AT LAST! The Bedroom Remodel...

t LAST! Did you think it was ever going to really happen? Because I was really starting to wonder. This idea came to me...I don't even know if I remember how many months ago it was I started looking at paint chips, but I know it was a long time ago. I LOVE the color, but I must warn you, in some of the photos it looks completely psychotic. I swear it isn't really (well...maybe a little, but not really...if it's a teeny psychotic it's only in a good way). Anyway rather if it wasn't so darn late I'd probably go into tons of detail, as it is, I'm just relieved to be finished and uploading the photos, I'll make a few comments here and there, but for the most part, just enjoy the transformation from start to finish via photo essay.


First of all let me just say that if Suzanne had not forced me to choose a date to do this paint job, it truly may never have gotten done, and if Cynthia had not shown up and analyzed what needed to be sanded and spackled, etc., that probably never would have gotten done either. And if Kristi hadn't shown up and dug in and helped out (in spite of wearing a white shirt which looks to me like a TOTALLY inappropriate paint shirt!) we would have have gotten it all done as quickly as we did. So thank you, thank you, THANK YOU! for good friends!


This is where I worry you're going to start thinking it really looks psycho. I admit, in these photos and compared to the sedate brown that was in that room...it does. But I promise it turned out well!!! Wait and see...
Around about now is when I was glad I opted to go for white on the bottom of the chair rail rather than more green, which is what I had originally planned on..

See, the white helps calm things down don't you think?
a majillion years ago we bought this dresser in a yard sale. It was missing a caster and if was super cheap because of it. We thought - well we'll just take all the casters off rather than trying to replace the one that was missing, that seemed logical. It was also pretty beat up and the finish wasn't so great - as I recall there were water stains on the top. Kirk spent quite a lot of time re-finishing it. So...I felt kind of guilty to start sanding down the finish in order to paint it but I'm just really over all the cherry wood and I wanted a bright dresser to go in the new bedroom, so I started sanding over all of it, took of the antique drawer pulls and it took about 4 coats but I eventually created a whole new look for this thing.

See! Pretty cool huh? Those candles on the top are a 'bedroom warming' gift from Kristi, what's cool about them is they look and feel and smell like real flickering candles, but they run on a battery and even have a timer. They're pretty awesome.


Last summer I saw Suzanne making one of these afghans and thought - wouldn't it be cute in really bold pink? I should have taken a better photo of it, but it has little bumble bees on it. The chair is a Cucumberz find for $10 and it didn't even have to refinish it, was already colors I liked. (although a chair like this will be easy to re-finish if I ever change my mind).
See that artwork? I had started that a while ago, but it just wasn't quite what I wanted. Then I found a quote by Jung that I loved and I kind of went a little crazy with some of the brush work, the idea was to sort of make them look like crazed gerber daisies - I think they kind of do. Probably no one else will appreciate it as much as I do but this is my room, so I really like it. Here's a close up:

This is what I looked like the majority of the time I was working on this project. And I kept thinking about how I could save money. I just really didn't want to spend a lot of money on this project. So I got the idea to ask on face book if any my friends had wood laying around (plywood or MDF) that they weren't going to use. Two friends ended up offering (Thanks Rachel & Myrenda) and so I ended up using Myrenda's wood because it was easier to get too and the size intrigued me. I had seen a headboard in a hotel I liked which was long and thin, and so that's what I decided to do. I bought the material at SAS - I bought more than I needed because I am bad at guessing about those kinds of things, but to do the whole headboard probably only cost me $3 worth of material (well you know, it's SAS so if you're willing to be waited on by a barefooted belly dancer - I am not joking - and fight some ladies over some bolts of by the pound fabric...it's doable).
I knew it needed batting, so I just attached it with that spray glue. I don't know if that was the best way - it's how I ended up attaching the fabric too. And it took me about 4 baths, 2 showers and 20 hand washings to get the glue off so be warned. That stuff does not mess around. It does it's job WELL.

Pretty soon after this is when I started to cry. Because I wasn't strong enough to hold up the wood, and hammer it through the wall, or attach it any other way (I tried multiple methods) and I was DETERMINED that I was going to do it myself. Finally I ended up asking Brennan for help and I was relieved to see that it was even hard for him in the end so then I didn't feel like a total wimp. Once it was attached the kids helped me get my bed moved in there and it was starting to look like a real room!!!!
I already had this bedding because the idea of these colors had occurred to me long before the room actually took shape, so I didn't buy any new bedding - the lamp was my mother's day present, which I had kind of specifically asked for with this remodel in mind. The little side table is IKEA, I think it cost $14 and Jordan and I put it together months ago - we felt so manly doing it too - Swedish pictorial instructions and all! :)
See how the headboard sticks out on both ends of the bed beyond the bed itself - I like that look, it's different. At first I was going to do a nail head TALL headboard. But I feel like that look has been so done to death this year, I'm getting tired of it. So I went for this simpler look, and I'm glad I did. Then I got the idea to do a bunch of crazy art work on my own. You know all those posters that you see EVERYWHERE? That WWII slogan "Keep Calm and Carry On"? I love those, but I mean everyone and their dog has one and I didn't want mine to be like everyone else soooooo I decided to do my own and kind of turn the whole thing on it's head - use ridiculous colors and keep the British crown on there, but put it at the bottom and skewed, and then I white washed over the top of it when it still didn't seem quite crazed enough for me.
HA! Love it!

Then I got crazy with the Modge Podge and decided to do an art piece that sort of represented me - at least, my influences during my formative years of the 80s and I decided to do it all in black and white. And I also love it:

For those of you who asked on Face book what the heck Cucumberz is, it's this crazy little store on 7th ave. It's like antiquey but sorta not, but sorta. Good deals if you can find what you're looking for. I went there about 3 different times for some of the stuff that ended up in this room.
The hat box is from there ($3), the phone ($30) and the perfume tray ($9). I almost didn't get the phone, but Jordan was so enamored of the idea of a phone you had to actually dial. She didn't even know how to use one. How crazy is that??

Okay see those 2 little robot paintings over there above the phone? Those are Henry Stinsons and they are the only thing in the room that cost any money at all. I got them as a birthday gift over a year ago and I had them somewhere else in the house, but I think that wall is perfect for them.
Another crazy kitschy little Cucumberz find - $3, Raphael painting on a plate with all the right colors. I dig it.

And then I spent days and days and nights and days decoupaging like a crazy person and painting and re-painting and painting over paintings that I hated and it took a LOOOOONG time and I'm still not sure if I don't have some other ideas up my sleeve but my house and my kitchen counter looked like this for quite a while.

And finally - I hung everything...and it's done FOR NOW. And I already have 3 new projects in my head ready to go. But it's now past 1 am, so we'll talk about those later. For now, here's the rest of the new room: (and btw, that is my Grandma Peterson's art deco mirror I have had in every bedroom since I was a teen...and now it's finally cool :) )
(the art work below the sign that says "current fiction" - another cucumberz find - is all my favorite books in the whole wide world - the art work next to the sign that says "coming attractions" are all my favorite movies in the whole wide world)

This is my favorite Kurt Vonnegut quote - "Everything was beautiful and nothing hurt"...


Brennan said I inadvertently made something profound by saying this...I think I was just trying to be funny.
I'm hoping as I look at this every morning it will be transformative.
Isn't it cozy? I love to read in bed now.

So what do you think???