Still Setting Up House-{The Master Bedroom}

In my defense, this room was 'set-up' within the first week.  It was also fortunate that the existing wall color was close to the color of my previous master bedroom.   What I did do recently was put the bed together properly, instead of leaving the panels leaning against the wall, staring at me daily.  I put it together myself last year, but was thinking that without the instructions I would run into problems.  Thankfully I labeled all of the screws when we took it apart, and it went back together pretty smoothly.  I will say, after a year I still love this bed.

Most pieces from the other house work in this new space.  We have the same bed and bedding, and I am still loving my Ikea-hacked nightstands.  The two white chairs that were in the window, at the other house, are downstairs in the living room.

But the smaller white chair that was previously in the playroom has made its way in here.  I was also able to reuse the white drapes and curtain rods.

This corner situation could use some work.  The black dresser just barely cleared the door.  The bird prints that were around the TV are still unhung here.  I still want to paint, especially the trim to a much lighter cream or white.

One thing I do love in this space is the light.  The room faces south and gets beautiful natural light for most of the day.  With our lack of rain over the last few months, it has meant a sun-filled room most days.  In the midst of life, the beauty of light and nature is so amazing.

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Painting the Master Closet

After moving, everything felt chaotic and disorganized.  Clothes have been in boxes for weeks, and we lived out of suitcases for nearly two weeks. So while a closet wasn't what I thought would be my first paint job, it was needed to help get our lives back on track and begin a little organization.  

The closet isn't huge, but it's enough for us.  The walls were pretty beat up and need of paint, and the shelving had this sticky, brown residue on them.

The shelving was scrubbed with more Bar Keeper's Friend, and rinsed with a vinegar/water solution.  This seemed to remove the dirt and the sticky feel.  Then the walls were painted BM Grey Owl and the trim BM Simply White.  The floors were replaced with wood when we had our new floors laid.  

The space feels so much fresher and cleaner, and ready to hang clothes in!

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One Room Challenge Week 6 - {Master Bedroom Reveal!}

Reveal day is here!  I have followed along in years past with other participants as they made over spaces and have been truly inspired!  So this year when I saw that Linda at Calling it Home had started the fall One Room Challenge and opened it up to guest participants, I had to get in on the action.  Of course, it totally helped that I had already been musing about making over my Master Bedroom.  But without the push of working alongside the other guest participants, I would have never pushed forward to complete it in such a short time.

All of that being said, I can't wait to see what everyone else has done.  I'm already in love with Sherry's makeover over at Design Indulgence. It's full of neutrals and deep charcoals, which always make my heart beat fast!  And did you also see Cassie's high gloss navy blue built-ins over at Hi Sugarplum?!!  I'm in love!  I may have to repaint my dining room shelves, haha!  But I will save that for another time.  If you're here, you probably want to see how my Master Bedroom turned out, and I can't wait to show you!  Come take a peek!

I had forgotten about this little table.  It was covered with a tablecloth, but I think it was the first piece of furniture I ever bought from an antiques store.  I love the little scallop detail around the edges.  It ended up being the perfect height and scale for a lamp and plant, while still leaving room to put down a cup of tea and something to read.

The project evolved from my original design board, but I love the results.  It's been quite a change from six weeks ago.

I'm especially loving that the AV components sort of blend into this new/old dresser, since they're all black.  I still have plans for a built-in, but this is such an improvement! :) 

I also ended up not re-using the seafan art.  They didn't seem to go with the bird motif, for one.  But  also when I originally put them together, I had them 'professionally' framed.   The good news is that Hobby Lobby does a good job because I couldn't get the glass out of the frame!  I didn't want to break the glass, so that project is on a back burner for another room.  

If you would like to see projects from previous weeks, click on the links below.  

Week 1-Design Plans

Week 2- The Bed

Week 3- Nightstands

Nightstand Tutorial

Week 4-A Dresser and Ideas

Week 5-DIY Artwork

I'll be back to share sources and some more of my favorites from the One Room Challenge!

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Week 5-One Room Challenge {DIY Artwork}

Is it Week 5 of the One Room Challenge already?  If you're new here, the ORC is a design challenge to makeover a room in six weeks.  This week I was able to finish one of my DIY art projects.  And again, it's such simple idea that I hate I put it off for nearly two years!

Step 1:  Buy a beautiful Paper Source wall calendar.  Enjoy it for the year.

Step 2: Purchase 3, 6, up to 12 Ikea Ribba Frames.

Step 3: Slice the 'calendar' portion off of the prints you want to use. (Measure first!)

Step 4: Insert prints into frames, then hang.

I selected six prints to go around the TV, and can't wait to show them to you next week.

