Carving out a little creative space

Living in an old house is full of challenges. Making modern sized things fit into not modern spaces is no fun! There are all sorts of weird little nooks and crannies. (Dang it! now I am hungry for an English muffin).

Case in point--I would love to have a craft room. But seeing as how we only have a 2 bedroom house, I am not left with many options. Space is at a premium. I guess my girly spare bedroom sorta becomes the craft space by default. And if you click back on that link you will see there is a list of things to do in there. Which I haven't done one stinkin' thing!  Ok--not true. I have done a few things on the list. I just haven't finished them. Don't judge me...

The room needs to function as a bedroom,craft room and study/office. That's a whole lotta function for a little room. The office closet nook I had downstairs was bumped for storage practicality.  Additionally  I am going back to college in a few short weeks and needed a better suited study environment than the living room or dining room.

Well I had a little awkward space behind the door of the bedroom. Originally it was stacked up with totes and what not. Not very pleasant to look at from my guest's perspective and definitely not conducive to creativity.

The area is not big enough to work on crafts but enough space to be creative and inspiring! A nice little nook to stash the my gift wrap and pick out a  special occasion card. Not to shabby for some found space and using stuff I already had lying around. The "table top" is actually 2 shelves from an old pantry cabinet. I used L brackets to connect them. They were a perfect match in to height to the scrap-booking/ craft organizer cabinets. (Which I bought for 50% of Michael's last year). The opening isn't wide enough for a chair but I can stash my tools and craft box there.

Now when you are in the room it definitely feels more serene.

Unless you look in the closet (which I don't recommend) because it is a hot mess.  
Don't say you weren't warned...

Don't judge me! haha
I know- I know--it is bad! However, this is on my list of to do next. No seriously! This is where the office/ desk area / craft supplies storage is going to be situated. That way when I am finished studying, paying bills, crafting, blogging or facebooking I can close the curtains. If I am in the middle of stuff and  someone is staying overnight (which in reality happens maybe 1 or 2x per year) I can just pull the curtains--outta sight outta mind!  So stay tuned!

My girly guest room-Before and After

I should really say this is my room. I love to hang out in here and read. The room has 3 windows (1 normal size and 2 little windows). It has a North, West and South exposure.  This room wasn't always so welcoming. The  door was a bi-fold closet door, there was dark walnut paneling and drab, musty olive green carpet. Awesome.

I talked about my girly room in a previous post. (Still a work in progress.)
Before

After

Sam-Sam enjoys the view

New "Home Tweet Home" pillow. The coverlet is in The Broken Dishes pattern.

What's left on the list?
Spare Bedroom (aka The Girly Room) Checklist

[✓] carpet

[✓] repair walls
[✓] paint walls
[✓] prep window trim
[✓] prime window trim
[✓] paint window trim
[✓] prime baseboards
[] paint baseboards work in progress
[] install ceiling trim molding
[✓] install new window blinds
[✓] install window treatments
[] clean up antique bed frame
[✓] set up bed
[] amp up the charm with a faux fireplace--YES PLEASE! No room, wah, wah, wah
[] convert closet to entertainment nook  Apparently I need storage more-boo!
[] install new ceiling light fixture Still figuring this one out
[] decorate  work in progress
[✓] enjoy!

The room isn't complete, but I AM enjoying it (as is Chubbs, Tovah and especially Sam-Sam). It is light, bright, cozy and comfortable. Still a few tweaks and unfinished projects but waaaaaayyyyy better than before!

A not so masterful bedroom

The alternate titles are That's Why They Call It The Blues or The Good, The Bad and The Really, Really Ugly! Where do I begin? When we initially moved in,  this bedroom was sporting tired baby blue walls AND ceiling. The carpet was a 2 tone (royal blue and baby blue) shag carpet.  Mr. Peabody set the wayback machine...GROOVY!

Sorry for the poor quality of the photos!  Yep blue, blue and more blue.  Except the orangey hue of the woodwork. This room makes me feel...blue

 The first thing I did was set about painting the bedroom way back in 2000. Hmmm, the walls are really smooth and shiny. It has to be oil based paint right? So I primed the walls with Kilz. Let everything set up for 24 hrs. Then I painted the ceiling white and the walls a frosted nutmeg. It looked decent. Slapped up some accessories and called it a day. Or decade...

Then one day I noticed this tiny little bubble on the wall. Hmmm. what is that? (Now my brain is screaming at me "For cryin' out loud don't touch that. Seriously-- do NOT touch that. Oh crap now look what you did!") Yep I touched it. I poked it. I peeled it. Thheeennnnn it became an obsession. OMG there is peeling paint--I have to peel it. Until the day came when I noticed the ceiling.  Yep-I peeled it. It actually came off in a 5 foot sheet. A blanket of  paint film . WTH? Did the previous owner paint the walls with marine paint? Because how does primer NOT stick?  Here is the horrible aftermath.

The Good-our bed, we NOW have proper bedside tables and my brand new toe smushy carpet that is NOT two tone blue shag!

The bad-- A fan sitting on piece board. On a cardboard box. Thanks hubbs--you're so creative! (siiiiggghh)

The really, really ugly.  2 tone chippy paint. Kinda like living with a globe or a map on your walls. Just  not as cool. And the orange-y woodwork is a real bummer.

I need some design intervention. The entire room is depressing and just plain blech. 

What's next...

