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Master Bedroom Makeover #7: The Reveal ~ Pulling It All Together

I love spending time with family and friends, enjoying the awesome Manitoba summer weather and various recreational activities, but truth be told, I always rank my holidays (and even weekends) on how productive I was during my days off. I honestly don’t know why, but for me the greatest of summer vacations consists of a long list of completed projects! My fix is found in the satisfaction of finishing things on my “to do” list, not so much how many times I made it to the beach (which this year would be zero!) For me back to school, means getting back in to routine and of course returning to full time work as a Kindergarten teacher. Although I still try to be productive on the weekends, I have learned the importance of taking the time to recharge as well. So, as we settle back into our fall routines, I know that my projects will need to slow down in order to maintain some sort of balance juggling work, family, blogging and the youtube channel. Although the main elements in our master bedroom makeover are complete, I am pretty certain that it will be months before I get any form of art/photos on the walls! So although I would consider this some sort of a reveal, in all honesty, it won’t be finished for a while yet.

BEFORE: The bedroom was okay, but the chocolate brown walls made the room feel dark and dreary and the colour scheme was definitely dated.

Farmhouse Style Master Bedroom Makeover:

AFTER: Bright, clean farmhouse style master bedroom with a white and navy colour scheme.
  • One of the main elements of this makeover involved the installation of reclaimed shiplap from our basement, to create a feature wall that would double as our headboard.
  • Tim built and installed farmhouse style wall sconces. He used old clothes line pulleys, scrap wood and reclaimed metal frames from lampshades to create this look….I absolutely love these!!
  • The custom built-ins that bank both sides of the bed are ideal for housing our alarm clocks, books, etc. as our room can not accommodate bedside tables.
  • We had this old bevelled glass window in our basement and it seemed like the perfect finishing touch for our feature wall.
  • Of course, the new colour pallet which is primarily Benjamin Moore’s “Simply White” brightened our space and gave it such a clean look. I love the Sherwin Williams “Navel” colour, but we really wanted the room to maintain the bright white look, so we limited it to the space surrounding the shiplap wall. I love how this turned out.
  • The curtains for the window and both closets were made from the same fabric. They provide the privacy we need while still allowing ample light into the space. The curtains that I made for the closets really elevated the look of the room by hiding the contents.
  • The rusty springs I salvaged from an old sofa chair made the perfect curtain tie-backs for our farmhouse style design.
  • The old ceiling fan dated the space for sure. We managed to give it a whole new look that fit with our new farmhouse style bedroom.
  • Although we had planned to build a king sized platform bed and purchase a new mattress and bedding, we have yet to decide if we will even proceed with our plans. For now, our old white bedding has been given new life with all of the new covers I made for the existing pillows and throws. I used a variety of purchased, repurposed and even sentimental fabrics for the various pillows. I still plan to purchase EURO throws to run along the wall behind the existing pillow configuration, but haven’t yet found a navy fabric/texture I like.
  • We already had the upcycled coffee table bench in our room and it was a simple fix to recover the bench to coordinate with our new colour scheme.

Antique Dressers:

You will notice that we have two dressers in the bedroom, both antiques. I purchased the white one several years ago, but it wasn’t in very good condition. I stripped and painted it and it has been in our bedroom for years now. The second, larger dresser, was recently passed onto me from my dad. My parents used that dresser their entire married life and it is still in great condition. We opted to leave the original wood grain and I love how it becomes a strong foundation piece in the room. The contrast between the white and oak is appealing to me.

We never had a TV in our room at all until just a few years ago and for the most part, we don’t really use it. When we were planning out our master bedroom makeover, we tossed around the idea of removing it completely, but in the end, we felt that we might actually use it more now that our room is so much nicer. Sure enough, we have probably used the television more in the last few weeks than in the previous year. I would love to have the dresser top available for accessories, but for now a television is practical. We have a TV in our living room, but don’t have another sitting area like a family room or finished basement. There are definitely times when Tim wants to watch a game and I would like to sit back and enjoy a movie, so this just makes sense for now.

Sitting Area:

Although our room isn’t huge, there is plenty of room for the chair and ottoman we picked up on Kijiji. The fabric is cream coloured, but I love the idea of mixing whites. It is super comfy and a nice addition to the room. I hated the old chair we had in our room, so this is a big improvement in my eyes.

Other Accessories:

As I mentioned, I haven’t really put much thought into accessorizing yet. There are no pictures on the walls, but I do plan to create some sort of a photo gallery down the road. For now, I have a few pieces that I have incorporated into the design just to give it a more finished look despite the bare walls.

