We finally did it...

For years he's wanted me to paint his room, but he would not keep it remotely tidy or take care of things in there. He always put his feet on the walls, wiped things that he shouldn't on them (kids are gross!). Generally it was thrashed in there and constantly making him clean it, didn't mean he tried harder to keep it clean. So I just didn't want to spend all the time it would take to do it up for him to see him tear it up.

This year he'd asked a few times about it and I discussed with him the reasons why I hadn't painted it yet. He started to make an effort to keep it somewhat tidy and started to take care of his stuff. He was still hoping for a castle theme in there (like the walls painted to look like an inside brick castle wall!), but I did nix that idea and asked him instead to pick out a paint color that he would like and that we'd pick a border for it.

He picked out a couple of paint chips, then decided on the 'exact one'. I showed him a whole lot more of them; he wasn't to be budged off of 'the one' (as he called it). I purchased three paint testers (one of which was 'the one') and slapped them on the wall. Had him looked them over for the final choice and he picked 'the one' right out. It was meant to be...unfortunately, lol. It is called Sapphire Sparkle...it's quite the shade of blue, but it's nice on the wall. I was surprised that he didn't pick green as it's his favorite color. Though the intensities of greens he likes would have been a bit much on a wall.

He wanted a border of swords, but no company makes a border that just has different swords on it. So he decided on a martial arts theme, which is good since he's into that and he loves swords so he can get some display ones for the wall, plus the sword that he uses in Tae Kwon Do. He picked out a border that has different sillouetes of people doing different martial arts moves. There is only one company in the US that carries it; it was more than I wanted to pay, but dad agreed to it so... He has awards and his belts that he's earned that still have to be put on display on the wall. We found a cool decal that is of a man kicking at another man. He loved that.

He and I painted some real wood shelves that we had cut earlier that week. He helped me to locate the studs, mark, level and screw them in. The shelves look great. Little Man told Steve that they were all level too. Steve told him: 'Well, your mom has a killer eye for things like that', lol. They do look good though. They are now partially full of his stuff. They were five feet long so he has plenty of room to put his lego creations up when he's done playing.











He also got this border from his Karate instructor and so it had to go up on the wall. He put it behind his door since it was clear of hanging posters and such.