Quick Fix

What do you get when you take some hot glue and rope..

and toss in a few thrift store finds?

Check it out!

I didn't have a before picture of the lamp. But I purchased two at Goodwill for $5.00 each. Lampshade and pewter base. The lampshade was an ugly yellow-cream color so that had to go. I did the lamp first and once I realized how easy it was, I started searching for other items to re-vamp. 

Happy Friday!

Master Bedroom: A Closer Look

(For a refresher on the many faces of our master bedroom, check out this post.)

New duvet set and throw from IKEA.

 Wedding memorabilia: our invitation, my wedding dress hanger, photo of us at Gibraltar Gardens. 

My nightstand.

Numbered glasses from Marshalls. 

The picture is of Jordan on the Bermuda beaches - one of my favorite honeymoon photos. 

Hubby's nightstand. The picture on the right is Jordan with his grandfather. The one on the left is a childhood picture of my that Jordan snagged from me when we first started dating. 

My garter belt from the wedding. 

Accent pillow leftover from previous bedding set. Chair relocated from living room. 

(Don't mind the furniture sliders that are still under the dresser - oops!)

Love my Mongstad mirror from IKEA. A housewarming gift from the hubs.

Our deep window sills which I love, but have yet to find a great way to decorate. As you can see, blinds are not easy to find that fit in this window. I think my best bet are bamboo roman blinds that can be mounted on the ceiling of the window sill. 

This wall slightly frustrates me because I'm not sure what to do with it. I did take the shelves down yesterday since they are too high now that the bed has moved. I'm trying to think of something appealing that takes up a decent amount of the large wall.

It looks like there's enough room to put a small vase or something to the left of the sofa table so it doesn't look lost in the wall space. I really like this Pjas vase from IKEA. It's 35" high but pretty slim front to back. 

I also have a faux weathered wood frame that I bought at Marshalls months ago with no plan for it. I'm thinking of putting the mirror above the table, slightly to the right and using the rest of the wall either for framed photos or hang nails to display my jewelry. Something like Lauren from Pure Style Home did in her bedroom redo.

picture borrowed from Pure Style Home

I'd also love to get a large jewelry box like this one from Pottery Barn to put on top of the sofa table. Or I have some miscellaneous bowls that I could temporarily use to hold bracelets and chunky rings and other costume jewelry pieces. Past my engagement ring and wedding band I really don't put money into good jewelry. I'd rather spend $10 for a piece from F21 or H&M that I can wear any day with anything rather than an expensive bracelet or necklace that I'm afraid to wear for fear that I will lose or break it. 

In addition to jazzing up the wall, I just need to add some art pieces to the room. Specifically the space above the accent chair, and the corner by the bathroom.

Oh and did you notice this door next to the dresser?

It goes to our walk-in closet! One of my favorite rooms in the house. Seriously. But it didn't always look this way. I'll post later how the closet transformed from a dark dungeon to this:

It may be some time before I'm satisfied with this room, specifically our blank wall. But as always I will keep you posted with any and all progress or ideas that come across. Of course, suggestions are welcomed!

PS. Someone thinks this is HER bed..

Master Bathroom - Finally!

Three posts in one day? What can I say, I'm on a roll and have no real interest in watching the Superbowl. I could have put everything into one long post, but even I don't want to scroll through all of that. 

Ok, it's a few months late, but I am finally posting some pictures of our master bathroom. Did you see that little doorway in the last post of our master bedroom? 

Ok come a little closer..

There it is! Our master bathroom is finally looking normal. Now before we step inside let's take a quick refresher. (More details in this post.)

Master bathroom before moving in:

.

Master bathroom after first coat of paint. Supposed to be blue, turned out periwinkle. 

Second paint job was a truer, darker blue and lasted probably about two years. No pictures available of that step. Back in November I made the decision that I wanted to go more neutral and softer in my paint choices around the house and opted to get rid of the blue bathroom. What color did I paint it? White. Yup. Plain old boring white. And you know what? I love it. 

There you have it.  A few months late, but a peek into our master bathroom.

Master Bedroom Transformation

Our master bedroom has gone through a handful of phases. Wall colors, carpeting, furniture placement, bedding, wall decor, etc have all constantly changed throughout the 2 and a half years we've had the place. I only have pictures of a few of the various steps, and I'll try to keep things short and simple to avoid confusion. 

Let's start with how the room looked before moving in. The before pictures don't show a great view, but you'll get the idea when you compare.

View from door

View from windows/master bath

View from closet

You can see in the first two pictures the dark cranberry colored carpeting in the room. That was one of the first things to go (along with painting that not-so-hot master bathroom. See this post for more about that). Once the old homeowners removed their furniture there was a very visible u-shaped path in the carpet around the bed that led from the door, to the bathroom and closet. Not pretty. The carpet was replaced with a light neutral berber carpet. A year and a half later, we aren't too happy with that carpet and have plans to replace it once again when we install hardwood downstairs. 

After moving in, we gave three of the walls a coat of Glidden's 'Natural Wicker,' and painted the wall behind the bed (which we put on the wall between the windows and closet) Behr's 'Windsor Haze.'

Hubby loved the dark blue accent wall behind the bed and I did too.. for about a year. It became too dark for me and the next summer I took the afternoon to paint the accent wall 'Natural Wicker' to match the rest of the room. 

Since we have no photos of what the room looked like with the wall, here's a photo of Jordan painting it.

For most of the time we've been in the house, the master bedroom has looked like this:

The cream and red bedding was a temporary fix after the actual bedding we had been using for quite some time was damaged. This was the gorgeous bedding we had from Bed, Bath and Beyond:

The duvet cover is really the only thing that was damaged. There was a decent sized tear in the actual fabric and the applique branches started peeling off. We still have the shams and accent pillows. I'm sure I will find use for all of them.

Although the bedding was warm, the red and beige combo paired with the dark furniture grew old quickly. And a few weeks ago we made the decision to rearrange the furniture and spruce up the fabrics. Here is the master bedroom now:

Keep in mind there is still a lot to be done. But Jordan and I agree that it already looks and feels so much better. Just changing the curtains out for sheers not only brings in tons of light, but it's getting me anxious for spring weather, no matter how long it may be until we actually get some. 

So there you have the quick story of our ever-changing master bedroom. Next up will be a breakdown of the room and find out which of our new IKEA goodies were used here. 

Hallway Redo - Done! (Well Almost..)

The hallway paint is complete! I must say I'm really happy with it. The color is exactly what I wanted and it finally warms up the space to break the white-on-white trend I had going on before. After a quick (and I swear quick) trip to IKEA this afternoon to pick up more frames and make an exchange I'll be ready to complete the look. 


You might notice a peek into the master bedroom that is different from the previous hallway post. We have moved the furniture and made some good changes. While it's still a work in progress and may be for some time, I'll be back later tonight to share the 'for now' photos. 


While I'm taking pictures this morning, I snapped a shot of the nursery prepping for it's own paint job. 

As I mentioned before, I made a last minute decision to carry the Sharkey Grey color from the hallway into the nursery. It might seem silly to some people to replace a neutral color with a neutral color, but they really are different shades. The current color is more of a tan-yellow neutral, while SG is more of a grey-taupe. 

For now I am off to have brunch with my family, but will be back tonight for more updates. :) Happy Sunday!