My Soon-To-Be-Born Baby's Room

I am having a baby boy! Yay! :)

To start this new chapter, my wife and I decided to renew our home to receive the best guest ever. So we took out everything from the "Clutter Room" and gave it a new look.

Step 1: The Initial Room and Furniture

Since budget is always an issue, we decided to do everything ourselves. The initial room was boring, with all white walls and a worn out floor, so we changed everything.

We had various pieces of furniture (i.e. cradle, small table and chair, and two wooden armchairs) laying about and, in order to make them more suitable to the room we were expecting, we decided to paint them all white.

Some of the furniture had holes, but it was easy to fill them with a mix of glue and sawdust. Alternatively, you can also use gypsum plaster.

The pieces were all sanded with 80-120 grit sandpapers, just enough for the paint to adhere.

All surfaces were cleaned with a cloth to remove dust before the paint job.

My first mistake here, for trying to achieve the most economic solution possible, was not using a primer. I used an enamel to paint all pieces of furniture, but they needed about 4+ coatings to even out the surface's color thus requiring more paint and time than I had expected. Nonetheless, they turned out great!

I also suggest using a tray to place the paint and homogenize the foam paint roller.

Step 2: Painting the Walls

I learn a lot from my mistakes... Painting a wall is not as trivial as one may initially think. There are several factors that I should have considered and that were disregarded. You have to consider the type and quality of paint, your paint roller, the tray, surface preparation, among other factors.

If you want reasonably smooth surfaces, you have to sand the wall. You can use a 400-grit sandpaper which is just enough to remove irregularities and leave it homogenized. Also, you also need an up to 10-mm microfiber paint roller in order to obtain what I consider an adequate finish. Of course, you might be looking for a rougher or glazed surfaces and there are paint rollers just for that.

I also removed the existing baseboard as the flooring was also renewed. All boards were carefully taken out, sanded, painted (with primer this time).

As you can see in one of the images, part of the wall was adjacent to a bathroom and covered by a piece of furniture. Some detachment and fungi proliferation occurred... To properly clean mold, you have to produce a bleach solution (around 50% bleach + 50% water). I suggest placing the solution in a container that can spray it onto the wall with mold. Shortly after, you can see the mold yellowing. Then, you can just scrub with water it until you see the wall's original color. I suggest that you leave to dry for 24 hours before painting the wall to ensure proper adhesion.

Finally, I painted the walls. We wanted something that would stand out from the existing boring white walls. I bought a cheap regular white paint and mixed it with just a little black and bluewater-based paints to create a blueish grey. Small amounts need to be added and properly mixed until you get the desired color.

The tray was a crucial part of this job. Homogenizing the paint roller was absolutely fundamental to make an even wall as fast as possible. To help you speed up the process, I suggest an extension for the paint roller. Nothing too fancy; just enough to give you a greater reach (I bought mine for 1.7€, about $2).

Step 3: Laminate Floor

Before placing the laminate floor, I used a 3-mm foam sheet. First, I removed all dust and irregularities before placing the foam. Afterwards, I used tape to stick the foam in place and all foam sheets together.

I placed some boards next to the wall to ensure a gap for thermal dilation to occur. Since the room is small, one board's thickness was sufficient.

Placing laminate floors is easy, but the lock system can vary slight among different manufacturers, so be sure to check the instructions.

To cut the boards' extremities, I used a circular saw on a guide that I had previously made.

I also had to cut the closet's doors by 6 mm so they could open on the new floor.

Because I did not want to cut the door's frame to slide the board underneath it, I made relatively precise measurements around it to determine what was necessary to cut using a jig saw and subsequently caulk the gap with an acrylic sealant. The sealant was also placed throughout all baseboards and painted the same white as that of the baseboard.

Step 4: Final Room

And here it is! It's not the most luxurious baby room in the World and several things need to be added, but I'm pretty happy to how it turned out.