Room Makeover with Sherwin-Williams Living Well

This post is sponsored by Sherwin-Williams®

Do you know what the first thing on every makeover checklist is? Paint! 

It is the biggest impact/smallest investment you can make when you are overhauling a space and has the ability to absolutely transform it! Case in point, my nephew Gordon’s bedroom. With a quick trip to Sherwin-Williams for 2 gallons of paint and just a few hours, we completely changed the look of the entire room!

Here’s the before:

And here’s where we ended up just a few hours later!

I wish I could take credit for the color palette, but these wall colors are part of Sherwin-Williams new Living WellTM collection. They’ve expertly grouped some of their most calming shades into 11 different palettes to inspire you to relax and breathe more stillness into your space.

Each palette has a distinct vibe and color current. The Balance palette that I chose from embraces woodland vibes and has a lot of soft greens and warm neutrals. I used Lemongrass SW 7732 and Dover White SW 6385. I’ve been itching to do another project with a soft dusty green, ever since I used Ruskin Room Green on the bookcases in my office! I chose the Balance palette because the shades are very organic, tranquil and soft, and they paired well with the wood tones of Gordon’s furniture. I wanted to make sure his space was really calm but still had a fun pop of color.

My other favorite Living Well palette is Unplug, it’s centered around warm desert vibes and has some of the dusty desert colors that I see living in Southern Utah! If you tend to lean into cooler blues, check out Focus. 

Hand in hand with the Living Well palettes are two new SuperPaint® products available exclusively at Sherwin-Williams. 

They took their best-selling SuperPaint (one of my faves!) and added 2 different types of technology to create two new products that not only make a room beautiful, but help bring a sense of well-being home. For Gordon’s room, I used SuperPaint with Air Purifying Technology. It’s a zero VOC formula that contributes to better indoor air quality by helping reduce the VOCs in your home from sources like carpet, cabinets and fabrics. It also helps rooms stay fresher, longer, with odor eliminating technology that breaks down unwanted household odors.*

Almost anything that is manufactured, from paint to plywood, blankets to carpet, contains VOCs. VOC stands for Volatile Organic Compound. It is at its most basic form, chemicals that a product off-gasses into the environment. Specifically related to paint, VOC ratings are different based on the intended use of the products (floor coating vs. wall paint vs. furniture paint). If you look at the strictest regulations it needs to come in at under 50 grams per liter (for comparison, 10 years ago most water-based paint came it at around 200 grams per liter). Less than 50 is considered Low VOC compared to 200 g/L VOC, which is fantastic. 

The most concentrated amount of VOCs are released when you are working with the product, i.e., when your paint is still wet. As the product dries, the VOCs evaporate into the atmosphere. Once dried (and after your house has been aired out) the amount of VOC emissions can be greatly reduced. The huge push for Low and No VOC paint has been not so much for the safety of the product for humans (though that is an added bonus), but because of the environmental gases that it creates in the atmosphere once it’s escaped your home.

This paint was awesome to work with. It has great coverage, and knowing it has zero VOCs and actively eliminates odors makes me feel so great about using it in Gordon’s room! After crazy year that was 2020, we all deserve a space that makes us feel good and the Living Well collection helps you do just that.

The other new paint is called SuperPaint® with Sanitizing Technology. It is an EPA registered paint that kills 99.9% of certain bacteria and continues to kill up to 90% of these bacteria for up to four years.** It’s perfect for high traffic areas like hallways, kitchens, and bathrooms! Check it out for your next project!

 

Gordon’s room was inspired by my Grandpa of all people, he was the absolute best and where I get my DIY grit. He loved the outdoors, airplanes, and native American culture, so that was the jumping off point for the room, style-wise. This is his hat that he wore every day!

I love how the colors work together and also play off of the natural tones of the wood and décor. The space is now a really calming, tranquil environment for Gordon, while still being fun. Creating this simple color blocked wall pattern is so easy! Start by painting one of the colors (in this case we chose the lower color!).

We started by setting a simple laser line around the room about 1/3 of the way up the wall. 

Here’s a tip: set your line so that you have a visual cushion around the furniture. You don’t want it to be the exact height as the dresser. In this case I found a spot that was just taller than the dresser and just shorter than the headboard!

With the laser line up, I placed painters’ tape all around the room (you can do this over the doors like I did here!)

The trick to getting a perfect paint line is to back bleed the wall color (check out this IG highlight reel to see it in action!).

With the tape up, we painted the second color on the wall and when the second coat was still slightly tacky, pulled the painters tape off. Tada! Perfect paint lines!!

Because it’s a kid’s room, I punched things up a big with pops of red and orange in the art and decor. It’s such a fun balance with the mellow neutrals on the walls!

 

Check out the whole Living Well collection here and pick it up at your neighborhood Sherwin-Williams store!

*The length of time SuperPaint with Air Purifying Technology actively reduces odors and formaldehyde depends on the concentration, the frequency of exposure and the amount of painted surface area.

**SuperPaint with Sanitizing Technology kills 99.9% of Staph (Staphylococcus aureus), E. coli (Escherichia coli), MRSA (Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus), VRE (Vancomycin-resistant Enterococcus faecalis) and Enterobacter aerogenes on painted surfaces within two hours of exposure, and continues to kill 90% of bacteria for up to four years when the integrity of the surface is maintained.