Master Bedroom

While updating my pages tonight I realized that I never put up the master bedroom upgrades. Sadly, its been one of the most overlooked spaces in our house since we started renovating. Maybe because it didn't need much, maybe cause I wanted it to look really good. Either way, we sadly lived in a room that looked like this for most of the first year:

I don't have to show you much for you to get the full picture. Behind our bed was another splotch of a different color, the window had yet a 3rd color strip and I was really slow on painting the trim.

Where it gets sad is that after about a year, this is what we moved up to:

Most of the trim painted, still not all, and still the same paint testers. We had our curtain up and for the first time in our life an actual bedroom set. But, my husbands dresser didn't match and we still do not have a bedspread.

When you visit people's houses, its rare you head into their master bedroom. So, honestly, I have no idea what most people's bedrooms look like. But, I do know some close to me and I just love that people put time and effort into how their bedroom looks, they make it "their" space. Both my sister in laws have their rooms decorated beautifully. One even switches out her comforters for seasons. It seriously has me totally in awe. I want to put that kind of thought into my bedroom.

Sadly, we just don't really spend time in our bedroom. We sleep there (when the kids let us sleep) and that is about it. I don't have a walk in closet and so half my clothes are in the hallway closet. We had an old 90's 13 inch tv in there, so we only watched tv in there basically when my husband wanted to catch the weather or something before bed. In my head I have these grand visions of me reading, or relaxing in my beautiful bedroom retreat. But, in reality, its hard for me to get into bed without wanting to roll over and just go to sleep. All the movies and tv shows show the married couple reading, watching tv, and spending all this time in their bedroom. It hasn't been our reality, but I'm not ready to kill the idea yet.

After a lot of time on pinterest and design websites aimed at decorating/designing your master bedroom, I began to get an idea. I liked the thought of grey walls to go with my blue paisley. I also saw this pin, which helped get me to get inspired for some color pop:

It has white, grey, and both light and dark blue. What I like the most is the pop of color. As I started to visualize my bedroom in a medium to dark grey, with navy and light blue accents, I started to worry it would be too cool, too boring. Our last master was a pretty bold burgandy. Not to mention, how do I know what grey is best. The strips painted on the wall changed so much in different light, one looked purple at times and the other was just okay.

Then I found Chip It! by Sherwin Williams and problem solved! I was lucky enough to find my exact paisley online and chipped it!

This at least gave me a starting point. Because I was motivated, I wasn't willing to buy a sample and try yet another stripe on the wall. I knew it was time to go and I just dove in and went with Argos.

We were in the middle of finishing the master bathroom and I saw this as the perfect time to get motivated and at least get all the walls to a matching color. I finished painting the trim (well, most of it).

We found a cheap dresser that almost exactly matched our set to replace the oak dresser my husband was using. He scored a 32 inch flat screen SMART tv, so we can watch Netflix!! I switched out pictures of my kids for art.

Bought some art for behind the bed, using yellow as my "pop" color. A couple blue paisley laundry hampers. A yellow floral pillow, and hey, its a start. Not to mention, very inexpensive little upgrade. At least we can't say we have totally neglected "our" space.

Sports themed kids room

One of the easier rooms to complete was my oldest sons Sports Themed bedroom. Luckily, we had already gotten started on this themed room years ago in our town house when our second was born. Since he started talking, ball, has been one of his favorite words. Although, like most boys, he loves cars, monster trucks, trains, and tractors. Playing football, soccer, and baseball is something he loves and I figure will outlast those others. Not to mention that his "blankie" is his baseball blankie and it is by far his favorite (over the guitar and elephant blankies).

Here's what we started with:

We got rid of one of the twin beds, which was tough knowing that our younger son will need one soon enough. But, we needed the money to pay off our kitchen (see Kitchen for those details). We went and bought twin bed sheets from Target to go with his sports themed light.

