While He Was Out

After a few days of promises, here is the photo essay of the re-design (sort of) of our bedroom.

John had no idea that I was doing this. The idea started just with buying two new bedside lamps (John HATED the previous/current set - explanation on that further down - and has hated them since we started dating. I consistently remind him that my sorely missed dearly departed mother gave them to me and it rips into my soul when he is so heartless as to denigrate them in any way but so far it is no deterrent) and then I realized I had this great opportunity to redo the room - including much needed painting - when he decided to go to Toronto for three days during Reading Week. I enlisted my dad and Donna (who, by the by, is a professional house painter) to come and help... um, do it for me.

So, as much as it embarrasses me to do so (due to the tragic state of my housekeeping), here are photos of the "before":



At this point, let me draw your attention to some lovely elements of the previous room: in the first photo, notice how the previous owners chose to paint just slightly into the closet and stop. I've always thought that was a lovely touch. In photo 2, notice the lovely bedskirt that is hanging all shaggy off the bed and the duvet that is a double but trying to cover two people who are sleeping on a queen size bed. Yes, tug of wars ensue. In photo 3, notice the lovely bare yellow wall over our bed. I've never found the right thing to hang there that was in our current collection of stuff. The drape was made by me recently and was planned to coordinate with the room when it was redone.

Let's continue:



In these photos , please take note of the trim around the doors. What a lovely idea to paint the trim darker than the walls in a beautiful mustard yellow. Really easy to cover, too.

So, I decided on a dark red wall behind the bed. I still had existing paint from the main floor (BM's Abingdon Putty - kind of a grey green colour). I went to HomeSense and got some nice accent stuff and spent a good wad on a beautiful duvet cover, bed skirt and pillow shams at Beddingtons and got a new duvet too.

Donna arrived with all her great painting gear and tools, I threw my collection into the mix and we got going. Truth is that she did pretty much all of it with me popping in to help between doing kid stuff, cooking etc. Here are two in progress shots:



And now the big reveal, set up as Before and After:



Notice the nice WHITE baseboards. Oh yeah.



While you can't really tell from this photo, the duvet cover is soooo beautiful. I didn't get a close up so you'll just have to imagine.



Hanging behind the door are two new bathrobes for John and I from Land's End. Sweet.


Okay, wall is still bare. I'm planning on finding a really nice textile to hang behind it. I'm thinking Ten Thousand Villages will have something. Also notice that the whole impetus behind doing the rooms - new table lamps - has not been achieved. This is because IKEA sucks. I chose great lamps from IKEA, my dad bought them at the North York store because Ottawa was out of stock. When I opened the two lamps, one of the shades was shattered (clearly done before my dad bought it). I called IKEA and the lamp is now discontinued so I can't get a replacement so my dad is returning both lamps. Wah. The one lamp I assembled looked great. Now, I can't find anything as good for as cheap. IKEA screws me again.

I picked John up at the airport on Wednesday night and walked upstairs with him when he went to unpack. He knew there was a special Valentine's gift in our room for him but he was blown away when he walked in the room. He couldn't believe I planned it under his nose and that we got it (mostly) done before he got home. He's still talking about it several days on. I'm feeling pretty wicked.

The hunt for lamps continued today... but with no success so far. Ideas? Any good finds?

Well, almost time to retire to our new little paradise. I have about 45 minutes until Hope's next wake-up. More on that another time. For now, let's just revel in the nice-ness of our bedroom. Ah, there it is.