BEFORE AND AFTER

How hard is it to get back in reality after a holiday weekend.

Like getting in a bath tup filled with ice cubes.

Whew.

Last week I finished  one of my 2 installs to be completed before the end of the year.

A cute young couple who contacted me last February,  they wanted to have a "grown up bedroom".....because as parents of 2 young children their room was the last one to be done.

When I first went to see them......there were a few things that needed to be addressed before we could really start like paint and some small construction over the FP mantel.

I put together kind of an e design to show them what furniture they needed to order.  Then I would come in with all things pretty and pull the room together.  The fun part :)

They ordered everything and then summer went by.....kids home and vacations....you know the drill.

Finally the room was painted and ready to go.

Here is what we started with.

Right off the bat I felt that the placement of the bed was not working.  Notice the bathroom door on the left could not open.  I suggested that they swing it all around to go on the wall to the right.

They were hesitant but the husband and I arm wrestled and I won :).  I asked them to live with it for a while.

Here is the before picture of the mantel.  In my mind there was no question that this would NOT work.  I couldn't get the words "cover this up" out of my opinionated mouth fast enough.  Builders...what are you thinking?

Here is the after.

So much better.....right?

We painted the walls Elmira White [BM]

Which is a great neutral color with no yellow.

And the ceiling Alaskan Husky [BM]

It is the softest of gray blues.  The day of my install it was a very cloudy day and I could not get a good shot of it :(

After the bed was moved, I asked them to flip flop these dressers.  That meant that the wall directly across the bed would be the longer one.  As it turned out they really did not need both for storage so I asked them to look for a smaller dresser to go on the wall to the left.

To keep the cost down.....they ordered the headboard, the chair, lamps, and a bench at the food of the bed.  The dresser was a craigslist find which was painted along with the nightstands.  This is a what it looked like on install day.

After some accessorizing.

  

I re-used the mirror that had been over the long dresser.

A few vintage books, small pot and silver bowl all purchased at a flea market.  Gotta add some patina right?

After the bed was moved we had a huge blank wall to fill up.

Again....I told her what frames to buy [Target] and she had all the pictures ready for me to hang when I got there.

I love how this turned out.....

Nice way to fill up a space.

Here is the headboard ordered from Home Decorators, along with the lamps from Ballard's.  Notice the dark nightstands were also painted.

Custom pillows, new shades on the lamps....ready made bedding.

OK...so I used a round mirror over the bed.  After a wall of pictures I needed something simple.  It follows the curve of the headboard but I also like a round mirror over a straight headboard.  It just seems to work. You will probably see me do this again...#onetrickpony.

A little vintage blue pot, some old books......

The bench at the foot of the bed opens up for storage.

The drop on the bedskirt was only 12.5".  It was a simple white one that I had hemmed and added a little grosgrain ribbon.

And there she be....all purdy and grown up.  They were SO easy to work with.

  I really kept the budget as tight as I could but of course the custom pillows were the most expensive items in the room.  In my opinion they added much impact.

One more install coming up.  Another bedroom and more blue......I know....but it is the #1 color choice for bedrooms.

Hope everyone had a wonderful Thanksgiving.  Less than a month until Christmas....it is going to fly by!

Shazam....