 My hope was to paint one wall like this:

But, after lots of thought, I didn't want to have to get all those colors of paint and I couldn't really figure out which wall could be the baseball. Instead, I went for the $12.00 decals that match the light and his bedsheets.

One of my favorite parts of his room is the closet. My son's favorite color is orange. Because we were doing the room in blue, which lacked flare, we decided that a bright orange closet would be just the touch to make it pop. Plus, it matches the color of the basketballs on all his stuff. When I bought the orange, I had originally settled on Sherwin William's Tango. When I got to the store to buy it I decided to go the next shade lighter - because I was told to pick your color and go one lighter - by many people. So I went with Kumquat and I love it! The paint spread great, although in hindsight, I wish I had got a gallon instead of a quart because I literally ran out on the last piece of the wall. I also learned a big lesson buying this paint. I went in and was uneducated. So when I said I wanted enough for a closet in that particular color, the girl said I'd need a quart and mixed it up. When I then ordered 3 more gallons of paint and explained that my Dad was a Contractor and had an account, the girl told me about the different types of paint - the really expensive kind and the cheap kind. By the time I was done I made better choices for my other gallons, but the Kumquat closet was the most expensive paint - which I would have never chosen for a closet. It was $16.89 a quart!














We had the navy curtains from our last two places. My mom made them and if you want a pretty easy DIY project, curtains can be easy if you find one you like and use it as a pattern for a new one. Make sure to line the backs with white linen to avoid fading, and add a more expensive feel.



The red part happened because my son broke the pull down shade that was in the window. We needed something to block out the sun and so I went with the long red to add some color to the room (once again matching it to the light that inspired the room) and to provide shade. The curtains were $17.99 each at Bed Bath and Beyond. I used a coupon for $5 off too.

On a side note: when I got home the curtains were not the same length. Both packages said 63 inches, but one was definitely 1/2 an inch longer. Take them out and measure them if you are buying in two separate packs. It's a pain in the butt because I don't ever get to the store and I had to return them to get some that were the same length and frankly, I just don't have time for that.

For the bedroom color, we once again used a can of leftover paint from my parents. California paints Buxton Blue. I LOVE this color. It's a medium blue and its so pretty. Oh and it was free. I had to do two coats for sure, but the color is so nice. My only complaint is that the California paints are not low VOC's and really smell. If the paint wasn't free, I would have preferred a greener product so my son wasn't breathing in paint fumes. With two kids at home, it took me a weekend to paint the room while my husband tried to occupy them. The second day, second coat only took 2.5 hours.



The Ted Williams picture was one we already had and I just put it in a cheap oak frame left over from my bridal shower - they had blown up a huge goofy picture of me.



The bookshelf was handmade by my grandfather. The picture frames on top I had bought a while ago with the light for $1 a piece at target.

The fan definitely helps to make the room - plus adds a light and some cooling for summer.  The little fan embellishments were $7, eh, probably not needed, but they were cute and help to turn the fan on. My son loves it, shows everyone his room! If that doesn't tell you job well done, I don't know what does.

Again, sorry, I'll get some better pics eventually :)

Cost breakdown:

Room decals: $12 at target
Red curtains: $18 a piece at bed bath and beyond
Fan/Light: $68 at home depot, pull strings $7
Electrician: $260 for 3 bedroom fan/lights and wiring them, 2 bathroom vanities. Hard to break it down room by room.

Lets round it to about $150 for the whole room! Not too shabby.

Kids Bathroom

It may seem like an odd place to start, but it seemed like starting small was the way to go. A project we could complete in a short amount of time so we could feel like we could be successful. It actually started a little out of necessity as well. We have two kids that bathe every night and this is their bathroom. The tub had the most God awful '80's doors on it, gold with a frosted sunset (Here's where I admit that I never actually got a picture of it before we took it down). The door was not only ugly but it wasn't functional for bathing kids, so off it went and already the bathroom looked better. Well, if you ignored the big brown stain behind the toilet. The metallic linoleum floors and the chipped gold faucet.

