{Mr. and Mrs.} master bedroom

So it's been a while since I started my master bedroom makeover. In fact, it's been so long that I've been staring at a half-finished room for so long that now that it is actually done, I don't really feel that sense of accomplishment that usually comes with finishing a big project. Darn! But I am really happy with how it turned out. With three little kids, our whole house seems like it is filled with toys and other kid-related junk most of the time. I really wanted our bedroom to be a special place where we can celebrate being a couple.

I'm not going to share any before pictures because they are all on the other computer and I just don't have the energy to --spend more time uploading pictures from a half-dead computer. So you'll have to use your imagination. The walls were builder beige, the light fixtures were late '80s mod sconces, and there was a forest green, velvet cushion on the window seat. Oh, and there was a mirror niche in the wall behind our bed. A big ugly mirror.

What is it with my house and mirrors?????

Our bedroom is really big with vaulted ceilings (high vaulted ceilings). I started by painting all the walls navy blue--no paint info, because I got the first gallon as a $5 oops gallon. Then I had it matched for the additional gallons I needed.

To take care of the mirror niche, I used a section of the fence that my neighbor lost in our windstorm. My dad helped me to mount it on the wall directly over the mirror niche, using flush mount hardware. Easy peasy!

I got the bedside tables from KSL and spray painted them coral (Krylon Coral Isle) and then glazed them. I really love how they turned out!

We went to New Orleans for our honeymoon so I just HAD to get this poster from Orkposters.com.

The light fixtures on this wall were these white ceramic half-globe things. Blerg. I got the new little guys from DI (excuse the ugly lightbulbs, please) and replaced the globes with new ones. I looooooooove this picture of me and Jason! My favorite picture ever.

I love my new windowseat area. It used to just have a velvet cushion on it but we NEVER sat on it. I used it mostly to stack DI donations on. I decided to make it more of a focal point, so I stenciled the windowseat with some mustard yellow oops paint and hung some sheer white curtains from Ikea. I added some vintage books and a typewriter and a couple of candlesticks and pillows for accessories. But the best part is definitely the light fixture. Oh, the light fixture. I almost cried when I saw it at DI. I love it so much. It only cost $5. Can you believe that??? I am really the best at taking pictures, huh? Too bad I can't capture the true awesomeness of this light.

And hanging over my sewing desk are some of the paintings Jason has done for me. He paints one for me almost every year for my birthday or Mother's Day. So sweet!

Bedroom hell(p) part II

Thanks for all the comments/ideas/input on my last blog post!

Unfortunately, I am still having some trouble finding my vision. I just don't know what the heck to do with this room.

1)That giant ugly mirror alcove over our bed? Yeah, that's going to be completely covered by a reclaimed wood headboard (umm, that's a hipster way of saying a section of my next door neighbor's ratty old wood fence that I got for FREE). The fence section is weathered wood and I really don't want to paint it or do anything to it, but I also DO NOT want a shabby chic bedroom. So I'm hoping once I get it mounted on the wall, it doesn't look too country/shabby chic because if it does, I will just cry. If you follow me on Pinterest, check out my master bedroom board and you'll see a couple inspiration photos.

2) Ugly wall sconces. Ugly, ugly, ugly. '80s. Builder grade. Yuck. I have two semi-ok light fixtures that I got at DI a while ago, but they are very blah and unextraordinary. Not really what I want, but better than nothing. They are kind of fake oil-rubbed bronze, so I'm trying to decide what color to spray paint them: white? gold? white with a gold patina? white but glazed?

3) Speaking of the wall sconces, they are currently on the wall with our brown dresser. Brown as in painted brown because it was so ugly, not nice stained wood brown. Do I paint it white? Coral like the bedside tables? Do I just get rid of it all together? We can fit all our clothes in our closet, so we really don't need it. But if I do that, what do I put there? I would love a pair of awesome chairs, but our budget for new furniture is $the cost of the furniture from DI + $the cost of the spraypaint to refinish it = not realistic.

4) Curtains. The window is so tall that I don't know where to find CHEAP curtains that will still give me a nice puddle. I just want sheer white curtains!!

5) The windowseat. It has a super nice cushion with a really nice velvet cover on it--but it's forest green. Ugh. It would cost about $25 to recover, I think, which is not too bad, but what fabric do I choose???? I'm seriously considering taking the cushion off and stenciling the windowseat instead of a wall. We NEVER sit on it. Ever.

6) I just want some nice white bedding with colored sheets and fun throw pillows. We already have a down comforter but I can't find a duvet cover I like in my price range. I know I could just sew one together from 2 sheets, but do I really have to? Since the down comforter is white and I want a white bedspread, can't we just use that?

#startingtoreallyregretjumpingrightinwithoutaplan

DI lamp makeover

So now that we have 8 1/2 foot by 12 foot bookcases in our living room, I needed to find enough things to fill them up. Honestly, we could have lined each shelf with books and filled every one (we have a lot of books), but I wanted to break it up just a little bit. The living room also needed major help with the lighting situation. Our house has really weird electrical--like two lights controlled by two different switches in the very, very small hall bath, but only two small recessed lights in the large, vaulted ceiling living room.

I've been hanging on to this lamp from DI for a while. It fits so nicely on the photo-album-shelf, right next to the couch. I really like the shape and the color, but it's really nothing special.

I decided to do something so cheap and so simple to make this lamp a little bit more exciting!

Hi!

I bought skeleton keys from the $1 section at Michael's and hot glued them to the inside of the shade. When the lamp is off, it just looks like a plain white shade. But when it's on...

Isn't that more fun??? I just love that it's a little surprise every time I turn it on.

Also going on in this room: vintage globe collection. manual typewriter. still looking for new throw pillow/windowseat/curtain fabric.
I wish I had more keys (there are actually 4, spaced equally around the shade), but I got all the keys my Michael's had and they haven't made a reappearance :(