Decorating with Teens is a paid collaboration with Dulux Easycare. One of my aims as a parent is to give my children life skills. One of those is decorating. I remember painting with my Dad and Grandad from a very early age. I had a boiler suit that I used to wear and remember one disaster when I got gloss paint in my long brown hair which meant it had to be washed in white spirit and smelled for what seems like weeks!
I am not going to lie it is a really challenging task and sometimes I resort to paying for chores to be completed. When we told the boys’ that the living room needed decorating (only the second time in the 12 years we have been in our home) they were both up for the job, in fact, I would go as far as saying they were really looking forward to it. Perhaps that was because they could not remember the first time and had no idea how hard it was.
We made the decision to prepare the room on a Friday night and then paint on a Saturday as both Mini and I hate it when the house is in disarrange and we wanted to get it back to normal within one day. So Mini and the husbeast filled all the holes on Friday and I went to the wood yard and bought some wood to make a batton for our curtain rod as it as pulling away from the wall. I had already done all the woodwork, so we just needed to do the ceiling and coving.
Our living room gets quite a lot of traffic as it leads from the very small lobby at the front of the house to all the other rooms, so is, in fact, a through room as well as where we all gather on an evening. We bought our house 12 years ago new and it was all magnolia and one of the first things we did was paint it all. We went to a DIY store and picked up 3 massive tins of premixed pain from the bargain corner and we hadn’t done much since then and it was really starting to show its age. When Dulux contacted me to try the Dulux Easycare range I thought it was the perfect place to try first. Dulux Easycare is 20 times stronger than standard Dulux paint; it has a unique stain and moisture-repellent formulation, which beads liquids and allows them to be wiped off without damaging the surface colour of the paint.
I knew that I wanted to stick with white ceilings and coving and to find a neutral for the walls that complimented our colourful cushions and quilts. In the end, we opted for Rock Salt which was remarkably similar to the colour already on the walls but with a beautiful flat matt finish.
We started with the ceiling, well when I say we I mean the husbeast as ceilings are his domain with Maxi doing the coving. He was really impressed with the consistency of the Dulux Easycare. It was a thick double cream consistency and didn’t splatter everywhere when he was rolling. The coverage was also brilliant with the ceiling only needing one coat.
Whilst they worked on the ceiling Mini and I started on the walls, Mini doing a little bit of roller work (which was much harder than he thought) and me doing all the cutting in using a 2-inch brush. Then the husbest took over the roller work and we were all finished by 5pm. Teamwork really makes the dream work! By this time both of the boys had sulked away and I was left to do all the tidying and cleaning. However, they did help out. So I didn’t really mind. The brushes and tray cleaned up really easily which I think is down to the quality of the paint.
I really want to take some pictures of the finished room, but the light has been terrible.
So here you have my Christmas tree – I love how it shoes the matt finish on the wall perfectly. I am really impressed with the coverage and will come back to you with how the paint holds up to family life.
Teamwork really makes the dream work! Next on the agenda is the Dining room, however, the boys certainly have the measure of how hard decorating is and this time they want paying! Do your children help when you decorate?