, but wanted to fill the room with more of it than that. I’d mostly seen it white with some grays or browns. But I wanted Pink, and PINK is what we have!
Though I’d been dreaming up the details of this space since September when we didn’t win the Vintage Revivals room makeover (we were top ten), I didn’t get up the nerve to ask my husband start the project til December. I honestly couldn’t think of anything I wanted for Christmas (we’re too cheap to spend over $100 and anything under that I can buy myself) so I said, “Hubby, all I want for Christmas if for you to help me with some home projects” and more specifically the wood planked walls in the girls room.
You see, my hubby is pretty handy, and he knows I’m a damsel in distress and need him for the manly things around the house that I might not get right (I have a big fear of messing things up). Let’s just say that generally speaking, there are some sighs that come from his breath as I tiptoe around asking him to help me hang something. I have to catch him at the right moment. But when he was doing this as a GIFT to me, he did it willingly and with a smile on his face. I totally caught onto this theory, and I’ve pretty much decided that every gift giving holiday, I will have a project in mind to ask for help with. We are then both completely happy.
I’m not going to do a big tutorial on the wall, because I got my tips from Shelley at the House of Smith’s with their kitchen remodel. She referenced Sausha from Sweet Pickin’s and her tutorial, so between the two of those posts, I was able to visualize how exactly to do this planked wall project. What I loved most was the tip to buy a big thin sheet of 4×8 utility paint ready plywood panels ($12 each). We got ours at The Home Depot, and had THEM cut down our pieces to size. You can decide on the size, but we like the wide planks similar to our wood floors downstairs, andour planks are about 6 inches by 48 inches on the long wall, and cut as needed on the shorter walls. Shelley mentioned using a nickel for plank spacing, and I thought that was genius.My boys both helped their dad, though I have pics of just one of them helping.
My hubby had been wanting an air compressor for a long time, and this project pushed him over the edge to invest in one, so he could use a nail gun to nail in all the planks. I love that it was a project the boys helped him with, and learned how to do home projects right along side him.
I’ll admit…I pretty much stayed out of the whole scene. I brought them water and came in every once in a while to squeal that it was actually happening, but they spent quite a long time in there. Probably 10 hours total over a span of a few days.
Around the electric sockets was a pain (just observing, remember) and I felt bad for hubby seeing him make those efforts to make it perfect, but also so grateful because it was looking so fabulous.
The trickiest part was around the window. We decided to take out the bottom decorative piece under the window sill, and got a cool striped molding to frame out the window. I am in LOVE with how this looks! I went back and forth with whether or not to add in a square piece at the corners or cut the molding at an angle, and ultimately decided I wanted a cleaner look without the corner decoration.
I instagramed this pic when we were done—hooray!
By New Years Day, the wood was up, and the rest of the task was up to me. I knew the wall work I had ahead of me:
- spackle in the nail holes
- tape off the carpet with drop clothes over entire room
- prime wood with white paint
- paint 1st coat of pink
- paint 2nd coat of pink
- white wash over pink
- stencil the ceiling
I decided not to do the white wash after all because I loved it pink SO much! I thought I might want to tone down the pink, but I loved it, so didn’t feel the need. I sent out an email to some local friends saying I was having a “paint party” and got just a few takers. I mean, who wouldn’t want to help me paint this fabulous room???
My friend Michele came to help me spackle, and my kids thought it was a pretty fun job, too. I got the stuff Shelley recommended.
It was now time to prime the walls with white. It was nice and bright in there! 
Then onto the pink. I think I took a few days off between the white and the pink, and my little one kept asking if SHE could paint pink. I let her help me get started.
This is a horrible night phone picture below, but I wanted to document that my oldest also helped paint the pink. As I painted, I had to keep a toothpick in my hand to pull out some of the bubbles that formed in the space between the planks.
My neighbor Naomi came to help me paint some of the first layer of pink late one night…I’m sure she’s going to love this picture below
After she left, I was up til 2am painting the second coat of pink all alone and watching Hart of Dixie on my laptop (I’m slowly making it through the first season, this blogging gig takes up all of my electronic time). I watched 4 episodes in a row, and it was pretty awesome. With all that painting, I’m actually pleasantly shocked that there was no trace of pink or purple paint found on the carpet!
Once the walls were sufficiently PINK, I felt pretty happy at my job well done. I loved the shade of pink, I had it color matched at Sherwin Williams (which by the way the guys there were VERY helpful at talking through things with me) here is a picture of the paint mix
One final look of the Pink Wood Planked Walls
After I painted the room, it was time to start on the stenciled ceiling. I had no idea how deep I was getting myself…
The Girls Fancy Bedroom Makeover Reveal post has lots more “after” shots.
