Bedroom Makeover: a Sanctuary

Before we moved into our house I wrote a post about my decor dreams. Interestingly most of the final projects I'm working on were highlighted in this dreaming blog. I haven't revealed my office/craft room/guestroom or our bedroom, though I did just reveal our laundry room. Our first room (lets call it the "Sixth Room" rather than office/craft room/guestroom) is nearing it's finish but still has a few last details. BUT I can officially say our bedroom is complete! 1 year and 2 months after we moved in.

Before

Original Plan

We currently owned this grey bedspread with a dark grey lightly pinstriped sheet set.

We had a set of three pillows in grey and white, white yellow and grey and white and yellow with turquoise hints (and our initials)

Our room was looking tidy but lacklusted for the first 6 months we lived in the space, then in the summer family friends were moving (they also happened to be Rocket Scientists, so they had good taste and quality things) and were getting rid of quite a few things from their BC home. This basically felt, to us, like winning the lottery. For our bedroom this move gave us, a new nightstand for Paul, a matching dresser, a second gorgeous dresser, a beautiful, huge piece of art in a thick goldish frame and two gold lamps. 

Once we moved those pieces into the room, BAM it looked way more grown up immediately. With the bedding we already owned the room was starting to look ok. But there wasn't anything overly special about it. 

In November Paul's mom (Nancy, an interior designer) came to visit - not only was that visit lovely (good food, great chats, etc) BUT we also got to have her expert opinion and help with our bedroom. Armed with the three matching pillows and lots of ideas we set off to Home Depot! 

Nancy was suggesting that we paint the nightstand from my side of the bed and one accent wall a dark but cheery Turquoise. We brought the pillows to help match colors and ended up with BEHR Premium Plus Tropical Waters, under $75 for the amount we needed plus some painting extras. Armed with our paint sample we headed next door to Winners/Home Sense to look for pillows (not a success), a throw blanket (huge success) and curtains (also success!). With a total of under $50 for the two items we were feeling very pleased with our finds. We knew that we still wanted to find 3-5 pillows to add to the bed for decor purposes (much to Paul's dismay - he really doesn't "get" decorative pillows). We looked and looked and looked and finally at Crate & Barrel we found something to use as pillows - sadly not pillows, but 6 cloth napkins that could easily be turned into 3 20x20 pillows. 
**easily being a relative word since that was mid November and it took me until mid February to work up the nerve to pull my sewing machine out, thread it and put those pillows together** Spoiler alert, the pillows still aren't done. Sewing machine needs a tune up and there we go. So waiting continues

We will need to finish those pillows and get a curtain rod for the curtain but in the meantime with the addition of the throw, our giant piece of art being hung and Nancy showing me a new way to make the bed our room is much improved. 

Over the Christmas Holidays Paul and his friend Drian painted the bedroom wall, and Hanne and I painted my nightstand (and some animal bums, but that's a whole other story). Once those two tasks were complete the room popped! My sister spend a while sitting in there hiding from a party and said the room felt like a retreat or like a hotel. Win!

While I am still waiting to find the motivation to get the curtain rods  the courage to thread my sewing machine (seriously, so hard to find) I stumbled across two placemats at Superstore that I thought would make excellent pillows for the bed. The placemats were double sided already, so all I needed to do was rip out part of the stitching, stuff with batting and sew up the hole by hand. My word, it was simple and they looked AH-MAH-ZING. I added them to the original three pillows on the bed and BAM. 

One of my three dollar placemats, pre stuffing.

Stuffed and placed with my personalized pillows from Pick Your Plum

The perfectionist in me wasn't ready to show the room. The curtains need hanging. I still need to add three big pillows to the bed and get a skirt or something for the base of the mattress. And there are so many things I would like to hide or tidy...the mattress under the bed, the stuff in baskets, etc. BUT I love my room....even unfinished...so here it is mostly complete. Authenticity in posting.

The mirrors on the tall wardrobe came with the wardrobe but I like the reflection they offer and how they capture the turquoise.

I plan to put a gold starburst mirror here above the short dresser:

either homemade or this one from Target. 

Nancy says every room should have some green moss in it - voila!

Paul bugs me about these photos constantly 

"Oh good, it's us, now we'll know whose room we're in".

And that my friends, is our room. Oh I love it. 

I must note that all of these pictures were taken AGAIN by my amazing friend Laura at Paraphrase Productions. I kept trying to capture the room but couldn't make it work on my iPhone with any justice, so she kindly stepped in. She has a gift with photography for sure. She makes the things I do look good in the retelling.