Room Transformation: Master Bedroom

I am excited to share the transformation that has taken place in our master bedroom recently.  For Christmas, Brian and I were each given $125 in American Express gift cards.  Brilliantly, I had the idea to take those gift cards and use them to give myself a makeover challenge for our bedroom.  The brilliant part is that was exactly what Brian was thinking he wanted to do with his gift card.

So I had $250 to make as much difference as possible in our bedroom.  No problem...I was totally up for the challenge.

For the entire 11.5 years we have been married, our bedroom has been "blah", if not "horrible".  Mis-matched furniture.  Out-dated linens.  Catch-all room for random things in the house.

When Braxton was in the hospital for his surgery in October, I finally started making use of Pinterest, as that was also the same week we got into contract with our new house.  I was pinning house ideas like it was my job.  And when I stumbled upon the following picture of a dining room, I knew it was going to be my inspiration for my bedroom.

Image credit

The colors are so calming, yet bold.  Current, yet traditional.  And that pop of Kelly Green.....I've always loved that green.

So, as a refresher....he is what I was working with.

Master bedroom before...

...and after.

Before...

...after.

What do you think?  I think I did a pretty good job of capturing my inspiration.

The bedding is West Elm's "Parachute" bedding in "Feather Grey".  I have had my eye on that bedding for years, and it went on clearance after Christmas.  I actually had to call West Elm stores all over the country to find the bedding in stock...the shams came from Arizona, and the duvet cover from Florida!  But the best part is that the stores had the bedding marked down even further than the website, so I ended up paying only around $60 for everything!

We already had the bedskirt, so I just washed and pressed it, and used safety pins to secure it to the box spring at the right length.

I found the fabric on sale for $4/yard at JoAnn, and got 6 yards of it and made the drapes.  The rods are from Target for about $15 a piece (I got 2), and I got matching ring clips as well.

The headboard.....we MADE!  Brian found the fabric on clearance for $4/yard, and the foam was on sale for 50% off, which came to around $30.  The entire project ran right around $100.  (I will share detailed how-to photos tomorrow.)

The wall color is Olympic's Knight's Armor in flat.  We used the One paint, which is meant to only require one coat of paint, including primer.  This stuff is amazing.  We did end up doing two coats, but for as dark of a color as we used, the coverage was great.

The ceiling is Valspar's Bistro White, also in flat.

We painted the mantel in Valspar's Prairie Dance, in their premium paint in high gloss.  I used a small foam roller and applied it in very thin coats.  It turned out pretty well, although I think I should have let it dry a little more between coats.  So I might sand and re-paint it at some point.

The chandelier is the one that used to hang in Emma's old room.  We used Brian's air gun and painted it with leftover mantel paint.

There are still a few things that need to be done to the room.  And of course it will continue to change over time.  Immediate goals are to:

Replace or refinish the night stands.
Add artwork to the wall above the headboard.
Frame and hang family photos that are on the floor, leaning against the wall.
Build a ledge over the fireplace for the TV to sit on that will have room underneath for the DVD player.
Possibly get rid of, or at least replace the long dresser.

All in all I am completely thrilled with the way things have come together.  It feels so good to have a grown-up room.

By the way, I think I did a pretty good job of sticking to the $250 budget.  But I didn't totally keep track of everything.  We spent probably $75 in paint?  We actually were planning on a completely different wall color at first, but once we got almost the entire first coat on, we realized we didn't love the color.  So we are going to use that paint for the boys' room.  But anyway, if you have been tallying up what I spent and for some reason discovered that I went over budget, please just keep it to yourself.

Oh yeah...I bought new lampshades, too.  And new sheets.

Bye now!