A 12-year-old girl decided to do something productive during the lockdown period as she transformed her house in just a week amid homeschool lessons.
Bea Levache, from Kent, spent just £50($60) to redecorate her home’s utility room, the stairs, the office and even designed a feature wall. Her mother Susie, 47, said her teenage daughter did a “blinding job” after developing DIY skills.
The mother and her son Ted, 15, also offered help to Bea in transforming their home. Susie shared before and after photos on Facebook writing, “I usually tackle all the DIY projects alone but my 12-year-old daughter took an interest and actually I figured I had a lot of time on my hands to rectify anything she might damage.”
“Turns out after telling her to just go for it – she’s a natural and did a blinding job – with direction she did this herself. She was very handy with a handsaw. We just used some thin MDF strips, paint and a roll of wallpaper to transform my office.”
The mother supervised her daughter as Bea was quite nervous to try her hands on something she never did. Susie continued: “I supervised and told her how to use the spirit level and how to measure and cut the MDF strips we had.”
“She was really nervous to begin with as she was worried that she would mess up. The room was gloomy and hadn’t really been used properly for ages anyway so she had nothing to lose – then there was no stopping her. This gave her the confidence to just go for it and after the first two panels she then did the rest alone.”
Susie said it has been 10 months since she had been renovating the family’s 1970’s semi-detached house and now the lockdown period made her kick start her plan.
She used to teach Bea and Ted in the morning but the children got ‘bored’ in the second week of lockdown so she decided to make them help her with DIY projects in the afternoon.
She said: “Then we used up some old tester pots I had to stencil and hand paint an accent wall in a funky animal print design. She had the patience of a saint for hand painting that job!”
“The [kitchen utility] room was full of orange pine. I taught Bea how to use the drill and change the drill bits and how to use the little work bench.
“She filled the existing drawer holes, drilled new holes and put in different drawer pulls. They look fantastic. The whole room was then transformed with chalk paint (Frenchic) – we loved the end result.”
The proud mother said if her daughter can do this then anyone can. She was overwhelmed to see the great response and even received messages from carpenters and builders seeking advice.
She said: “My daughter customized the fronts of the drawers (looked easy but was tricky) then we used leftover paint to repaint the cupboards. We also made little initial blackboard effect plaques from leftover MDF, paint and glue – then aged them for the laundry baskets.”
“As before, if my 12-year-old and I can do this – anyone can do this. We have been staggered by the reaction. Some of the posts have had thousands of likes.
“We’ve also had some great messages from carpenters and builders lending advice which has been terrific.”
The mom also said the DIY project helped to boost her daughter’s confidence as the teen used to think she didn’t have any skills.
Susie added: “I was always a creative child and my daughter thought she didn’t have any skills before lockdown, I hope this will give her confidence that it’s all there.
“She just needed to believe she could do it! Initially she was quite timid about using the power tools and things, but now she’s so proud of what she’s achieved.
“Pre-lockdown I would never have thought to include Bea in my work – this period has really shown me that children are far more capable than we may think.”
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