Bedroom Makeover: A New Bedroom

A couple of my roommates are moving out in a couple of weeks. While I'm sad that they are leaving...I'm kind of excited too...I'm switching bedrooms into the Master Bedroom. And that means I get a bigger room and my own bathroom. Yay!

Now, there is a one slightly "bad" part (besides higher rent). I *have* to redecorate! (yay!)

Also, as a slightly beside-the-point, point. Caitlin fixed my sewing machine (another yay!) and so now I want to SEW SEW SEW. Problem: I don't know how. But gosh darn it! I'm going to learn! And I will figure it out---without breaking anything (It's been a problem in the past....hush Mom!).

SOOOO...now I have to decide what I want my room to look like. Historically, I'm pretty, um, eclectic? with my decorating. I kind of just get what I like and put it in my room--creating a cluttered mish-mash of my life. I've decided that I'm mature enough (ha!) to (try to) have a simplified and decorated room.

I need to come up with ONE color scheme and stick to it. And make my furniture and decorating stuff fit those colors (hellooooo spray paint! I might be addicted....to painting--not getting high--I promise!).

The hard part? PICKING THE COLORS!

I've love coastal blues and greens, with creams and natural brown burlap as my neutrals. (with pops of coral and touches of silver?!). Its peaceful and relaxing. Just what I want my room to be like. A friend did her wedding reception that way a few years ago and I LOVED it!

BUT WHICH BLUE?! (I'm such a girl...)

So I went to some hardware stores and started collecting paint chips to narrow the colors down.

That didn't really help. I love all the colors.

I still haven't decided.

*

Well, moving on to my actual plan for my room. I have a lot of furniture and book cases and crafty tables that I want to fit in the room. So I wanted to make sure most of it will fit. I measured and created 1/4 scale drawings of the room and stuff so I could figure out how it will best be arranged.

I wanted to create a little craft nook in one corner. I'm excited because I am going to have a bit more room to put crafty goodness. :) YAY!

Then to help me organize my ideas, I created a board on Pinterest with stuff I love and want to possibly incorporate.

I also need a new bedspread so this is the perfect time to practice my soon-to-be-newly found sewing skills. I think I REALLY want a ruffled bedspread. In blue. But again...WHICH BLUE?!

via

I also found this fantastic cream and blue damask fabric that I'm going to use to make a bench seat to sit on my trunk (that I'm going to repaint?) to sit at the foot of my bed. I sit on the edge of my bed a lot and I don't want to do that anymore, so hello bench seat using stuff I already have and love!

via

Also maybe burlap curtains? I'm not sure about that yet, but there is a long skinny window that I kind of want do to that for, as well as in the bathroom. Maybe as a roman shade?

There is also a sliding glass door, but that is going to get thick grey curtains and lacy sheers to cover it. It's south facing and so I need something to help keep the heat out.

I wanted to cover the backs of my four bookcases with fabric, but they are tall (76") and that is a lot of pricey fabric, so I'm just going to paint them this great peacock blue spray paint. That will be fun. Three will be for books and the other is for my crafty goodness. Yay! One place to put it all!

There is a fifth short bookcase (I love them and, apparently, have an obsession with them) that I'm going to spray paint my favorite cream color (Heirloom White by Rustoleum) and put my DVDs in. I have a plan for a fun vignette on top of it that I'm really excited about. (Glass, Succulents and burlap!)

I also have a big black dresser that I'm trying to decide what I want to do with. Leave it black? Paint it? Stencil it? The cream bookcase is going next to it and the dresser is where my TV and DVD player live--which are both black. Hmmm.

Now hopefully the room will come together they way I want it to. Crossing my fingers!

Framed Chicken Wire Photo "Tack Board"

I've been quiet here because I've been working on projects and have a couple still in the works. But I have finished one...well three, actually. But they were the same thing. So here it is.

Waaaay back in April, I came across a picture on pinterest (shock!) that caught my interest. I clicked through and found it on this fun blog.

Those instructions were a little more than I could do at the moment seeing as I don't have power tools. So I made it my own.

I started looking for fun, fancy, vintagey frames. I wanted one that was pretty thick (wide?) and was for 16x20" pictures...so about 20x24". I started looking way back in April. I had several birthdays/events coming up that I wanted to make something special for. But because I am cheap, er thrifty, I didn't want to pay full price--or anything more than $10 for each frame.

