Spare Bedroom Wallpaper Update

OK, now the spare room is not done yet - it will need new baseboard and crown moldings. The furniture needs to be moved in and pictures hung.
Curtains need tie backs and the white cotton IKEA rug will hit the floor just before a student renter moves in or otherwise it will fall victim to a spring hairball.
(seriously - all my throw rugs are off the floors right now during this season when the cats are shedding and coughing up the results of excessive grooming)

I hung the wallpaper this past weekend and as usual, it transformed the room.
The walls were a pretty butter yellow but alas, I felt the need to tie the room into the rest of the blue & white house color scheme.
I got the wallpaper for $11.20 per single roll from wallpapermore.com.
Its a pretty blue & white sprig-like floral pattern. I had some late nights getting it up and miscut/mismatched a few times but seriously, no one has noticed because the nature of the pattern hides any mistakes!
I'm very happy with it. The IKEA chambray curtains were $20 per pair and one panel is all I needed for each window. They came with tie backs which I will attach high on the trim so more curtain is held back to allow more light into the room.
I kept the Brylane Home lace panels in each window for added privacy and a feminine touch.
The bed is an IKEA platform bed in pine. (I painted it white)
It's a bit low to the ground but I found risers on sale for $9.99 at Burlington Coat Factory so the bed will rise to a normal height.
The comforter set (Ralph Lauren via TJ Maxx for $29.99) comes with a long bedskirt to hide the risers.
The bedside table was a Shabby Chic $30 buy off Amazon and the dresser with mirror is from Goodwill ($40/set); freshened up with a few coats of white paint.

My little helper's name is "Mini Me" and he's my shadow. He insists on going everywhere with me and getting right in there to help with what ever I'm doing.

Stay tuned for finish snaps - hopefully by the end of the weekend I'll have the twin mattress from a friend's storage and framed images up.

Master Bedroom Wallpaper

I hung this wallpaper in my "new" room last summer when my room mate moved out of my house and I moved downstairs to take over his old room.
(the other smaller, yellow bedroom that I am hanging wallpaper in was his daughter's room)

I love this paper - it is so romantic and really added character to the small bedroom which already had great lighting and calming views of the side and back yards of green grass, lilacs and hydrangeas.

I love waking up in this room with that beautiful wallpaper all around me!

Spare Bedroom "before" Wallpaper

Here are a few quick snaps of the spare bedroom before the wallpaper goes up and around the room.
I also took a quick snap of the corner where I began to hang the paper last night. Smaller patterns are harder to match up then larger ones....JMHO.
I need to hit the arm weights at the gym more because my arms were screaming from being held above my head while I struggles to line up the little floral springs and keep the paper from flopping down on to my head!

I love this little room - it's small but bright and cheery with south and west views onto the backyard and patio. Walls are currently sunny yellow, which I also love, but they felt out of place in an all blue and white house. I will hang another 2 lengths tonight and then will try to bang out the rest Saturday afternoon.
Look for an update next week!

Bedroom Redo

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!