Just Paint the Room (A Story About my Daughter)

For today’s Thirty Days of Gratitude post, I’m stepping away from the tidying up. Today I’m going to talk about my strong-willed, incredibly brave and awesome daughter, and about paint. Yes, these are connected…just bear with me for a bit.

My daughter – from the time she was about two – has had an opinion about the decor in her room. (She’s pretty much had an opinion about everything, actually, but let’s just focus on decor today.)

Her nursery was painted lavender, with purple, pink, yellow, and green bedding.

The “during” picture – but you can see the pretty wall color.

At age five, she informed me that this color – and whole color scheme with the bedding and rug – were “horrible.” She wanted her entire room green. Grass green. Kermit green.

I said absolutely not.

Instead, I came up with this compromise:

A bold green stripe around the room on crisp white walls. Green rug, green bedding, green in the window shades.

She loved it!

And then, two years later, we moved.

And her room was beige. And she was unhappy about this.

I told her to wait. I told her we’d paint the room, but let’s live with the beige for a bit and see if her green bedding, teal curtains, and teal poufs were enough color.

They weren’t. She insisted we paint the room and she chose this color – Cooled Blue by HGTV Home by Sherwin Williams:

Taken during the painting process…

It’s bright. It’s bold.

It’s totally her.

Anytime someone paints a room a bold, bright color, there’s inevitably this reaction from some:

“I can’t believe you painted a room that dark!”

“I can’t believe you painted a room with that bright of a color.”

“You’ll never be able to paint over that.”

“I could never paint a room that color.”

And I get that. It’s a bold choice. You know that, if you ever want to paint over it, there’s a lot of primer in your future.

But it’s just paint, people.

My daughter was just diagnosed with Crohn’s Disease. Crohn’s Disease is an auto-immune condition where your body fights with your digestive tract.

Luckily, we caught M’s early, it’s a moderate case (not severe), and it’s limited to one area of her digestive tract. She has started taking medication for it and already has gained back all of the weight she lost in the past year, and she looks and feels so much healthier now.

She’ll have to take this medicine for the rest of her life (or until they find a cure), and that kind of sucks. Although it’s certainly not as bad as feeling crappy all the time.

For her part, M has been a rock star through all of this. She has had all kinds of procedures – both in and out of the hospital – to figure out that she has Crohn’s. Today she is getting four injections of medicine. Through all of it, she has been brave, tough, kind, and has maintained her sense of humor and positive outlook.

So when this brave girl told me that she wanted her room painted a bright and bold teal, I absolutely and immediately agreed. It’s the least I can do to make this wonderful girl happy after all she’s gone through and all she’s about to go through.

It’s just paint. And that “just paint” makes her smile every time she walks in her room. And that’s worth so much more than the $25 can of primer I might need later, down the road, to cover that paint.

To those who ask the questions above – about how I could paint a room such a bold color – this is why. Because a bold girl lives in that room and she deserves a room that reflects her personality and style.

And it’s just paint.

When your kid asks you to paint his or her room green or teal or orange with purple polka dots, don’t be afraid. Just do it. They are only this age once.

And it’s just paint.

Just paint the room.

Want to see the finished room? Click here to see my daughter’s blue and green bedroom!