Tag: interior design

Bedroom.

Truly, I couldn’t come up with something funny and/or non-creepy to title this post about the bedroom.

For many, many months after we moved in, this continued to be my least favorite room in the house. The paint color and the grey comforter we had in the old place clashed, clashed, clashed. Fighting shades of gray are almost as bad as fighting shades of black. So, one temporary comforter and one new West Elm comforter later, things started shaping up. We removed the headboard and made the room feel way bigger. I finally love this room :)

First, a shot right after we moved in. It will make you understand why the room made me so depressed:

Second, in case you were wondering: we did not paint! Natural light works wonders. Unfortunately the room gets natural light pretty much only while we’re at work. Anyway, getting rid of the headboard and hanging cream curtains helped, but the temporary comforter was NOT what the doctor ordered:

Now:

Now, I feel like gray, cream, and white can coexist in a small space, with the blue pattern on the comforter playing referee between the three neutrals. The yellow helps lighten the mood! Across from the foot of the bed is our IKEA dresser. Believe it or not, the dresser was easier to assemble than the wardrobe we bought the same day! Here’s a shot:

Here’s the view of the wardrobe (hanging those doors and making sure they were even was the WORST!). The doorway at the left edge of this photo leads to the hall :) I’d like to get more globes to fill up the top of the wardrobe like you see on home interior blogs sometimes. Haven’t come across any while thrifting lately, though!

And a little source list, since I ended up the guest room tour that way… I like to try to prove that a house can look stylish on the cheap. This room, by FAR, we have put the most money into. The mattress, bedside tables, wardrobe and dresser were all bought new. A mattress is not really something you want to buy used, and it is impossible to find dressers at the limited options of thrift stores we have here. These items are, however, more or less the ONLY furniture items purchased new in our house so far!

  • Bed, rather, mattress and box spring on the floor, from Ashley Furniture
  • Comforter, West Elm organic ironwork duvet cover, snagged on SALE for $65. (Can also be seen on the not-very-funny new show Are You There Chelsea?)
  • Wardrobe, IKEA ENGAN $179
  • Dresser, IKEA TRONDHEIM. I guess it doesn’t come in 6-drawer anymore? I think it was somewhere around $175.
  • Bedside tables, Target (Wedding gift cards! Woo! Don’t remember how much they were.)
  • Yellow pillows, Dwell Studio for Target. I waited years for these to finally go on clearance! $17 ea.
  • Curtains, Target $24 per pair (3 pairs, ordered online to get the extra length)
  • Chair with green cushion, found for F-R-E-E at the re-use shed at the dump, reupholstered with materials from JoAnn.
  • Tennis Racquets, thrifted, $3 for 3.
  • Red lamp & burlap shade, both from target, somewhere around $30 together?
I am not putting the dollar signs in to show off how much we’ve spent/invested (depending on your POV). What I’m trying to show is that, minus the mattress (which rang in somewhere around $600 I think?) the room was well below $1000, which seems to be the approximate amount TV shows budget to redo a room “on the cheap.” Personally, I feel like the room looks great, and I’m not sure putting more money into it would even improve on it. What do you think?

There you have it! Questions? Comments? Favorite part? Mine is (obviously) the duvet cover :)

Be Our Guest

The guest room/office was the room of the house to come together most quickly once we moved in. The large window and unfortunate placement of electric outlets are two factors that really limit the furniture arrangement, which (and also for security’s sake) is why we chose the back room for our bedroom.

I love the mix and match of all the pieces together, yes, even the cheap birch veneer bookshelf from target which looked better in our old loft with its lighter color palette. The light “wood” does help keep the room from being too heavy with the gray walls (paint color name unknown), the dark floors, and the dark-ish desk. Gotta have somewhere to put books (and this isn’t all of them!)

The above shot is what you see when you step into the room. On the right is a tall-ish 5 drawer dresser, and past that is another window (with a tablecloth hung as a temporary curtain. oh the shame) and a closet large enough to house Mosey’s crate. I love that my pup is crate-trained; it sets my mind at ease that he’s not destroying my books, shoes, rugs, etc while I’m away. He’s not prone to this kind of behavior in general, but who knows what the mischievous little guy could get into all day with no supervision. Anyway, I’m glad the eyesore crate is hidden in the closet, which we affectionately call “Mosey’s room.” Anyway, no photos of that corner of the room. (Edit: Okay, fine, here’s a glimpse into Mosey’s World).

To add a little interest, I covered the dresser that holds some CDs, some books, and most of my sewing supplies, with a beautiful scarf I picked up while in Morocco. I love the way the blue and rich red play with the wood tones of the dresser and the wall color. The water bottle filled with sand is from Morocco–the fascinating red sand from the Sahara desert. My goal is to have one drawer in this chest of drawers empty for guests to use. I am creeping closer to that goal becoming a reality.

Unfortunately, we only have a twin bed and neither of our couches really lend themselves to being slept upon. Let’s take up a collection for an aerobed! Then more people can come visit!

I love being in this room in the afternoon when the light pours in. And so does someone else: this is how he waits for “dad” to come home from work while I work on the ole blog :)

Sources: 

  • Bed, hand me down from Angela‘s family (mattress mine from high school– well renowned to be the most comfortable ever, by the way)
  • Comforter, from Target (“pebble” design)
  • Vanity-turned-desk, free from the re-use shed at the landfill
  • Light-colored bookcase, the cheapest one Target offered ;)
  • Foot locker, hand-me-down from my mother’s college days
  • Dresser (not pictured–to the right of the door leading into the guest room), Salvation Army
  • Chair, hand-me-down from mother-in-law. Its match lives in the kitchen.
  • Curtains, IKEA. Should have picked up two packages so I’d have something to put on the window I didn’t show you.
  • Zebra Rug, Urban Outfitters on clearance (yay!)

Here’s an off-topic bonus shot: our front walk-up.

Luckily, in the few short weeks that have passed since I took this photo, the tiny plant at the base of the bricks shot up and bore beautiful purple flowers. The grass has filled in, as well, and we’ve done some work on the flower bed.

I have big ideas to make this space a little more inviting, which I plan on doing this spring/summer, including:

  • A bench
  • Flowers
  • Lights?
  • Possible outdoor rug?

I’ll continue doing more detailed posts about each room of the house, and with any luck you should be seeing more of the front walk-up. I really do want to transform it! 

PS: I love comments! Just a hint ;) 

Welcome to my World

After a marathon session of editing and uploading photos last night, I finally have updated the home tour page with photos of the new place!

Can you call a place new when you’re already in month 6 of inhabiting it?

Anyway, here is a teaser shot. Click here to be taken to the full tour!