Master Bedroom Musings

If you read my last post, you saw the first glimpse of our master bedroom in it's current horrific state. And although we're no where near ready to start tackling it, we have plans! Or, I have plans, and Mike isn't ready to think about it since we're not actually doing it yet. Same thing.

I think the overall feel I want to aim for is a mix between cottage and country. The second floor of our house is significantly less formal than the living room; the trim is painted, the doors are made of beadboard planks and have cast iron Suffolk latches instead of doorknobs. I love these original details, and I think cottage/country describes them perfectly.

Now for a little trip down inspiration lane.

Paula Deen Down Home from Sears.

This bed would be perfect. I'm on the lookout for something similar that doesn't carry such a hefty price tag.

And can you picture it with pillow cases like these?


Sunbird Sheets via Anthropologie.

Something that I'm not afraid to splurge on is a Hudson's Bay wool point strip blanket. I will have one one day! It's very classically Canadian.


Hudson's Bay Company Multi Stripe Blanket via The Bay. 

With crazy pillow cases and the in-your-face stripes of the blanket, I'd keep the rest of the bedding pretty neutral. Not white - the dog is a filthy beast.



Springmaid Decca Coverlet in Chino/White via Springmaid.

Instead of lamps on night stands, I like the idea of lamps on the wall over the headboard.


Swing Arm Wall Sconce via Lighting Universe.

We're toying with the idea of a bead board ceiling. The plaster on the ceiling is not in good shape, but we're not interested in tearing it down and having the insulation from the attic create a giant mess.

As for paint, well, I'm a huge fan of Sarah Richardson's designer colour palette (we used "Vintage" in the bathroom).  Here's what I'm thinking for the master bedroom...

From left to right: SR2 Retreat - SR44 Bisque - SR68 Dreaming.

Ceiling, walls, trim. I love the idea of a blue bead board ceiling - although more typical of a porch ceiling, I think it'd do just as well as a bedroom ceiling. And if we hate it? Well, it's just paint - it can be covered up!

That's about as far as I've gotten in my little scheme. Well, except in my dreams we'd replace the window with a door and build a little balcony, just big enough to fit two chairs. But that's kind of embarrassing to admit because it's not really possible.

Happy Wednesday!

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Bathroom Art, Yard Work, Flowers.

Hello friends!

Happy Monday to you; I hope you had a fantastic weekend full of fun. We had gorgeous weather which made for an awesome barbecue and bonfire get together on Saturday. Sunday was full of relaxing, visiting Mike's parents, baseball later in the evening, and a phone call with my Mom to top it all off.

Sunday was also Mike's 27th birthday. I find him pretty hard to buy for, but this year I had a plan. I am going to buy him two tickets to a NY Islanders vs Ottawa Sens game, but I still wanted him to have sometime to unwrap.

So remember this big empty space above the turtle tank?



I decided to kill two birds with one stone. I grabbed one of Mike's favourite quotes, played around with some fonts, and had the words printed out on a poster at Staples.



If anyone reading is a fan of baseball movies, you might recognize the quote...

In other news, our guests were very successful in ridding the yard of everything flammable. Including the old rotten clothes line pole and stairs.



And I've gotten into the habit of buying flowers every so often - I love me some Gerbera daisies.



Now, who can tell me what movie this quote comes from?



Psssssst! I'm linking this post up to...



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Stenciled Flour Sack Cafe Curtains

White cafe curtains are incredibly hard to photograph when you don't really know how to use your camera on the manual setting. I took dozens of pictures and they're all terrible.

I had told you guys that I wasn't going to show you my cafe curtains until the bathroom was done, but since that's taking for-freaking-ever, here they are.



I think there are too many rings?

Other than that, I really like them. They give just enough privacy without blocking light from the room. I especially love that I can see the sky, and this window has the perfect view for watching the sun go down. Sort of sucks that you would have to hang out in the bathroom to watch it, but whatever.

They were really cheap to make. I grabbed a package of flour sack towels from Wal-mart, as they were the largest, plainest thing I could find ($7 I think).



