recently i was contacted by P&G and the Home Depot, asking me to highlight the benefits of using Swiffer Sweeper and Mr. Clean Magic Erasers for painting projects.  i loved the idea because those are 2 products i use more than any other cleaning products in my house!

over the last few months (ok, 6+), i have been slowly redecorating my girls’ shared room.  there room has stayed the same for about 6 years, and i thought a little updating would be fun!  here’s a peek at my pinterest board that i used as an inspiration board for the redesign.

i can’t wait to reveal the whole room to you, but first that would involve finishing it, which i have yet to do – ha!

the most major project so far is updating their bookshelves.  these bookshelves were hand-me-downs from a friend and have worked so well to suit our needs – to hold books, doll goodies, and “special things”.  when we got them they were painted this soft pale sage green.  while it is a very pretty color, it looked kind of washed out with all the other bright colors in the room.

 i bought 2 colors of paint: flamingo dream and dark granite, both by behr from the Home depot.  i got the coral in a semi gloss and the grey in a high gloss.  i almost always paint in lower sheens like eggshell, but i really wanted this to have a glossy look to it.

the first step was to clear off all the shelves, and that was a huge task!  you see, on the bottom shelf live these 2 little people and they really didn’t want to move out ;)

i did a quick wipe down on all the surfaces with the Swiffer Sweeper dry cloths to catch all the dust left behind on the shelves.  Swiffer products are the only products i use for dusting my house.  sean is allergic to lots of things, and when i dust with Swiffer products the dust is locked in on the cloth and not released into the air, making my job easier and his nose happy!

after i moved the bookshelf outside, i removed the shelves and brackets and sanded down the whole thing (top, sides, shelves) with a palm sander and 150 grit sand paper.

 i then wiped down all of the surfaces again with the Swiffer Sweeper cloth to catch all the sanding dust.  having a clean surface to paint on is really important to good paint adhesion.  can you see how the white cloth has turned a pale sage green?

 then i looked over all the shelves and found a number of marks, mostly pencil.

 i used the Mr. Clean Magic Erasers on all the scuffs and scratches and pencil marks and with a little bit of light scrubbing, all the marks vanished.  we use Magic Erasers in our house all.the.time.  they are the only thing that gets our school desks clean (think pencil, marker, crayon, glue…) and also all the grimy finger prints on doorways.  i feel like my door trim looks like its been repainted after i give it a good cleaning with Magic Erasers.

after spot cleaning, i went ahead and wiped down all of the surfaces completely with a damp Magic Eraser and cleaned off even more of the sanding dust.

i also chose not to prime first because of one reason:  i’m lazy.  well, and because i knew i’d be doing several coats of color and i did a really good job prepping the surfaces by sanding and cleaning.

also, i didn’t spray paint this at all.  i think spray paint is great for small projects and also for chairs with lots of spindles (’cause those are a pain to paint), but on larger projects like this, even with being really careful, you will see spray lines, which i hate.

i started by using an angled brush (i prefer Purdy brand, from the Home Depot) and painted all the corners.

 then i used a foam roller with a low nap and painted one side of the shelves.  luckily, the weather was really warm when i was painting so the paint dried really quickly.

 i ended up doing 3 coats on all the edges and corners, then i used a roller to coat the rest of the surfaces of the interior, and coated them 3 times as well.

 i gave the shelves at least 4 coats on both sides and the edges since they would get the most use with books sliding across them often.

after i finished the inside, i started on the outside with the high gloss grey.  i used a brush to paint all the trim and a roller to paint the top and sides.  i don’t love how the gloss looks with a roller, so i may eventually go back over it with a brush.  but i’m impatient and really wanted to get the shelf inside so i decided it was good enough!

after it had dried for a couple days, making sure the paint was completely hardened, i added the shelves and started filling them up.

 i love how bright it is!

 i bought these wire baskets from world market to hold all the loose doll clothes and accessories.  so much better than the random baskets we were using before.

 the girls like to collect random “special things” – rocks, stickers, notecards, etc, and we try to keep them corralled in the turquoise buckets on the top shelves, along with their sunglasses, piggy banks and bibles.

 their dolls sit on the bottom shelf, under a small metal rod we attached with a couple cup hooks that hold their hanging clothes.

 having this big project done has motivated to wrap up the girls’ room!  i have a couple small projects and then one last big one:  making new bedding.  so excited for that one!

*disclosure:  P&G and Swiffer Sweeper supplied me with the products for this post (even though i already had them in my home!), but all of the opinions in this post are my own.  i really do love these products!*