Workin It Wednesday: Where Exclamation Points Come to Life

I thought what I might do is use Wednesdays to share with you the work that I'm doing for other people. Because sometimes I do that. Stuff for other people. And you better believe that I even have a carpet tile project!

So here it goes! Several months back, I started helping Toronto First Unitarian's Youth Group with their room, which was a bit of mish-mash. Really, it was a classic youth room. The place where hand-me-downs and unwanted things had come to live, in the hopes of gaining a second life with a new generation. But this youth group wanted something else. Something nice! Something organized! So I made a little mood board to capture the ideas and materials as we went. You can see it's only half done because we're only half done! 

We started by painted the ceiling a light blue as it had been a bright yellow! 

Then we took on painting the walls a lighter shade of blue! But that concrete block wasn't easy to paint! (Am I using too many exclamation points! I didn't think so!) Even with 10 people painting, special roller sleves, and a ton of arm power, it still ended up looking like this:

So we decided that it was time to take it to the next level. And while the youth were away at a conference I decided to take on their room with a paint sprayer!

Which took the walls from looking like this, to looking like this:

With the walls and the ceiling done, we were ready to tackle that floor. It still had the original 1950's tiles - you know, that classic combination of hunter green and mustard yellow (so hard to part with).  Carpet tile was definitely the flooring of choice, as it meant the youth would be able to sit on the floor and even install it themselves. The youth got to decide on which carpet they wanted, and we were lucky to be able to get it at a discount from Interface (Flor's big commercial sister). Once it all arrived, we just needed to put it down. And in less than 3 hours, it was totally done!

Then we loaded the furniture back in, and it started to feel like a real room! But better and more awesome than ever before:

Even with the same furniture, it looks completely different. Plus, once the fall hits and the youth are back, it will be time to seriously take on curtains, lights, and all that jazz. The stuff that will make it truly finished. I can't wait to share this room again with you, when it is all decorated up. It's amazing what a little elbow grease and some energy gets you!

Exclamation point count: 14