1. The arduous task of scraping the remaining paint off the ceiling and walls

2. Prime and paint the walls

3. Paint baseboards AND the doors a crisp white

4. Install crown molding. Also painted a crisp white

5. Lose the cardboard box stand! 

6.  Install the bamboo blinds

7. Paint all the lamp bases so they match

8. Matching lamp shades

9.  New curtain hardware 

10. Add art and accessorize

The colors will be...wait for it...blue and brown.  Haha. Just a more stylized version. The hubbs really likes blue (me not so much). Considering I have taken over everything else in the house I decided to compromise.  I am hoping to sneak in a little more green. My curtains will stay for now. They are actually new and feature a black-out/ thermal liner. I may change them  out in summer to something a little lighter. 

Here is my inspiration board.

Decisions, decisions...

And since the Hubbs INSISTS on a fan in the room I am thinking of buying one of these (not sure if I want a satin nickel or bronze patina finish)...

Wall mount oscillating fans

http://www.matthewsfanco.com/Matthews%20Pages/Melody-Gallery.html

http://www.fanimation.com/products/old_havana

 Ceiling mount oscillating fan installed in the corner would work wonderfully!

http://www.matthewsfanco.com/Matthews%20Pages/Diane-Gallery.html

We can't install a ceiling fan because we have very low ceilings. It is a non-issue for me because I am a Shorty Mcshort-short. The hubbs on the other hand is a full foot taller than me and there is a good chance he would be scalped by the ceiling fan. Anyhoo any one of these is a vast improvement than the cheap-o plastic stand fan. On a cardboard box. Yeah, such high style here, haha!

So there you have it-- my horrible master bedroom secret. I can't wait until I have The AFTER pics on this one!

Bedroom 1: Work in Progress

I have been working to update one of our bedrooms. When we first moved into the house there was paneling EVERYWHERE! The front bedroom was no exception. Dark walnut paneling, 40 year old drab royal blue carpet, and dingy ceiling tiles. This was designated my daughter's room. She tacked posters all over the ceilings and painted the walls what can only be described as egg yolk yellow. And so the room has remained untouched. Poorly painted paneling covering our degrading plaster walls, carpet so worn  the holes were patched with duct tape (I AM NOT KIDDING!) and  no storage space.

After my daughter moved out we moved our furniture in and lived with the dysfunctionf or about 2 years. FINALLY our new carpet was installed October 22 but I wasn't able to complete all the painting prior to the install. Since all the furniture was out the room it seem like a fine time to paint and reconfigure the space.

Before (West facing window)

 Before (North facing window)

Unfortunately, we just didn't have the budget to gut the bedroom to the studs. For now we will work with what we have. The loose paneling was re-adhered to the walls using  construction adhesive and finishing brads. All the big gouges were filled with wood putty, left to dry and sanded. The large seams/ gaps were caulked using a paintable silicone caulk.

The windows and trim were cleaned and thoroughly dried. The window trim was sanded using 120 grit sandpaper to take off the varnish and smooth out some of the roughness. This was wiped down to remove any grit and given the once over with a water based primer (Kilz 2). I allowed the primer to set up overnight before I applied the trim coat. I use Valspar Ultra  Kitchen and Bath Enamel White.

Walls painted, trim in progress (West window)

Since we couldn't afford to do much with the ceiling either, the hubbs picked out all of the staples left behind from our daughters' posters. (Haha glad he had that job and not me!) The gouges were filled  in with  light weight spackle and all the rough edges had a seam of paintable silicone caulk.

The ceiling was painted Valspar Oatlands Subtle Taupe (6005-1B). It is sort of a greige (grey + beige) color, depending on the light. Granted the room is small and low ceilings, so we could have gone with white but that is so boring...bland...expected. My [NEW] mantra is do the unexpected! The walls were painted a creamy buttermilk color.  It is a custom mix of leftover paint from the living room -2 parts Cozy Cottage (Behr 740C-3) and 1 part Oatstraw (Behr 740D-4).

Something unexpected but trendy!  The shades I have picked are not so trendy that I need to re-paint 6 months from now.  Here are my inspiration rooms. 

~*Inspiration Rooms*~

Courtesy of http://adiaryoflovely.blogspot.com

 Courtesy vi.sualize.us

courtesy Country Living

There are 3 windows in the room so we have a North, South and West exposure. Our bed was placed  in front of the West exposure window which I hated because I didn't have access to the largest window and all the light was blocked. Unfortunately there just isn't one wall that suitably fits our queen bed due to the weird little windows (we call them the cat windows). After much consideration this room will be returned to spare room because our furniture just doesn't fit this space. Since we just finished the upstairs bathroom it make sense to have the Master bedroom adjacent  the master bath. 

Now what to do with this space?  hmmmm....

Spare Bedroom (aka The Girly Room) Checklist

[✓] carpet

[✓] repair walls
[✓] paint walls
[✓] prep window trim
[✓] prime window trim
[] paint window trim
[] prime baseboards
[] paint baseboards
[] install ceiling trim molding
[] install new window blinds
[] install window treatments
[] clean up antique bed frame
[] set up bed
[] amp up the charm with a faux fireplace--YES PLEASE!
[] convert closet to entertainment nook
[] install new ceiling light fixture
[] decorate
[] enjoy!

So as you can see my To Do list is extensive but I will keep you apprised of my progress.
 SIIIIIGGGGHHH, a woman's work is never done....