retreat from a hard day's work

The first weekend in November I was reminded of just how much I hate painting.  In fact, a nightmare-ish flashback to the first weekend of owning our first home came back to me all over again (when we painted every room except the laundry room).  Seriously without Daniel's dad and my dad that weekend, we might still be painting.  I can say that we learned a lot about painting that weekend so I am thankful for all of the love and support.  I think it made this go around a little easier.

Back to the re-do now.

It is not a surprise that my bright mustard room just wasn't doing it for me...at all.  I mean it was a great vision in my head, but it didn't really work when it was put to life.  ah, memories of sleeping on the sun...

I have been thinking about a "master bedroom makeover" for a few months now.  I knew that it wouldn't be cheap or fast (that's what she said.) in transforming.  Nonetheless, I was determined to make it as painless to our bank account as possible. 

I knew that I wanted the theme to be calming and peaceful.  I was leaning more towards an ivory or light blue paint color.  Basically it depended on the comforter color(s).  My vision jumped from ivory walls with a blue comforter to blue walls with an ivory comforter.  I felt like the light blue was the way to go even though having an ivory comforter with 3 dogs is risky. 

After finding the soul inspriation for the room (3 Euro shams from Restoration Hardware), I knew that I had to go with the light blue walls and ivory comforter.  The Euro shams were marked WAY down to $30 each, which is still extremely high for my "cheap" makeover.  I figured we could splurge a little on the shams and still be fine.  I eventually found an ivory comforter set (comforter and 2 King shams) at Walmart for less than $60.  You can't go wrong there.  And if it gets messed up, go back and get another.  I purchased the tan bedskirt for $20 from Target.  Same deal with that...if it gets messed, then no problem.  I originally thought about making the bedskirt from an old sheet, but I became too lazy.  It might have been more trouble than it was worth anyway.

There's no hiding from the expenses of painting though.  Oh boy...those can easily run in the $200 or $300 range.  Yikes!  I will say that tinted primer saved us when painting over the mustard color.  It took us 3 coats of primer and 2 coats of paint.  Bye bye, mustard and hellooooo, beach house blue!

The biggest decision we faced (other than the paint color) was deciding what to do about a headboard.  One day I want brand new bedroom furniture with a sleigh bed.  Our bedroom is too small to hold brand new everything so that will have to wait until we move into a bigger house.  So what to do now?  Purchase a cheap headboard?  Or is there another option?

There's always another option.  We were out looking for a headboard one Saturday afternoon, and we stumbled across a wooden door at a local cosignment shop.  And BINGO!  Instant headboard slash wall art.  And DONE!  So for $40 we picked up our faux headboard.  I count that as money saved. 

Trying to be thrifty, creative, and unique all at once, I personally made the curtains.  I wanted something with a design and not the typical (and sometimes boring) curtains.  I found some really nice...almost too nice...fabric at Hobby Lobby.  It was regularly $15 a yard, but 30% off.  I went ahead and got the lady to cut me 3 sections of 3 yards each to avoid my miscalculation with measuring.  I wanted ceiling to floor curtains.  That must be the new thing since I see them in every home decorating magazine I own.  So final cost $100 for custom-made curtains.  And I must say I am becoming quite the little sew-er on my sewing machine.  I have come a long way from not knowing that the presser foot needs to be down when sewing because it makes life so much easier.

My last item of decorating consisted of new lamps.  Oh geeze....our pathetic little lamps we had in there weren't cutting it decorative-wise.  They were way too small next to our king-size bed.  After looking at several stores (and again not wanting to spend an arm and leg), we found some beautiful lamps at Lowe's.  Of all places!  I think we spent around $100 for both lamps.  Yes, that is pricey, but I was able to cut corners elsewhere.  Plus I really loved those lamps compared to less expensive ones.

My last mention of the decorating process is the blue dresser we found at the same cosignment shop we bought the wooden door.  We really needed more storage so this dresser makes all the difference in the world.  We paid $140 for it, but we still need to purchase some knobs.  Honestly, I am in no hurry to buy these even though I probably should be.

I think for $850ish that our room has been transformed into a nice and relaxing retreat from a hard days work.  It feels completely different.  I am not exaggerating when I say this either:  I have actually been sleeping so much better.  I think it was sleeping on the surface of the sun that stressed me out.