Bedroom Makeover: Going From 1989 to 2014!

LibrarianTellsAll
by LibrarianTellsAll
We bought a 1989 time capsule of a house, and we're slowly bringing it into the present.
The "Before" photo shows what the room looked like when we first saw it, before we bought the house. The walls were mauve and dripping with nicotine, the carpet was green, and we had our work cut out for us.
Carpet: Check. Paint: Next!
We got lucky, and the seller replaced the green carpet before the house was sold. But those pink walls had to go. First, I scrubbed the nicotine off the walls. Next, we primed with Kilz. Finally, we painted.
At last, a clean blank slate!
All paint colors are Benjamin Moore, color-matched to Valspar paint. Colors are listed on my blog.
I wanted to make a cohesive design plan and stick to it, so I created this mood board online. My husband wanted a big wooden sleigh bed. I wanted chartreuse curtains and a black chandelier that looked like something out of a fairy tale. I put those things on the board, and then chose a few accessories that would pull it all together. I feel like this was the most important step of the design process. It kept me on track and prevented me from making mistakes when I shopped for our room. I often pulled out my phone, looked at the mood board, and used it to decide whether an item would fit with the look we wanted.
This picture isn't pretty, but I'm including it because I want to be real. When you're redoing a room, it gets weird before it gets better. At this point, we had purchased a bedroom rug and installed the chandelier of my dreams. There was a mountain of clothes in the corner and an air filter in our room, because we were painting the closet. It wasn't pretty!
When we found the perfect bed for $200 on Craigslist, things got a lot prettier. But as things began to come together, the bare windows started to look more and more wrong. We'd covered them with blackout roller shades, for privacy, but it was time for curtains. The nightstands looked weird with the bed, too.
I found the chartreuse fabric at a local shop, and my mother sewed it into curtains with two-finger pinch pleats. We hung them with hardware and finials from Lowe's. I'm thrilled with how they turned out! They make a big impact, and I think Mom deserves a lot of credit.
At this point, things were coming together nicely. I didn't want to spend more money on the room, so I shopped the house: I switched the matelasse bedspread with the duvet in the guest room, tossed a throw blanket I already owned over the foot of the bed.


Last, I bought two nightstands from a thrift store for $55 each, and called the room done. In the future, I might paint the nightstands the same color as the wall. I haven't decided yet. What do you think?


For now, we love it. I hope you do, too.


Sources and paint colors can be found on my blog. Stop by and visit!
LibrarianTellsAll
Want more details about this and other DIY projects? Check out my blog post!
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