Sarah's bedroom makeover

There's something about a room makeover that's really exciting.  All the dreaming, thinking, creating, wondering.  What does one do with a blank canvas?   Well, Sarah wanted something bright and pretty and uncluttered, with only a few of her favorite things in it.  That's a great start! 

Here's where we started:  a tribute to Audrey Hepburn, two Jack Vettriano prints, album covers of her favorite musicals.  Those are the highlights.  A red accent wall with yellow gold on the other three walls.  A really good looking room, I have to admit.  She enjoyed it for eight years. 

We moved everything out of the bedroom and took everything off the walls.  This is when the FUN began.  We needed inspiration.  A few hours on Pinterest and a few trips to several local stores gave us some direction.  A road trip to IKEA in Chicago proved to be our true inspiration. 
IKEA has so much to buy look at. Three hours later, we had lots of good diy ideas and two purchases: a new duvet and cases in gray and white and pretty white tone on tone panels for the window.  Simple.   Very good choice.  We can go anywhere with this print.   Sarah decided on the classic and popular gray and yellow color scheme.  I concurred.   The duvet print is on the left.  We stopped at a fabric store to see what options we had for pillows.  (Do you know the price of decorative pillow these days?)   The gray in the middle is for the headboard and the leafy yellow/gray print is the first choice for sham covers.   A really lovely start!

We wanted to situate the bed under the window, so it would be the first thing one sees when entering the room - the focal point.  This means, however, we can't use the headboard that comes with the bedframe.  So, we thought it would be fun to make a headboard...a floating headboard.

I found a piece of plywood that was the right size (! how often does that happen?)  I had some left over random pieces of quilt batting that we used to cover the board with a staple gun.  I was glad Sarah liked to do this part. 

We covered it with the silvery gray material and stapled it all again.   

Looking pretty good!  We used four 2x2 deck spindles on hand to attach it to the wall.  We grouped all four together and did some measurements so they are centered.  We screwed the top and bottom one to the headboard and the middle two to the wall.  Then we put the headboard on the wall and screwed the top 2x2 on the headboard to the top 2x2 on the wall.  We did the same with the bottom.  Worked like a charm!  It provides a little space away from the wall which we like and everything is hidden.  A floating headboard...done!

Next, pillows!  Shams and other kinds.  We found lots of fabric that we couldn't live without. 

From this...

...to this!!  

Lots of cutting, pinning, ironing, and sewing in the next few days.  But so worth it!  Look at Sarah's bed.  Isn't it beautiful!  We love it! 

We had a lofty thought after shopping at TJ Max one day.  They had a pretty tone-on-tone wallpaper on their walls (notice it the next time you shop there).  We thought the same look would seal the deal with the walls.  Something subtle and pretty.  We found a stencil at Wisconsin Craft Mart and bought a quart of saffron yellow paint (two shades darker than the wall paint) in preparation. 

Well, we were LUCKY one day when we showed a friend (thanks, Tasha) the room and shared with her our plans for the stencil and she gave us another idea she saw a friend do (thanks, Nicole).  Instead of stencilling the whole wall, why not just do a couple of pieces of wood and hang them up for art.  I had thrifted from St. Vinny three square canvasses one day for a future project.  Well, that project just arrived. 

Three coats of saffron yellow paint later they were prepped for stenciling. 

We purchased charcoal gray and metallic gray acrylic paint from the local World of Variety for the stencilling.  We used both colors on each stencil to create some visual movement.  We REALLY liked this project.  It was time consuming and kinda puttsy (but remember, I like puttsy). 

We stenciled two canvasses like this.  The third canvas was used for a quote.  Hmmm, what profound words to use?  There are soooooo many good ones.  Sarah and I were listening to music one crafting day and we heard a song from the musical GIGI.  (It might be available on netflix for your immense enjoyment.)  There is a line in that song that Sarah picked out for her quote: "Oh, what miracle has made you the way you are."  Isn't it sweet!?  So, that's what went on the third canvas.  Of course, I made the stencils with my CRICUT. 

Here they are on her wall...pretty spectacular!  (Sorry for the glare.)

As you might know by now, Sarah loves musicals.  We found an old record player at a garage sale so she could play these old albums.  We scout for them at thrift stores whenever we can.  She has a nice collection of albums and we listen to them pretty often.  Anyway, she wanted to promenently place the records and the player in her room.  We had a nice naked wood stand that was perfect for this

display.  We primed and painted it white to match the other furniture pieces in her room. 

 

Look how awesome it looks! 

And finally, the dresser.  The only piece of furniture to return to the room.  It's IKEA.  We put up the shelving for books instead of one on the floor.  The sign on the top shelf says:

Life does not have to be perfect to be wonderful! 

How true. 

So, there you have it.  A month or two later, it's finished.  It was really fun to do with Sarah.  I loved our time together.  Sarah loves how bright it is and simple to clean and manage.  It was fun to do and so worth it. 

I hope you have the time and energy this summer to makeover a room that is ready for a new look.  Sometimes it's just a good cleaning and simplifying, clearing out clutter and sorting through books and knacks.  Sometimes, it's just a new color on the walls or new pillows. 

I'm inspired now to repaint my living room and give it a new, fresh update.  I'll let you know how that goes. 

Happy summer!!