Here's what we were working with:

You can slightly see the door in the top picture. And do look closely at the faucet. I didn't get a picture of the light fixture while in, but here it is after I took it down. Oak, gold, tulip glass.

Step 1: Remove the tub door, fill in the holes left, and caulk the whole tub. Free, mostly. I think the glue and the caulk were about $10 total.

Lucky for me, my Mom brought me 4 cans of blue paint in 3 colors. She knew I wanted to do the bathroom blue and also my oldest son's room in blue. I decided on California paint Yarmouth Blue for the bathroom. I decided on the color based on the shower curtain we already had, which later I realized was a bit silly, but it worked out since we got the free paint.

A little background info, I have never painted a room. When I think about it, I'm a little shocked that I haven't. I painted a wall at our rental property, but never a room, so this was my first experience. I started off late at night when the kids went to bed and I chose to tackle two small walls. I taped the trim, cut in the ceiling and the edges and rolled the two walls. I eventually was able to tackle the whole bathroom and I definitely needed a second coat. The entire bathroom probably took me 8-10 hours to paint 2 coats.

Next task, pick out new towel bars, toilet paper roll, vanity light, faucet, and hardware. My mom helped us a bit and for my birthday gave us a vanity light and a faucet. I ended up returning them both because I wanted 4 lights vs. 3 and the faucet was all together and our sink is a split. I had bought a Tub curtain rod at Target and picked a great brushed nickel rounded bar. So in matching the faucet, towel bars, etc I learned my first major lesson: Brushed Nickel is the most expensive.

We chose to go with one 18" towel bar, the toilet paper bar, a towel/robe hook for the door, Delta Nuva faucet, and a 4 light vanity. The bars and hook were easy to install - anyone can do this. The faucet was a different story.

The faucet took my husband about 7-8 hours to install. He hit a few snags because the piping was not made for modern faucets. My husband got crafty and installed a hose from the drain to the pipes instead of cutting the drain (which we have no experience doing). I would say that the faucet install did not seem like a project that I could have done, so although I was a little surprised by the time it took to install, I'm happy I didn't have to do it. In the end, just changing the faucet, changed the room for me. Even my son walked in and was so excited, look at my new sink!!

The light. This is where we ran into another snag. As you can see from the picture, for some reason, they put the electrical wire to the right, so for us to install our light we would have to move the wire quite a bit. To do this we had to extend the wire. More to this in our post on: Hiring a professional. Which basically meant that we also had a huge hole to fix, but done!

The vanity hardware worked out for us. We were selling an old dresser that I had refinished years ago, so I swapped out what was in the bathroom with the brushed nickel knobs from the dresser.

Last order of business, FLOORS!!!! New window, trim, and since the mirror was hanging out in the hallway for so long (and my kids took a screw driver to draw on it) a new mirror. Guess that's the beauty of a big renovation with two crazy monkey's bouncing around just hoping you leave a tool. 

COST BREAKDOWN:

Vanity Light – Peerless 4 light $79.00 - $58.00 (Returned one mom bought)

Towel bar – $23 something, but apparently they forgot to charge us

Toilet paper bar – $18.48 - $1.85 (coupon)

Shower curtain rod - $35

Shower curtain – Free (already had it)

Paint – Yarmouth Blue – Free (from MOM), we used about 1/2 a gallon so I'd guess around $25.

Faucet – Delta Nura $129.00 - $12.90 (coupon) – $59.00 (Returned one mom bought) - $50.00 (gift certificate)

Caulk - $4.97 - $.50 (coupon)

Robe/ towel door hook - $3.97 - $.40 (coupon)

New Knobs – Free, already had them from a dresser

Curtain – Free, already had it

Spackle – Free, already had it

Extra wires for light - $8.49

Hoses for faucet - $14.00

Electrician???