Master Bedroom Plans

I am so excited about this project and am trying not to get carried away...After 2.5 years in our house I am re-decorating our master bedroom. Too soon? I am justifying this because we hardly spent any money on decor in our bedroom. We got the bedding and the mattress as a gift. The bedroom set was passed down to us from my uncle. The lamps came from Pascal's old room. My chevron dresser was free from the trash! Really the only things we bought were the room darkening curtains and the $20 rug to cover up the patched floor.

The room is  functional but not really my style. Which is probably why I have never really finished it or hung pictures on the wall. So I have been saving my money to buy new things. Since this isn't for function, I didn't want to take away from our home renovation projects so I have my own little pot of money now just for the bedroom decor.

I am working with the existing paint color, the curtains, and the chevron dresser. Everything else is changing. I want the room to still be dark and cozy but not so "matching". We are also taking this opportunity to upgrade to a king size bed. Which also means new sheets, mattress pad, pillows, etc...

To help better show my master bedroom plans, I learned how to make a mood board for the very first time. Since I don't have photo shop, I did some googling and found this tutorial from The Weekend Homemaker on how to download Picasa and make a mood board through that program. It was so easy and quick- I can't believe I waited this long to do it.

1. Bed: The Ikea Brimnes bed is only $250 for the king size which sounds great to me. I love the white to lighten up the room some, the huge drawers underneath, and the fact that it has no headboard. This will give me a change to DIY a headboard. 

2. Bedspread: This West Elm Duvet Cover was my first purchase. It was on sale for only $80 for the king size. I looked all over before deciding on this one. I checked out Target, Pottery Barn, Urban Outfitters, Wayfair, etc. I love the color of this one and I think it will go along with the dark and cozy vibe. Pascal was worried it was too dark but I think the white bed frame will help balance it out.  

3. Curtains: I might not get these exact ones, but I like the idea of these white curtains from Ikea . I would like to layer white curtains over our existing brown ones. 

4. Rug: Not definite on this one, but I would like to get a bigger rug to better fit the room. Rugs are so expensive but that is why I have been saving for this for a while now...I am leaning towards this $250 7x10 from Target. It reminds me of these ones on sale for $700 from West Elm and $400 from Rugs USA. They are beautiful but I can't bring myself to spend that much. 

5. Lamps: I actually already bought these but am not 100% sold on them. I need to wait and see them in the room. I bought them on a trip to Target for shampoo because they were only $23 which I thought was amazing for the lamp AND shade.  

6. Sheets: Since I have to buy all new sheets anyways, why not do it in style...I got these Nate Berkus sheets from Target for $60 (darn, they are on sale now). So now I have sheets and a bedspread but no bed. 

7. End Tables: Not these exact end tables, but I plan to have dark wood end tables to contrast with the white bed. I have two mismatched ones right now that I am planning on re-staining so we shall see how that goes.

I can't wait to get started on this project! I think part of the reason I am so excited is I actually have money to spend on this and get to buy brand new grown up things. I love refurbishing old furniture, which I will be doing in this room as well, but it is nice to get new stuff too. And as part of the reusing/recycling, my younger brother is getting our bed, end tables, and dresser. So I feel good that they are not going to waste and I can pass on the gift. 

Guest Bathroom Update for $85

A few weeks ago I finally got around to painting our guest bathroom upstairs. It only took two years. I don't even see this bathroom very much so it wasn't really on my radar. However its the one our guests use so I want it to look presentable. It took me one weekend to paint everything and then I put it all back together the next weekend.

The day we moved in

The bathroom tile/tub/toilet are original to our 1963 house. They are in really good shape so I wanted to embrace the blue and not do a full remodel. The only update that I had done previously was paint some of the hardware which can be seen here.

My first task was picking a paint color. I wanted something blue or gray to match the existing colors since there is already enough color without bringing in a new one. But at the same time I didn't want something really blue since there was already so much...I narrowed it down to two choices. Barely Blue by Pantone/Valspar (bottom) and Tempered Gray by Valspar.

 

Pascal voted on the barely blue. My job is to narrow down the choices and then he helps in the final decision. I bought a gallon in Satin. It ended up being the Valspar Signature paint with primer. At almost $35 it was more than I have ever spent on paint but that was the recommended paint with that color. I don't know that I would buy it again but I will say that I got really good coverage with only one coat and it even covered up some oil rubbed bronze spray paint that I got on the wall with only one coat (more on that later). Since the room is so small and has a slanted wall I ended up painting the ceiling the same color as the walls.

Before I actually painted the walls (which I did all by myself thank you very much) I painted the sink vanity and the medicine cabinet. I painted the vanity the same Valspar Wet Pavement that I used in the office and on the credenza and painted the medicine cabinet the same color as the walls.

The laminate was peeling off on part of the cabinet so I patched it with some spackle

After taking all of the hardware and doors off I had to prime with my favorite oil based primer. I used a combination of a small foam brush and a two inch foam roller to apply the primer and later the paint. I did one coat of primer and two coats of paint. By the way, the oil based primer is very smelly. So if you have to use it inside, open a window and wear a mask. This bathroom doesn't have a window so I ran the fan. If it hadn't been December I would have taken the doors outside but I still would have had to paint the vanity and cabinet inside anyways.

In the above picture you can see the right side of the vanity with only about two inches between the wall and the vanity. So at first I thought that I really didn't have to paint that since you can barely see it. Buttt you really could see it and Pascal said it looked ridiculous...

Thankfully I have very small hands and arms so I was able to reach back there and just use a small roller. 

