Hello! How has your summer been? We’ve been keeping busy by going to the pool and doing some small projects around the house. One of these was updating my son Brady’s bedroom. I didn’t want to go with a theme bedroom, but rather a modern farmhouse/coastal look that would last a while. We had a small budget to work with so we didn’t buy any new furniture, instead we decided to repurpose the items we had. To change the look of the room, the first thing we did was paint the dark red cottage style twin beds. I chose a vibrant blue spray paint called Oxford Blue by Krylon in a satin finish finish. It worked so well!

First, I want to let you know, this room is tricky to decorates because of that little white door in the middle of the wall. The door leads to the attic, which we into a hideout for the kids. The majority of the time the night stand table is off to the side of the left bed. But for these photos I moved it to the middle.

After painting the beds, we changed up the bedding. To me, new bedding makes a huge difference in any bedroom. This adorable bedding is from my favorite bedding place - Beddy’s. I chose the Farmhouse Collection because the bedding has a blue/gray stripe against a refreshing white background. The collection also has matching pillows, which coordinate well with the bedding. As a mom, I love Beddy’s because of the soft fabrics and styles, but most importantly because of the functionality of the zip up feature. It helps keep kids’ rooms tidy! Beddy’s are an easy way to make the bed, and we no longer have blankets and sheets dragging on the floor. Plus, the Beddy’s come with a pillow case and matching sham - so you don’t need to buy a separate sheet set! To save you money, you can use code NISSALYNN at Beddy’s check out to save 15% off your entire order! #sponsored

I already had the gray rug, but it’s only a 5x7, so I definitely need an 8x10 for this room.

I love anything with stars on it, so I also added these cute star pillows from Krumpets Home Decor. (You can use code NISSALYNN at Krumpetshome.com for 10% off your order.)

To brighten up the room we tried a new thing - peel and stick wall paper. I chose a shiplap wallpaper from Wall Blush and it looks great! But it was pretty tricky to put up, but defintley with it! (You can use code nissalynninteriors15 for 15% off your order.)

I took down the previous decor and replaced it with wooden pennants. The pennants were originally a natural wood color - so we spray painted them white. I also added this darling little wall shelf by the bed for easy access to books for bedtime reading.

The quilts at the foot of the beds, I’ve had for years. I bought them at Target, and they have lasted for a long time. (Here’s a link to a similar quilt that I have.) I love having a quilt or extra duvet at the foot of every bed in my home because it makes the room feel more cozy.

I also changed out the curtains in this room. Before we had navy chevron window treatments, but they didn’t go with the modern farmhouse look I was going for. (Plus, we only have on window in the room, so I wanted somthing light and airy.) The buffalo check curtains were perfect! And they were so inexpensive!

As for the galvanized metal letters above the beds, I purchased them at Hobby Lobby several years ago. I love them so much I decided to keep them in the same place.

I hope this post inspired you in some way! If you have any questions, please feel free to leave a question in the comments and I’d be happy to get back to you.

Everyone year towards the end of summer, I start getting an itch to redecorate, or fix up things in our home. So today my husband and I went to Lowes and picked up some paint for some touch ups around the house. We're touching up walls before we start some new small DIY house projects (Don't worry - I'll share those in the coming weeks as we work on them.)

A great place to start is gathering suggestions from family and friends who have already painted with gray colors. Pinterest and the internet are also other great ways to aid in your search. And, of course there is always the old fashion to pick a paint color - going down to the hardware store and looking at paint cards, then bringing them home and placing samples on the walls.

However, grays paint tends to be a lot trickier than other paint colors. This is because gray paint is not a true "color," but more a "tint." This means it starts with a black color base and is gradually mixed with white to lighten it up. It does not have true primary colors in it like other paint colors. Because it's more of a pigment, gray paint tends to easily look different in different lighting. I had a client who loved Amazing Gray by Sherwin Williams. It looked fantastic in her living room, which had lots of windows, but looks mossy green in her hall way. I've seen gray paints show all sorts of undertones like green, purple, blue or even pink undertones! It all depends on the lighting and windows.

The best was to avoid undertones is to buy a sample can (They run any where from $2.98 to $6.50.) Then paint several LARGE areas in your home in several different places that have different lighting. A small painted area will not give you the true color. This is because a small swatch can be influenced by the existing paint color already on the wall.

(*Also note, never use the rest of the sample paint in the container for more than just the sample. Sample cans, because they're just samples, don't have a finishing protect agent in the paint, and therefore the paint will come off easy.)

Another way to test out gray paint, is to paint it on a medium size paper approximately 12'x18' inches, and hold it up to the wall. This helps to see what the gray will look like with out the existing paint color influencing it.

I hope this information helps on your quest for the perfect gray! I'll be sharing all paint color in my home in my next