I have reclaimed my house from my ex-boyfriend and his daughter, who have, for the most part, moved out now.
I also decided that 6 years sleeping upstairs under the eaves in a twin sized bed, where I could only stand upright in the center 4' of the room, with inadequate lighting and cold and hot temp extremes was enough so I decided to take over his old room downstairs.
It's a nice room - not big by any means, but bigger and airier then what I had as my room for years. I can also stand upright in it - bonus!! It's also near the bathroom - and I could finally graduate to a queen sized bed! (the stairs to my old room were narrow and poky and one could only fit a twin mattress up them).
I decided to make this new room my haven - a dreamy space I look forward to retiring to each night and love waking up to each morning.
I wanted to try wallpaper for a change, instead of just paint.
I found a website called wallpapermore.com where I found some beautiful papers, some for $22 a double roll/pre-pasted. The one I chose was one of the lower priced patterns.
I found the queen sized mattress set off craigslist for $20 - this woman was moving to Hawaii and she couldn't pay over-seas shipping costs on her furniture so she was selling it all.
The queen bed frame was $95, also off craigslist. It was a hideous green so I spray painted it white.
All the bedding was found at Ross, Marshalls, TJ Maxx or eBay, at great prices!
The cotton sateen duvet in pale Delphinium blue was $30 and the Laura Ashley white cotton bedskirt with satin stripes was $14 because it had a small tear in the seam which took me 2 minutes to repair! The RL white cotton blanket was $19.99 and the queen down-alternative comforter was $39. Each paycheck, since March, I shopped for a few more items, in anticipation for the day when I could claim the room as my own and get to work on it.
I gave myself one weekend to get the wallpaper up. Having never done it before, I was a bit nervous but knew it had to be done in order to create this special haven I saw in my mind's eye.
The few supplies I needed were under $20 at Lowes and I was ready to go!
I painted wallpaper primer on the walls the Friday night before the big work weekend.
By Sunday night, 8 pm, I had finished the last piece. I had to measure and cut to go around 2 windows and 2 doors and was lucky to be vertical and alert after 2 graveyard shifts at my weekend job, 8 hours of sleep total for the entire weekend and hours on my feet each afternoon and partial evening, hanging wallpaper. I also had a really interesting hairdo from the pasted wallpaper flopping down on to my head all the time - it would pretty much keep any shape I wanted! My goal was to have the room ready for me to sleep in Sunday night and to be on the couch by 9 pm to watch Masterpiece Theater on PBS!
Well, it was 9:30 pm and I finally sat down. The wallpaper was up and trimmed away from mouldings and floors, the bed was put together and made, the bedside table I had hand painted a few months back (see earlier blog post) was in place and the settee from the living room was pushed around the corner and on to the north bedroom wall.
I dug out 2 matching glass lamps from storage I had bought from the Target Simply Shabby Chic line years ago, along with the matching curtains in British Rose and will use them in the room until I can afford something better.
The chandelier was hung a few months back and put on a dimmer. The glass chandelier was a real bargain - 17" four-arm from the website: greatchandeliers.com.
Henry was the first one on the bed. He was exhausted from watching me scrambling all weekend! The other kitties also came and poked around, exploring the new space.
Yet to come: egg and dart crown and new baseboard, painting the window trim white, polished brass switch plate and outlet covers, adding some artwork and another bedside table (which is being painted white right now - an old, shabby wicker side table)
I'll post updated images as the room progresses.
I hope you enjoy the pictures - some were taken that Sunday night and the others the next morning. I threw in a couple of "before" images so you could see the empty room.
I was shooting for a mix of Gustavian, Shabby Chic and country. I think I nailed it!