I then dove into the world of Martha Stewart crafts, and bought some of her stencils, craft paint, and stencil brushes. This stuff was not exactly cheap, but since everything can be used again and again, I figured shelling out a couple extra bucks was worth it.



And really, I'm not going to explain any further than that because I'm pretty sure you can figure out how to stencil something. I just picked a couple designs and went to town. There was very little planning involved.

Hopefully by the time the new window is in and the trim is back in place I'll be able to figure out how to take a decent picture. Until then....what do you think? Take out some rings?

PSSSSSSSSST! I'm linking this post up to...


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Starter of Plenty, Finisher of None

As the title of this post implies, I started on a whole whack of projects this weekend and managed to finish a whopping zero of them. That's not totally true - I did get a sunburn. I don't think you can do those half way.

The point is, the bathroom is not getting finished before we have people over for Mike's birthday. My chairs are also not getting recovered (but my fabric did arrive and I looooooove it!). And I've decided that I don't care. Our friends know we bought a junky house with the intention of fixing it up. I think they expect chaos. At least I'm going to keep telling myself that.

Although we have a few projects to go, I'm making one a priority. I think our guests would appreciate having a door to close when they have to visit the washroom. Well, I imagine the guys won't care so much (and to be quite honest they'll probably use nature as their restroom), but the girls probably will.

If the weather cooperates this week, we should have a bathroom door again. The dog isn't going to be pleased considering she's gotten into the habit of following people in there.

 The bathroom door is called a 4 panel door, and is typical of what's found in plain Victorian homes. Unfortunately, over the years it has been covered in layers and layers and layers of paint (sort of like the layers and layers and layers of flooring that we uncovered when we started the bathroom reno).



Rachel from A Home in College Hill did a great tutorial on refinishing doors so I'm not going to write one here, but I will let you know that I used a combination of my heat gun and chemical stripper, as well as various scrapers and picking tools.



Because of the weather, I've been working on this door off and on since February. Thankfully I'm finally finished with paint removal and now it's on to sanding. Which, weather permitting, I'll do in the first half of the week. 



The door was originally stained a deep red-brown. I don't think I'll go that red for the new stain, but it's pretty up in the air. Either way, I can't wait to see this thing all finished up with the original hardware re-installed.

Speaking of original hardware, I've decided to keep the original hinges - at least for now. I had bought some new Stanley hinges, but the spacing of the screw holes and the size of the "wing" didn't match the original and it was just going to be a bigger pain in the behind than I needed it to be. The hinges are cooking in a crock pot with some other hardware while I write this!



How was everyone else's weekend? Hopefully more successful than mine!

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Poor Planning Practices

I'm having a day full of renovation and decoration regrets, second guessing. and indecision.

Those shadow boxes that I made for the bathroom? I have no idea where to put them.

I bought a print off of Etsy that I adore (this one!), but it's too small for where I had originally planned to put it - over the toilet. So now it's living in the narrow space between the laundry machines and the window, where the shadow boxes were originally going to go.

Also, one entire section of the bathroom is driving my loopy. We should have bought a bigger vanity. This whole bathroom renovation is turning into a lesson on how to not renovate; more specifically, don't go to the store without your measurements in hand.

I need something on the wall here...


But I should probably wait until I figure out what to do about the 20" gap between the vanity and the toilet. I'm thinking of some sort of small linen cabinet, along the lines of this guy.

Tall Black Linen Cabinet from JC Penny Home
Or this...but it might be too cottage-y for the room. And we would be hopeless at keeping it organized and looking nice.

Floor Standing Ladder from Pottery Barn
But then again, a laundry hamper would probably fit perfectly there (the laundry bag that I bought turned out to be a bust). If I chose to throw in a laundry hamper, then I could put something like this up on the wall to at least gain a little bit of storage.

William Wall Cabinet from Pottery Barn
This wood and black iron-esque shelf tugs at my heart strings, but this sophisticated option is a stunner too.

Mercer Triple Glass Shelf from Pottery Barn
Apparently, Pottery Barn is today's answer to all of my bathroom woes.

Finally, I want something pretty impactful (sh, that's a word) here...


Oh! There's our ceiling light that I haven't shown you yet. It's kind of like a spaceship.

So...thoughts? Help me.

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