Friday, June 10, 2011

Here We GO...............!!!!!

Summer has officially begun around here.  These past few weeks have been a blur of end of the school year events, yard work and work!  But it has arrived...school is out and we are trying to "wind down" from our busy spring.  I am so happy to start work on our Master Bedroom Makeover Project!  I think I should give some background information before I delight you with some before pics and hints to future fun!

When we built our house we were quite excited but I had a 4 year old and a 1 year old so I think I made some decisions that seemed "easy" at the time and now?  Well, now I regret some of those decisions and need to make some changes.  One MAJOR mistake is that I agreed to put the same cabinetry in every bathroom, laundry room and kitchen.  They're nice, don't get me wrong but..WHAT WAS I THINKING??  I am so SICK of looking at them!  This summer some changes will happen!  

When we built our house I was bound and determined to bring COLOR into our home.  I grew up with a mother who has EXQUISITE taste but everything is a shade of beige or cream.  My parents TRULY believe that painting a wall a real "color" will ruin your walls.  REALLY!  But I needed color so I went for it.  I hired a great decorator to come and help me select colors for my home.  I had pictures from magazines of dreams for each room and she was wonderful in coordinating my dreams with rich, lovely color.  The point I am making is that my bedroom is a color.  "Of course it is Amy," you say.  But when I say a "color" in my family it means something other than a shade of beige.  I chose Benjamin Moore's Georgian Green because it went well with my brand new Pottery Barn bedding that I LOVED!  I decided to splurge and get a beautiful quilt with reds, golds, greens and blues.  I got 3 Euro shams and even had monogrammed shams made from their hotel style linens.  I LOVED my bedroom!  

Fast forward 7 years and...my bedroom has been the sight of many camp outs, family TV viewings and naps.  The dog and the kids REALLY love my big, soft bed and they've REALLY broken in my quilt.  Now, I am well aware that bedding really isn't suppose to last THAT long.  Especially with the kind of wear and tear and the number of washings it's gotten.  I've gotten my money's worth out of my bedding. With the current national economic crisis directly affecting my husband's career (real estate appraiser...ugh!)  we are tightening our belt and room makeovers have not been in the budget for 2 years.  

I went into a period of denial with my  bedroom.  King sized bedding is just too expensive and I didn't have the money to hire a painter...besides, our paint looks fabulous and it would be a waste to repaint since I still like the color.  What to do?  What to do?  Suddenly it came to me...MY SISTER!  Melissa's home is RIGHT out of a magazine.  SERIOUSLY!  (I will have to give you a picture tour some time soon!)  And she loves working with a budget...it's the challenge!  I asked her a few weeks ago if she'd be willing to help a sister with a shoestring budget, and she jumped at the project.  We talked about many options and she agreed that my paint was great and we should work with it.  Just under a week later I get a message from her to check out OverStock...she'd found a new quilt.  Let's just say it fit the room beautifully (and my budget).  So now we are off and running!  YEAH!!!  We have thoughts, we are scouting out sales and we've snagged some new furniture (FREE)!  It's moving forward with great speed but I need to share some befores with you so here we go....
Love the IKEA chair and pillow...hubby hung the frames too far apart but it was such a project I let it go.  They will be coming down, chair will be recovered, nightstand is being painted and new hardware purchased.  We also found CHEAP new lamps (oh is THAT a story for another time!)

Please note the vibrant color of the Euro Shams...that is the color the quilt USED to be...look how FADED!  Too sad!  The monogrammed pillows are missing because they have been laundered and pressed and are part of the new bedding 



I found some sale plain white curtains at Target and used some stitch-wichery (sp?) to add some ribbon detail at the bottom.  Done with it!  The curtains will be coming down and we are dreaming up a whole new window concept.  The shades, however, will stay.  They are room-darkening and I like it dark when I sleep.  Sometimes function trumps fashion around here....just sometimes!


This washstand is from the main level of our home.  My sister and I did some furniture swapping before we got started with our project and I like this size piece better than the dresser that was there.  In all we moved 3 pieces and it made my house feel like it got a face lift.  I will have to share those pics soon too!  And I feel like I am about to share a naked picture of myself...this is BAD...really BAD...look at my pathetic quilt!  I've NEVER in my life worn out bedding...so sad...but look...holes!




And look at how FADED...ugh!  (Hide my head here!)



OK...on to the NEW AND FABULOUS!  Here is just a sneeky peeky (can you tell I've read too many Junie B. Jones books this spring?)  We did some budget shopping and found some yummy items...


Polka dots...of course!


also the OverStockoooohlala!)


Wait til you see what we found for this wall..."Bye bye picture...hello dazzling!"


Last but not least...I leave you on a humorous note...my hubs idea of home security!  Seriously?  I feel so much safer now!  (LOL!)


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