Lemon's Big Girl Room Makeover & Glitter Floor Tutorial

Once again, a simple room renovation took more time, money and work than we thought.  Our house was built in 1959 and it just seems like every task we take on, we underestimate, and it ends up being a bigger job than we planned for.  I thought we'd finish this room over winter break, boy was I wrong!  We still finished it pretty quick, we started just before Christmas and finished a couple of weekends ago - but we worked super hard on it and almost killed each other in the process (just kidding - maybe).  :)

What motivated me throughout the whole thing was Lemon's excitement.  She was just SO happy to be painting a room pink, moving into a new room and the fact that it was just for big girls and was going to be super girly, really pushed it over the top for her.  Seeing her so happy every step of the way kept me going, and painting until 11pm on school nights.  Ha.

We live in a three bedroom house (with a den that is actually now part of our kitchen, we knocked down a wall back in 2009, and it's a bit over 1700 square feet.  When Lemon was born,e we took our middle junk (eBay, we used to be sellers) room and converted it into a nursery for her.  We painted it, put up a fan, did flooring, took closet doors out and put in new baseboards - also a lot of work but not bad when you don't have a toddler around.

Here is our kitchen remodel (that we did ourselves with the help of our family) in the summer of 2009:

And here is Lemon's nursery before and after when it was finished in 2012 (I posted a reveal here):44

What a mess!

And here is the "man room" our third bedroom, that we recently remodeled for Lemon's big girl room.  I don't have a great "before" picture (without having to hunt for one), so this will have to do (this was after primer).  It had army green walls with black concrete floors, black window frames and black baseboards; and back in the day it used to have a bunk bed in it for all of our friends who would sleep over after partying all night with us! Man, those were the days!

We started cleaning it out, slowly, and then Ian started priming it.  Once again I didn't consider doing a home improvement project while pregnant (pain fumes, paint scraping, etc), but I hung in there and Ian let me do the details (read easy, but time consuming, stuff).  Then, we started painting it pink!  First, Lemon picked out a really dark pink so I was thinking of doing just one wall, then I talked her into a lighter pink and she wanted all the walls pink.  So, all pink it was!

Then, Ian scraped and sanded the concrete floor.  We didn't paint it correctly the first time, well we painted it but didn't seal it, so the black paint was coming off for years and getting all over the house.  So, we wanted to start over.  We knew we didn't have money for flooring in her new room and heard that if we paint it and do it correctly (like a garage floor) then it would last this time.  My sister-in-law did her living room and actually put speckles down, so I thought - why not glitter?  Then, we had our hearts set on pink glitter floors.  But, how to do it?

After scraping the paint off the floors, Ian had to sand them a bit to rough them up.  There is a garage floor cleaner you can use too, which I think we should have used, that will also etch the floors and make them easier to paint.  I was just worried about it because I heard the fumes were awful and was concerned about me being pregnant, so we skipped it.  Then, you have to wash the floors really well to make sure they are clean and ready to paint.

We bought garage floor primer and started with that, putting a coat on and then leaving it.  Well, we left it too long (it's clear and sticky so Ian thought he had to let it dry), the trick is to do it and only wait an hour before you put paint on top.  So, we primed again and then started to paint.  The paint that we got was a different paint than I had read about (from Lowes instead of Home Depot), because white garage floor paint at Home Depot would have taken weeks after being ordered online.  So, I got a white base at Lowes and went with that.  I wanted a white ceiling, white floors and white baseboards in her all pink room.

Cleaner/Etcher from Home Depot (also have at Lowes)

Primer from Home Depot, should have gotten white but got clear.

White epoxy paint from Lowes.

It took 5 coats of white paint to cover our brown concrete floor (that looked pretty smooth and already treated, probably why it took so many coats).  This is why I think we should have used the etching cleaner, maybe that would have helped the paint stick.  I also think white, although it looked good, was a bad choice.  It just showed all of the imperfections and streaks.  We had to keep going over it and over it so that it would be even.  Finally, we were happy with the paint and ready for the glitter!  I would also recommend leaving the baseboards until you are totally done with the floor, I mean painted, glitter-ed and sealed.  I made the mistake of painting them and then had to repaint again after the floor was done - ugh.

