Want to stress out your teen? Remodel their room during finals

I’ll have to admit when I decided to sign up for the One Room Challenge, I didn’t exactly pay attention to the timeline for the project.

All I knew was that Kennedy wanted her room made over next.

There’s no turning back now as we’re in week six with just two weeks left in both the challenge and in school.

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When I gave the first update, we were already a little behind in One Room Challenge journey because we were on college tours for the first week.

Me being time blind (see also undiagnosed ADHD) thought no biggie, we got this, I’ll catch up.

Wrong.

Things I had ordered started coming in, thank goodness, but it took us a bit longer to figure out the paint color.

Kicking Kennedy out of her room

Painting her sister Kelsey’s room was easy, she had a weekend Lacrosse tournament so I had a solid two days.

The only other thing I could think of was to mover Kennedy out of her room into the media room for Lord knows how long.

But the mom guilt started to kick in.

I kicked it into high gear and focused on getting things done there and not updating here so I apologize.

Picking out a color and color drenching

I wanted Kennedy’s room to be very boho chic, which meant I wanted the color she picked, BEHR’s Beta Fish, to be the main character.

I did something called color drenching which is painting the walls, trim, and the backs of all her doors the same color and it was so the right call.

Not going to lie, I did consider painting her ceiling, but they are vaulted and decided I liked my neck more.

Color drenching can seem a little intimidating especially with such a bold color, but I feel like it helps the color flow better and there aren’t any harsh lines to cut it off like at the trim or at the doors.

Even when I painted the ceiling in the media room it didn’t make the room feel small at all, if anything it makes the room feel very cozy.

Furniture choices

Kennedy’s dresser is a hand me down piece from my parents in the 70’s and her desk is also an older Ethan Allen piece I found at a thrift store.

Wanting to keep with the same vibe, I lucked out with a storage headboard on Facebook Marketplace that happened to be in the same color family.

I am going to use the footboard that came with it to make it a bit taller so that her head doesn’t cover the cubbies.

She loves to play her record player and I found the perfect little storage cabinet that doesn’t take up a lot of space, but can hold her records and her CD’s.

The chair and ottoman that I ordered finally came and I wanted to bring in another color to compliment her bedding.

It’s also perfect because Kennedy is an avid reader, which is a story for another time, but leads me to the next thing and the huge reason for my delay.

The longest bookcase project that ever lived

Now I thought that by ordering three unfinished bookcases from Home Depot that I would “simply” modify to created a mega bookcase was a brilliant idea.

Also wrong (see the before mentioned undiagnosed ADHD).

Because what actually happened was a series of stages in overthinking and me simply staring at the three shells of bookcases questioning what in the Clint Harp was I thinking?

Yes I love to refinish furniture, but modify/rebuild, girl stay in your wheelhouse.

Realizing there was “no turning back now”, and “the only way out is through” and any other cheesy thing I’ve said to my kids that is now biting me in my own rear, I got to work.

But guess what, it is taking me what seems like forever to stain and polyurethane everything because you better believe I am taking my time and it is gorgeous.

Heck I even found my new favorite kind of stain, gel stain from Minwax, who knew?!?

Spoiler alert, I’m still not done with this bookcase, I’m still working on it right now.

The worst part, I gave Kennedy hives

Feeling bad that Kennedy wasn’t in her own room, after I finished painting I thought letting her move back in was a smart move and now I’m thinking maybe it wasn’t.

Between the end of the year push of papers and tests, her personal safe space being wrecked, all her dad did was ask what she had coming up that week and we watched as she turned into one giant hive from head to toe.

So yeah maybe don’t decide to do a major project on your child’s room, at least not your high school junior at the end of their junior year.

But at least her room will be cute.

It’s fine, everything’s fine, we got this, two more weeks.