  • I found this oversized lantern style candle holder for $2 at a garage sale this summer. It wasn’t damaged, but very grungy for sure. It looks wicker, but is actually woven metal. I love how it is rusty and aged. It sits on the floor beside my parents old dresser and we opted to put a plant from my dad on the other side. I’m loving the addition of live plants in our new space. (I hope we can keep them alive!)
  • On the white dresser, I have my DIY Answered Prayers project, a stack of vintage books, a little garage sale white trinket holder and a vintage Hurricane Oil Lantern that I claimed when my dad was downsizing.
  • We also have a large floral basket that is home to our “sleeping pillows” during the day.

Overall, this room is decorated very sparsely. There aren’t many accessories in the room and the walls remain bare, yet it has a surprisingly warm and cozy feeling. I’m very pleased with how this room came together and the sentimental elements make me feel so happy in the space. My dad recently moved out of the city and having a few of his things close, somehow makes the distance seem smaller. So pleased with this almost finished space!!

You can see how much Hershey loves our new room too! I could not get him to leave, so that I could take pictures!

Be sure to check out my previous Master Bedroom Makeover posts to see how this look came together through the various DIY projects!

Master Bedroom Makeover #6: Curtains and Tie Backs

Window Coverings:

One of my favourite elements of this bedroom makeover is the sunshine! I know that seems strange because neither the windows nor the direction of the house have changed, but I’m astounded by the difference the white walls and new curtains make!

In the midst of our bedroom makeover, we had several days/nights without any curtains at all and were surprised that the added light didn’t actually impact our sleep. We previously had room darkening curtains so that Tim could sleep during the day, when he worked nights. In the past, our curtains were often left closed throughout the day, so the newly unshaded windows created a space that was dramatically different than what we were used to. We loved waking up to the natural light each morning and enjoyed how it flooded the room throughout the day. With this in mind, we opted for curtains that would provide the privacy we needed without reducing the natural sunlight. I was able to find some lovely white fabric on clearance for $2.50/meter and bought enough to make curtains for the window and both closet doors. (Having curtains on the closet doors really helped to “clean-up” the room as well.)

BEFORE: Exposed clothing through the French style closet doors.
AFTER: I love how the white curtains now hide the contents of the closets.

Another change we made was the actual height and length of the curtains. Because I made the curtains myself, I wasn’t confined to standard sized curtains. Our ceilings are almost 10 feet high, so I needed to make them extra long to achieve the look I wanted. I also hated how we had previously mounted the rod right on the window frame. I had Tim move it above the frame, so the window is now entirely encompassed by the drapery. I was lucky that the fabric I bought was very wide, so I just opted to use the width of the bolt as my panel length. I really liked the look of the raw “fringed” fabric edge and didn’t bother to make a finished seam on the tops and bottoms of the panels.

BEFORE: The rod was mounted right on the window frame.
AFTER: Tim moved the rod up above the window and extended it outside the width of the frame as well.

Curtain Tie-Backs:

Our windows are an in-swing casement window which basically means that the windows swing like doors on hinges and open inside the bedroom. We sleep with our bedroom window open year round…yes even in 40 below weather – granted it might only be open an inch when it gets that cold!! In addition to this, we have a large radiator that sits under the window (in every room of the house…I might add). The radiators are a huge obstacle for any curtain that extends below the window frame. It looks bunched up and messy when tucked behind and bulky when draped in front. The radiator and open windows both make window treatments a bit tricky. The only solutions that really work are shorter window coverings or tie backs. We decided that we would install some sort of tie-back to keep the drapes out of the way when the window is open. This solves the radiator issue too. Of course, I wanted to find something that suited the farmhouse style we were striving for. I had lots of ideas, but we ended up settling on springs!

We recently took an old sofa chair to the dump, but I removed all of the springs before we got rid of it. Although I didn’t really have a plan for them at the time, I decided to use two of the springs for our curtain tie-backs. The springs had a black coating to prevent rusting. Although the black looked okay (as we do have black in our light fixtures), I really wanted a more rustic look. I sanded the springs to remove the coating and then used white vinegar, salt and peroxide to rust them. I literally just took them outside in a large plastic tub and began drenching them using a spray bottle filled with white vinegar. I then poured small amounts of peroxide over the vinegar and sprinkle the springs with regular table salt. I would then let them sit in the sun for a bit and continued to repeat until I got the desired amount of rust. After the springs were dry and rusty, I gently sanded them again just to remove the salt build-up. I used a clear coat varnish (from spray can) to seal the rust and prevent it from transferring to my new white curtains.

  • Hmmm…Those springs might be good for something……
  • Before the rusting process!
  • After rusting process.

Tim used some small clamps he had on hand to mount them. I love the way they turned out! I’m not sure if I will add any kind of an embellishment to the springs down the road, but for now I love the simple rustic look.