I watched tutorial after tutorial on how to do glitter floors.  I watched people mix the glitter with epoxy, blow it, sprinkle it, spray it and paint it on - all looked good but I was just scared because I had never done it before.  I decided to go with what I would do if I were using the garage floor speckles, to use with this paint, which was sprinkle it on.  So, after gathering a bunch of different colors - light pink, dark pink, silver, gold and white, we mixed them and filled our shakers - and got to work!  I chose chunky glitter (fine glitter I was afraid would disappear) and it just so happened to be $6 a bottle from Michael's, another mistake.  I ended up spending over $100 on glitter - I could have bought flooring!!m

We painted a section, then sprinkled the glitter on the wet paint, then painted, then sprinkled.  If you decide to go a different route just be warned - mixing glitter into a colored paint will make the glitter disappear, and also makes it clump onto a roller (my friend Jenny learned this the hard way on her walls).

I used Heidi Swapp Marquee Love glitter from Michael's in light pink, gold, silver and dark pink.

It looked good, then I swept.  :(

After you are done with the speckles, you are supposed to sweep up the loose speckles.  So, I did that with the glitter.  Well, I shouldn't have.  What happened was that anywhere that was dry when we sprinkled, or anywhere that we missed and didn't roll, was left without glitter and created lines.  So, when I swept it up, the floor looked terrible.  Lines everywhere and when I tried to fix them by painting over the top with more white, I painted over some glitter parts (which turned the glitter kind of orange-y), then sprinkled and then had lines of too much glitter.  I was so mad and about to give up, I had had enough of this glitter floor.  Ugh.

Lines of white paint, turned into lines of clumped glitter after I tried to fix them.  It looked terrible!  (The piles in the second picture are just piles of swept up, excess glitter.)

Now, on to the glitter floor tutorial!  Here's what I should have done from the beginning (and what I ended up doing after):

1. Prime your floor with primer, then paint it the color you want.  In my experience, after all this, choose the same color paint for your floor as the glitter that you want.  White paint/white glitter, pink paint/pink glitter - that way you have no imperfections showing through and get real sparkles.  White paint with pink glitter was not the way to go, the floor should have been pink.  Let the paint completely dry, don't sprinkle on top of wet paint.
2. Mix way more glitter then you think you will need, buy it in bulk, don't choose fancy colors find something cheap.  Gold and silver reflect the most light, those look the best.
3. Get some sort of spray glue.  I wanted to use Modge Podge glue but it, along with clear spray paints, had warnings for pregnant ladies and horrible smells so I was scared.  I found a tutorial to make my own spray glue from regular glue, but instead we took our sealant that we bought, mixed it with equal parts water, and used that in a good spray bottle (from Lowes).  Just make sure you get something that won't yellow over time.  Take your glitter, sprinkle it where you want it, then spray on top of it with your clear spray glue.  This is what I should have done before sweeping, just sprayed the whole floor to make sure the glitter was stuck.  Sprinkle then spray, sprinkle then spray.  Also, sprinkling takes FOREVER, in the end I started just throwing the glitter in the air, then spraying.  Don't do it like you're feeding chickens, toss it up and let it fall, then spray.
4. Let the glitter/spray combo dry for 1 minute, on the section you just did, and then go over it lightly with a broom.  Go in all different directions with the broom, very lightly.  This somehow spreads the glitter evenly and makes it look really effortless and blended.  You will need a clean broom and will either have to wash it after (glitter gets EVERYWHERE) or get a new broom).  Don't use a small brown or dust broom, a real broom.  Some of the glitter will come up, sweep it into a pile, keep it on the dust pan, wait for it to dry and reuse it.  Do the next section.  The more glitter the better, especially if it doesn't match the color of your floor.  Do the same thing, throw it up, spray it, leave it for barely a minute and then sweep on top of it.  Repeat until you like the look of it.  Go over the whole floor with your spray adhesive - spray, spray, spray to really seal it down when you're done.  Spray your way out the door.
5. Then, seal your floors with the sealant (we got ours from Lowes).  Pour it and then roll it on.  Ours was thin and came out kind of milky white but dried clear.  We used two gallons of sealant (along with two gallons of white paint before-hand) to make sure it was really sealed.  Use a small roller for all of the edges and roll lightly, then use your bigger roller for the main parts, roll lightly.  Because of the spray before, hardly any of the glitter came up when we rolled the sealant.  A plus!
   