One small change I made this week was to swap out the white quilt I had with a cream one from my guest room.  The original quilt was more of a pure white, whereas most of Ikea's white fabrics are more of a cream.  I realized it was being very 'bossy'.  If something in a space is clashing visually with everything else, it's being bossy.  And you've got to decide if it deserves to be the boss.  If it does, you work everything else around it.  If it doesn't, it's got to go.  I really liked my bedding.  Both the quilt and duvet are Marshall's/TJ Maxx finds that I had before the challenge began.  The duvet is bossy too, but it deserves to be the boss, ha ha!  

I also made room for the bigger chair and tried out these bird pillows.

I still have to tie up the loose ends and iron out the kinks literally in the drapes and slipcovers.  But looking forward to the final reveal next week! 

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One Room Challenge-Week 4 {4 Ideas and 1 Dresser}

It's Week 4 of the One Room Challenge!  Where has the time gone?  This week I feel like I haven't really gotten a lot done.  I was still adding polyurethane to the chests over the weekend and adding hardware on Monday.  It was more so a week of moving things in and out of the room and testing out ideas.   The only one I feel for sure I am keeping as is would be the new/old dresser.  I originally used it as a sofa table in my family room, but love it in this space.  

I added some frames around the TV to see if they would work.  I LOVE these frames, but definitely feel like black would be more cohesive.  So I will probably swap those out with Ribba frames from Ikea. I have a fun project planned for what I want to use for artwork!

I also moved in this chair from the front playroom to test out seating in the bay window.  It's interesting how much more space I have with the new bed and changing its location.  Now that it's centered on a longer wall, I have more space on the side near the bay window.  Plus, without the sleigh, there's almost a foot more space at the end of the bed.  Loving this chair here, and I probably have room for its big sister-the original Ektorp chair.

Next is the 'new' artwork over the bed.  I like the height and presence they have on this side of the room.  The ceilings go up to 13' tall, so these take advantage of that height.  These were the seafan artwork that I talked about doing a DIY on.  I made them several years ago and they hung for years in the playroom.  I took them down recently to add a gallery wall in the playroom, so they were stashed in the guest room waiting for a place to hang.  I plan to write up DIY instructions.  I was considering keeping them in these dark frames, but now feel like they are too heavy for this side of the room.  I am thinking of painting them gold, and reframing them on a linen mat board with gold frames.  What do you think?

My final 'steal' was taking these drapes out of my dining room to test out.  I am thinking of moving them into the bay and using four panels.  I do like the height they add and how they frame the bay window, but I have become accustomed to having the full view out of these windows, and they block it a bit.

I feel like this has been a 'try it and see if you like' it week.  The final big project is still adding the bookcases.  This is what that fourth wall is looking like. 

Blah.  

The good news is that The Beast has a buyer that should be coming on Saturday, so it will be gone soon!  I took some time to clean up that corner today as well, both of which will make room for the bookcases I want to build.  I still need to flesh out all of the other ideas above too.  Can I do that in two weeks?  I've got a couple of orders in The Shop that I need to get out too. (Forgot about that!)  So we will see!  

{Just a side note, I just heard that the Auvi-Q auto-injectors for severe, life-threatening allergies have been recalled.  So if you happen to carry one, or know someone who does, please pass on the information. We have someone in our family that has a severe food allergy, but happen to carry the EpiPen.   I know we would want to know if we carried that brand.}

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One Room Challenge-Week 3 {The Master Bedroom Redo}

It's week three of the One Room Challenge, and time is flying by!  I feel like I can never get as much done as I want to.  Remember last week, when I couldn't decide what project to move forward on?  The nightstands won out!

I went back and forth over whether to order the one on the design board, but ultimately decided to do my first hack.  I had seen this nightstand hacked over on Dear Lillie as was really drawn to it.  Also, the base piece was one-third the cost of the the one from World Market.  And the shipping alone on the one from World Market was almost the cost of this one, and if I for some reason didn't like it, I would have been out of pocket for the shipping.  

So I went with the Tarva chest from Ikea.  I like that it is solid wood, the scale, and the drawers.  I haven't added hardware yet.  I was literally working in the 11th hour last night!  But I ordered antiqued brass cup pulls, and I've just got to get them attached.  But enough words, let me show you the space and the chests!

You may have noticed I did flip the floorplan.  The nightstands fit so well on this wall.

So this was the starting point for the nightstand.

It is a solid pine and I gave it a stain and glaze coat so that it would have a gray/aged finish.   I also cut the legs down flush with the apron and lined the drawers with paper for a nice surprise on the inside.  I am thinking of adding tulip feet, but may keep them as is.

I am loving the progress made so far!  Let's take a look back to see where it started.

And the plans:

And now with the new bed and new nightstands:

Ok, are you all tired of looking at pictures of this space?  I'm just excited y'all!  I have never had matching nightstands!  I will share more details about the nightstand hack later, plus pictures of them with the hardware.  Time to get cracking for next week!

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