After I had painted the vanity/cabinet and the walls/ceiling I decided that I wanted to spray paint the sink faucet and the light base the same oil rubbed bronze as the rest of the hardware. I didn't really think this through too much and I did it while Pascal wasn't home...Again open a window/run a fan and wear a mask. Or better yet detach the faucet and light and take them outside. I have seen several painted faucets on Pinterest so I decided to just go for it. I figured that I would only be messing up a free faucet and I can always replace it later. By the way, I should have done this before I painted the rest of the room. 

I taped off as much as I could and did several light coats of my favorite Rustoleum oil rubbed bronze spray paint. 

Thanks Joann Fabrics for always helping me with my crafting needs

So shiny and new! Spray paint does seem to leave a fine mist everywhere so even with my taping off there was still spray paint on the sink. Thankfully it scrubbed right off. But I panicked for a minute. 

I am pretty happy with the result. I also painted the gold base of the original overhead light. I figured that even if the faucet starts to chip after only a year it was still a $5 fix instead of buying a brand new faucet like this $98 one. 

After adding some new accessories the bathroom was all put back together! I am really happy with how it turned out. Even though I just made little changes I think it looks much better than the original. 

I still have one more thing I want to do. I bought some Polyblend Grout Renew to redo the grout in the bathroom. So much grout. I think it was originally white but its pretty much gray in most spots so I am going to make it all gray. For $10 hopefully it turns out to be a good update. 

Here is the final budget breakdown for the bathroom remodel:

$35 Barely Blue wall paint

Already had the gray cabinet paint and the oil primer

$5 for the rug

$10 for two cans of oil rubbed bronze spray paint (for all of the hardware I did before and the faucet/light)

$5 plastic shower liner

$5 oil rubbed bronze shower curtain rings

$15 shower curtain (TJ Maxx!!!)

$10 grout renew

= $85

Not bad for the whole bathroom. 

DIY Christmas Ornaments

This year for Christmas I decided to make ornaments for our friends and family. My mom always made ornaments with us growing up. We had a Christmas party at our house so I used them as party favors and then gifts on Christmas. 

I made one of these Santa ornaments last year and I had a bunch of jar lids so I decided to make these wreaths and these snowmen as well. 

For the Santa ornaments I bought a pack of small glass balls (with a 50% off coupon of course) and some red confetti. I figured that was easier than cutting up small pieces of paper and I have a ton leftover. When I made the one last year I used paint but I ended up just using sharpies. I tried a paint pen as well but the sharpie looked pretty much the same and was easier.

The wreaths took a bit longer. Tying the string on was tricky and I had to mess around with it for a while first. I didn't use glue or anything, just tied it tight. I bought the bells and string at Michael's and used the lids that I had. 

The snowmen took the longest. I used all supplies that I already had. I did a couple of coats of the white paint. If you wanted full coverage quicker I would use spray paint. Once the paint dried Pascal drilled holes in the lids for the string. We should have done this before painting because it took off some of the paint. For the faces I used a black and orange sharpie which was so easy. I like the snowmen a lot and you could do many different things to customize them, like adding buttons. I even made a police officer snowman for my uncle. 

I was really happy with the results and I thought they made nice presents. I think I will definitely make the snowmen again. I forgot to save one for our tree!

Happy 4th day of Christmas!

Ikea Hack- Upbeat Aztec Stool

Stools are a requirement in my house. Due to the fact that I can't reach anything. We have two cheap Ikea stools, one in the master bedroom closet and one in the kitchen. The one that was in the closet is the Ikea Bekvam stool which is solid wood and only $17! Besides the great price and sturdy structure, this stool is great because it is a blank canvas that you can make it your own. Ours sat untouched for two years but I finally got around to it this last week. I also decided that once I painted it I would move it to the kitchen instead of hiding it in the bedroom.

I didn't really have any plan at the beginning. At first I just picked one color. I did not buy any paint for this- just picked from our paint sample collection. I decided to use Valspar's Pitch Cobalt in Satin which we bought to test out on our shed (In process! The weather sorta halted the painting process though...). 

I lightly sanded the stool and then just painted it with a small brush. Normally I use oil based primer first on my wood projects. However...this is a stool. So I didn't care that much. And the raw wood soaked up the paint fine. It only took two coats for complete coverage and there was no bleed through from the wood. 

I thought the stool looked good as is but I wanted to add something else. Some type of stencil. I thought about it for a couple of days. I thought about just doing stripes or tracing a stencil like I did with this dresser. Finally, I remembered a side table that the amazing Emily Henderson had posted. I love the Aztec style and the simplicity of the triangles. I figured that was something I could manage! 

I taped off a pattern on the top with triangles. I did not measure or anything since it doesn't have to be perfect. I then taped off random triangles on the rest of the stool. 

I picked three other colors from my paint stash that coordinated. All Valspar in Satin. The dark blue-gray is Cobalt Cannon (another shed option). The gray is Wet Cement which I used in our office and on our credenza (and also in the upstairs bathroom, almost done!). Finally, the light blue/gray is Barely Blue from the upstairs bathroom-almost done with that project! 

I rotated colors and did two coats of each. Once I was done the second coat, I pulled the tape off right away. I always want to let the paint dry first but then the lines are not as crisp...

After painting, I added two coats of Polycrylic in semi-gloss to protect my stencil. I only did it on the two steps. I worried that this would make the stool too slippery but it feels fine and I want the paint to last. But if this stool was for actual children and not just a child sized adult then I probably would skip that step. 

I am so happy with the finished product! It is much better than the plastic stool that I have now moved into the bedroom. Hmm, I may have to replace that one as well. 

Now we just need to replace those floors so my stool will look better on them. :)