6. Leave the floor for 24 hours after each coat of sealant, then do again, always do edges first and sealing your way out the door.  After your final coat, leave it for 72 hours before walking on it.  The floor will be a bit sticky when you do finally walk on it, but it wears off.  The sealant really sealed the glitter in and it is not rough at all, I think that is due to all of the coats we used - 3 I think, along with the spray ahead of time.  It turned out perfect once I got that throw up in the air, spray and sweep technique down and it turned out just like we wanted it (although I still think we should have painted it pink, or used just white/gold/silver glitter on the white floor if we wanted it white).  
7. Tape off the floor (when it is finally dry) and paint your baseboards.  If you are leaving existing baseboards your floor may not match up to your baseboards with whatever flooring you removed or so on - so we caulked between where our concrete, glitter floor met our baseboards, after I painted them.  

Done and looking good!

Then, we went shopping!  We bought Lemon a new dresser, blinds, ceiling fan, hamper, curtains, curtain rods, curtains for the closet and a shower rod to hold them in place, bedding and some other accessories at Ikea, Amazon and Target.  The curtains in her room (from Ikea) were my inspiration for it all, I just loved the colors and design - I wanted her new room to be bright, colorful and girly!  Thanks to my mom and Joe for hemming all of the curtains and making cute little runners for the dresser and night stand (and for helping with this project as part of our Christmas present!).

New blinds!

I bought some princess canvas pictures from Bed, Bath and Beyond so she'd have some art in her room, and let her paint on some canvases herself so we could hang her own artwork.  I also ordered a tissue garland from Studio Mucci because I feel like every new girly room needs one and I just love all the colors!  I pulled some decorations in from her nursery, some made by friends at my baby shower and used some party decorations from another friend's daughter's first birthday.

We moved Lemon's bed in, put her new duvet on (from Ikea), moved a bench in as a night stand, found some bins to reuse Ian's man room shelf for toys/books and moved all of her clothes/toys in.  I wanted her kitchen to be in her room (and out of the den!) along with her new ice cream/hot dog cart, and I think they really just add to the cuteness of her room!

Lemon spent the first night in there on Sunday, January 17th and didn't fall asleep until almost 10:30pm; it must have been the glow in the dark stars/moon she insisted I hang on the ceiling.  She was SO excited, and has stayed up later than normal every night since.  The excitement will die down, I hope, but I just love how much she loves it.  I am so happy that it's super girly and can be our escape from all of the crazy boy things that are about to invade our lives!  :)

And, the big reveal (just waiting on a yellow rug from Overstock)!

I used The Party Parade's DIY for my foam board sprinkle letters and the tassel garland was made by Studio Mucci.

Lemon painted those paintings herself!

I also used Nat Spencer's DIY (also of The Party Parade) to make these little triangle shelves.  They will store all of Lemon's tiny treasures (and rare Shopkins)!

I ordered this sunglass holder on Amazon and got these tubs at Target.

I got these clear, candy jars on Amazon, they are plastic in case they are dropped!

I ordered the princess prints from Bed, Bath and Beyond, the stars of from Target and the bed buntings are handmade by friends, so is Lemon's lemon chair!

Ikea heart frame.

Pom pom garland made by a friend, bunting made by Nome Chompski Crochet.

Inside her closet - dresses hung up, $20 shelf from Target, hamper and storage tubs from Ikea and Big Lots to hold clothes/toys/winter gear/lotions/hair products.

Custom bow holders by Just About Bows on the back of her door.

We order a custom birthday sign every year made by Kick Ass Crafts shop.  And, interestingly enough, this picture of me and my Nani (grandma) is one of my favorite pictures of us, in my backyard in Oregon.  And on the table - a spilled bag of lemons - how crazy is that?!  I only realized it after I hung it up in our daughter, Lemon's, nursery.  There are truly no coincidences.

Lemon uses a spoon to turn on the lights in the house that she can't reach.  So, I nailed it to the wall at her level in her room by the light switch.  :)

Phew!  Hope you enjoyed this post and tutorial, I'm so happy her room is done!  Now, on to making over Lemon's nursery (old room) into an adventure-y room for baby boy!  I'm going to take a couple of months to rest before I start to tackle that . . .