Master Bedroom: Third Time's the Charm!

While the paint had barely cured on the guest room/office I had already moved on to our master bedroom.  As with the guest room, this paint job was a long time coming.  I had painted it about 7 years ago with what was supposed to be a lovely ivory color.  The problem is that our master doesn't get a lot of sunlight until late in the afternoon so even the lightest of colors appear dark.  This means the lovely ivory I had picked looked rather yellow once it was up on our walls.

(I didn't think to get any type of before pictures until after I had started taping bur you can see the yellow.)

Not only that,  I painted the room at a time when finances were slimmer in our household so I used cheap paint...really cheap paint.  At the time I was desperate to cover up my previous paint job which was a light lavender (I don't know what I was thinking either).  So using cheap paint to cover up a darker color with a lighter color meant not only three coats but also that I could always see the original color bleeding through in spots.  However, in the meantime child #2 came along and with two little ones in the house finding time and motivation to repaint was not all that easy.

It took me a while to decide on the paint color this time around, I was determined not to make a third mistake.  I first settled on Sherman Williams Ivoire which I spied in a Better Homes and Garden magazine.  The picture lived in my Smash book for a long time, I liked the deep, wheaty color.  Then right before it was time to paint I hopped on Pinterest to view the color up in various rooms (which, brief aside here, thank God for Pinterest...it has literally saved me hours of time with all this painting and made my decision process so much easier this time around).  I quickly realized I was headed toward another yellow disaster.  Ted was also happy to quickly remind me of my "ducky yellow" bedroom that I had in the house I rented when I was in graduate school.  In my defense I was thrilled with how bright and cheery the room was at the time but the point was taken.  I was not having luck with yellow bedrooms.

So instead I went with more of a neutral color, similar but a bit lighter than the guest room...Behr's Cream in my Coffee. And here my friends after another marathon Friday night/Saturday morning painting session (and three nights spent sleeping in our newly painted guest room) is the final product.  I am beyond please with the new color.

What's next on my "to do" list for this room?  Definitely not as much as the guest room.

• Ted's nightstand.  It's probably going to get the whitewash here soon.  Right now it's the odd man out, doesn't fit with our dressers and doesn't fit with the other nightstand.
• New lamps...I already know what I want.  The existing ones will be relocated elsewhere in the house.
• New artwork for over the bed.  The existing pictures were very old and fading quickly.  I'm not sure if I will reuse the frames in the same spot with new pictures or get something different completely.
• Reframe our wedding pictures.  I'd like thicker, possibly more decorative frames.
• A large piece of artwork for the space between my dresser and the bed.  In a money is no object world I would actually have a single window put it there...it just seems like one should be there and wow, would it provide a lot of light to the room.  Under the current budget, new artwork will do.
• The rocking chair in the corner.  It either needs to be painted or more than likely I need to find something else for that corner.  It was the rocker from the kids' nursery and when big boy and big girl rooms came about I didn't have anywhere to put it.  Plus it is/was a convenient place to sit when the kids are splashing in the big tub. Besides holding dirty clothes we do occasionally sit in to put on our shoes and stuff.  This means, it will be a chair of some sort.
• Down the road...new bedding.  That set is still holding up well but is beginning to show it's age.  Plus I'm getting a bit sick of it.  However, new bedding for the guest room and Katherine's room will take priority.  In short term, maybe new fluffier pillows and a throw blanket.

This room also seems to have the least amount of touch up compared to the other two rooms, which is a relief.  I'm planning on doing any of that plus some guest room touch up after I've finished Katherine's room.  It's been almost two weeks since we finished and I'm still just as thrilled with the results.  Here's to some good night's of sleep in our future!

Blank Slate

Welcome back to the blog!  I've missed it.  Don't have much of an excuse over the past year other than life got in the way and I really didn't have any urge to write.  In our instantaneous society I think people look at Facebook posts before they sit down to read a longer blog post.  But regardless if anyone reads it or not I wanted to get back to it.  So here I am.

I've thought about making a few changes, which will probably happen as I move along.  The biggest thing I'm pondering is the name.  The current name was born out of lack of thought and laziness.  I just couldn't come up with any snappy titles.  I think it's time to think of something new and I can change it and still keep all of the old content. I know you're just chomping at the bit to go back and read about the time toddler Katherine dropped her pants in the middle of the front yard just as the UPS man road by.  Go on, see if you can find it, I won't judge.  In the meantime, for all of you that decided to stick around on this post, I'll welcome any name suggestions...

Alrighty, let's kick off this little round of blogging with a little home improvement before and after, shall we?  I give you the before of our guest room/office:

This is not what I had envisioned for this room.  However, that vision was back before child #2 (or even #1) came along and the guest room was down the hall in what is now Katherine's room.  Here is what I wanted it to look like:

Source

Somehow what I envisioned seemed to never come into fruition.  Along the way our bonus room became the guest room and in spite of painting it the same color things morphed into this Americana type theme that I never wanted.  Plus now the room had both of our desks in it which made things feel more thrown together than actually coordinated.  It was time for a change.  I put off painting at first, since it is the largest room of the house in terms of paintable surface space.  I can make the blue work I said to myself.  But I couldn't.  Any bedding or new curtains, or really anything I liked just did not go with that blue.  What did it go with it?  More blue...and white.  So I decided while the kids were up at my parents for the month it was time to bite the bullet and paint it...actually paint 3 rooms but I'll get to the other two later.

After scouring Pinterest for various paint colors I settled upon Behr's Sculptor clay which was a nice soft neutral "greige" color.  I knew I could coordinate just about anything with it.  With that we were off!  Prep took a full week, nights after work moving furniture, removing pictures and taping. Painting was Friday night and Saturday morning and by Saturday evening the room was back together and looking quite refreshed:

Very much a blank slate...which is exactly what I wanted. I got rid of the bedding, the curtains, and even left most of the pictures off the wall (Ted's VMI diploma and Army awards above his desk are the exception). I realize I went from deep color to no color but I plan on adding the color back in slowly and putting some of the existing stuff back would make it harder for me to see other possibilities.  Here's my list of "to dos":

• New bedding: I think this needs to be first and I've begun look but it may take a while to land on something I like.  I'm still trying to decide whether to go warmer or cooler.  I do know it will be a comforter instead of a quilt this time.
• New curtains: panels instead of swags.
• Possible area rug
• Different nightstand on the left side of the bed.  My grandpa made that so it's not leaving the house but its not quite functional in its current placement.  Something a bit more sturdy is needed.
• New lamps.  Might move the ones in our bedroom in here and get new ones for in there.
• Something for above the bed.  That big picture was not right.
• Possible bench for the end of the bed.  It would be a great place for guests to place their suitcases or sit to put on their shoes.  It would also stop the covers from sliding off the bed at night.
• Paint wicker chair, or get a darker one.  I'm not sure how easy it is to paint wicker.  It might not be worth the mess when Carolina Pottery is only 30 minutes away.
• Darker frames for pictures...I have since put the framed pictures that I did have here in the living room and I like them there, so this may now be new artwork for walls.
• New, nicer filing cabinet beside Ted's desk.  That cabinet was purchased when I was a poor graduate student and is showing it's age...time for an upgrade.  Functional? Yes. Pretty?  No.

Bottom line is that I want to be intentional with anything I bring into the space and not just put stuff in there because that's what we have and I don't know where else to put it.  If it's no longer working for us, it needs to go.  Because of this, I'm going to force myself to take my time.  Our budget will thank me for that too.

Updates on rooms 2 and 3 soon!