Yeah, by the time I found frames, each of those three birthdays/events had already passed. Better late than never, right? I decided that I was just extending the celebration....um, yeah.

Then a couple of weeks ago I finally found $50 frames for $10! I picked up one to buy (it was marked down to $18--I was getting tired of not finding anything I liked--and I liked these), but then when I realized it was only $10, I went and bought the other two--which was great because I needed three total. :)

I forgot to take a picture of the frames before I spray painted them, but they were originally a dark brown with a hint of gold. Pretty, but not the color I wanted. Yay for spray paint!

Here's a picture when it was mostly done.

The color is Rustoleum's Heirloom White. It's a favorite right now. I taped off the back a bit so the edges would have crisp lines on it. The backs of the frames were silver and I wanted to keep it that way.

The frames came with hangy-things on the back so I got brave and removed them (they were in the way of the wire and the fabric. But I wasn't sure how I was going to be able to put them back in. Don't worry. I figured it out.

I got the smallest roll of chicken wire from Home Depot and cut a piece that was a little smaller than the outer edge of the frame. I first tried to staple it using a staple gun to the very inside edge of the frame (where the glass sits), but the staples I got were too long and poked through the front of the frame. Oops! Fortunately I realized the problem pretty quick so there were only a few spots. I re-spray painted them to try to cover it up a bit.

So I started stapling around the middle of the back of the frame.

I started at the corners, pulling the opposite corner, so it was tight. Then I stapled in the middle of each edge, while pulling the opposite side to keep it tight. Once the middle of each side was stapled, I stapled each side while pulling it tightly.

 

I tried to keep the staples in the thickest part of the frame (see above problem) which was also close to the inside edge. So I trimmed off the excess wire so the fabric would cover it up once that was tacked down. 

 

There were some nasty sharp pieces left from when I cut it down so I just bent them over so they wouldn't poke out. 

 

I learned a valuable lesson. Using a staple gun so that the staples are actually in all the way and flush with the wood is hard. Or maybe it is just for me. My wrists were not happy with this project. And I need to work on my staple gun skills. Good thing most of them are covered up and the ones that aren't are on the back. 

Moving on.....I picked out some fat fabric quarters in patterns and colors I thought the recipients might like, ironed them to perfection (which is saying something because I actually despise ironing--this just shows how much I LOVE the three recipients...I even ironed for them. It has nothing to do with my OCD for perfection) and then used a staple gun to attach the fabric to the back of frame, over the chicken wire. Again, stapling opposite corners and then middles to keep it taught.

 

I then cut a piece of cream felt just larger than the piece of fabric (about 19"x23"). I found the holes where the hangy-things screwed into the wood and punched holes in the colored fabric and the felt. It made re-attaching them much easier. I then stapled that to the frame. Yeah, there were a lot of staples.

 

But the felt is great. It keeps the wire from scratching up the wall behind it, should that be an issue. The printed fabric is just a thin cotton that would probably fall apart if you sneezed too hard.

 

Once that was done, I screwed the hangy-things (there has got to be another--better-- word that I totally can't think of right now) back into the frame using the holes I had poked. Made it super easy.

 

Ta Da!

 

 

I put this against the wall to admire my handy work and decided, that while this is cute, it needed to be funner. I like to give fun gifts and so I thought this frame needs a party on it. So I made one for each of my recipients.

 

It took a just few minutes perusing each of their facebook pages to find  fun pictures to attach to show the potential of their new decor item. It worked. :)

 

Alyssa's:

 

 

Detail pic of the banner and little flowers glued to mini clothespins. So adorbs. :)

 

 

 

For my momma: It has pics of us and her grandbabies. Also super adorbs. For the banner, I used some paint chips that I found left over from a different project a few years ago. They were convenient and perfect.

 



 

For Monica: Yeah, her kid is so adorable!

 



 

I was going to wrap each of them, but then I ran out of time when I was going to give Lys her frame and just tied some tulle around with a big fluffy bow. I liked it and did it to the other two frames too.

 





 

Monica's frame was a birthday present. And her birthday was in APRIL. I felt guilty. So I made a little tag to attach to her frame. Just so she knew this was actually a VERY belated present. 

 

 

I loved the frame so much that I really wanted to keep each of them and hang them all up in my room. But I resisted. :)

 

However, that doesn't mean that I won't make a GIGANTIC one for me. I do have a lot of chicken wire left....