One of the things on the list- for there is ever a very, very long list- was spiffing Youngest's room. It is the remaining room in the house at Cowfeathers that has not gotten any sort of face lift since purchasing the property, and many spaces are ready for a re-do of my original effort. But Youngest's room had become, well, kind of a No Man's Land. When he was a baby, the room suited, in soft vanilla yellow with baby blue trim. The other rooms with their dark colonial finishings took the priority spot. As he grew, his room became the stuff of disastrous legend. One Christmas, as family who love my children inquired about gifts to send them for the celebration, at my exasperation point, I took pictures of the kids rooms. They were taken from the hallway, as that is as far as one can go, and I sent them, with the suggestion that for Christmas, family choose to contribute in some other way. I suggested a consumable, or a token for their savings account. Clearly, all were suitably horrified, and the gifts kindly did not add to the mess. I will not post those photos here, as it is potentially embarrassing to my children (me too, if I had any sense), but also, might be illegal.
As the old saying goes "Is this the hill you want to die on?"
I ask myself that a lot as a parent. And, when it came to the kids' rooms, the answer was, "No." I was holding hard on the hills of homework, and caring for their animals, being polite and inquisitive, good readers and citizens of this world. Also, I figured that room care would work itself out, as I was likewise, not a good keeper of my room as an adolescent.
Both Middlest and Eldest came around to having their rooms be pretty and tidy, mostly on their own. But, also, I had given them a pretty, fresh room to inhabit.
In the past few years, Youngest had brought up the idea of painting his room, and I said "No can do, buddy. It's a mess." And, even when we did the biannual "hoe-ing out of the room" (one year I had a bad back and used a manure fork and trash bags-really) it was tossed so quickly I didn't see the point. Now, as I said, I did not keep my room beautifully as a child, but I realized my room, as a child ( also being a Youngest) was not a "decorated room" either. My elder sisters had adorably adorned rooms in an addition my parents had built, and their rooms were WAY better kept than mine. Could this have something to do with it? Room Pride = Room Care?
So in 2015, I decided to give it one more try, but go big. Complete room face lift, and simplifying of contents. It took me nearly to the wire to find the time to get it done.
Here is the new inventory:
One bed- and this is a beauty. It is my great (great?) grandfather's rope bed, a beautiful antique.
Two lamps
One bedside table
One bean-bag chair
Books (hugely cut down selection)
Clothes- in a closet, created in renovation of 1986
Decorative items on walls
That is all.
So, after two days of making piles for Goodwill, the trash can and the few precious keeper items for storage, the room was empty, save for the bed, and ready for some freshening.
Now, to be clear, this is no ordinary room. This room is fantastic! Far from being a box with window and door, it has a fireplace, 9.5' ceilings, chair rail, crown mold, 6-8" ancient hand sawn oak floors, and two deep set, 6/6 wood mullioned windows. When they created this room- probably in the 1986 restoration- they divided it from the hall with a wall of random width tongue and groove boards and installed a thick, heavy, 6 panel wood door with original hardware. It's a small room, but a beaut.
Youngest decided on color, and approved the deep cuts in his clutter inventory.
Middlest and Eldest pitched in when they could stand it, to move the process along, helping clean and then assisting in the re-making of the room when I had it painted. Youngest worked on acquiring painting skills- an ever useful addition to anyone's set.
We chose a Belgian White back ground color, Narragansett Blue for the lovely deep cerulean color and high gloss white for the abundance of trim.
And the finished product is a lovely, masculine room for a beloved teen boy. I do hope he treasures it, and nurtures his space, allowing for organization of mind as well as room.
The room features the bed, but leaves a reading area next to the fireplace.
The fireplace became the bookshelf, with a fresh coat of paint on the sooted firebox and bricks.
The closet is covered by heavy draping of french burlap.
No. Lying. The closet is covered by a heavy draping of inexpensive drop cloths from the paint department. They are one of my favored cheap hacks for curtains. Youngest's winnings from showing animals give color to the space above.
Above his bed there is lovely wood "boning" between the windows. It left an area for stripes to pull the walls together, and another perfect square to feature a painting of Youngest with his sailboat, painted by his grandfather. A treasure for sure.
The wood panel wall is a gallery of the things he wanted to keep in his room; a hat we brought back from our trip to China, a two dollar bill framed and bequeathed to him by his grandfather, a painting by me of our county fair, a framed checklist of his band uniform- a gift from Middlest. At the top is a chalk sketch of horses I sizzled out on brown paper years ago.
And, the best thing of all. Youngest, enjoying his new kingdom. Treat your castle well, Sir.
I'm eager to see the next chapter. Our youngest, now a grown man, does manage a clean household when his mother comes to stay. I can't say that ever happened on a regular basis when at home or in college. (Granted, college living was 10 distance runners living under the same roof?) Good luck, Hamilton! (And it looks terrific, Cate!)
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