Redecorated!

8 1/2 years after moving in to our wonderful little house, the master bedroom finally has been redecorated.  We bought the house in 2004 right before we were married and have put our own decorating touches in every single room except our own bedroom.  It's the room that has just been so easy to shut the door and forget about, so it wasn't high on the priority list.

I've been itching to redo it now for a few years but didn't want to proceed until I found "the" bedding.  And I finally found it courtesy of Ty Pennington Style and Sears!  I asked for it for Christmas.  We also asked for gift cards to Lowes and Hobby Lobby to help with paint and decor.

Andrew was in New Orleans this week (with the SCWest Band who played at the Sugar Bowl yesterday), and his parents came for the last day and a half to help with the kiddos.  It was the perfect opportunity to lock myself in the room, armed with a paint roller and step ladder (short girl problem) and do something that didn't require the words "Mom, I need..., Mommy, I want..."  Thanks Milt and Carla for taking the kids to the mall while I worked, and Milt for helping with some touch up painting, hanging the new curtain rod, and assembling my new bedside table.  Couldn't have done this without you guys!

I joke that we've done more to this house as parents with no time than before children when we had all the time in the world.  I think it's because it just lets me use my creative juices, and I don't get to do that too often these days.  Plus, as a stay-at-home mom, the house is my office!  Who wants to go to work in a place that doesn't look purdy??

Here are the before and after pictures and how I redecorated this room on a [tiiiight] budget (tip 1 - ask for things you want for the project as Christmas/birthday gift ideas!).

Ok, so the room had become really outdated with color, the chair rail border, etc.  It was fine for awhile, but it was definitely time for a change.  When we were getting married, we were lucky to find and register for bedding from Target that matched the paint really well.   Notice my bedside table there on the right of the picture-- a wooden tv tray.  Classy.  ;-)

This is the dresser before -- because we had little bedside storage, my books and papers had no place to live but on the dresser.  Cluttery.

The ceiling fan runs constantly all spring, summer, and fall, and now that it's off for winter it was covered in yuck.  And the bulb sconces were really outdated too.  See the green trim along the ceiling?  That's going away to help smooth out the transition from wall to ceiling.

Poorly supported metal rod couldn't handle our curtains, especially when little children yank on the curtains.  It's all bendy.

Got the trim down, wallpaper border stripped!  There was some old sponge painting hiding under there. Furniture is moved too!  Time to paint!

TAAAAAAAAAA DAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!

The paint is gray, but it looks kinda blue.  Saw a thing on Pinterest to hang mirrors behind the bedside lamps to help give the illusion of space in small rooms., so I did it and love it.  Lamps were about $10/each from Walmart (mix and match lamps and shades) and the mirrors are too - about $6.  I probably will add something above the bed, but I haven't seen anything I like yet.

New curtain rod (Hobby Lobby, $16) and charcoal curtains (Target, $16/panel).  We already had the artwork (from Family Christian several years ago) but I moved it from above the bed to the side wall.

The fan got a much needed bath and new sconces.  It looks much better.

Dresser got a mini-makeover!  I took off the large mirror (which we never really used).  It was really too chunky for our small room.  Because we have a HUGE window in there, bouncing the light wasn't really necessary.  We have to keep the floor lamp because the room's light switch controls an outlet, not the ceiling light.  Maybe some day we'll have an electrician come fix that, but this system has worked for 8 years.  The artwork is also from Walmart ($30)... it goes perfectly.

I still have to paint the trim and doors in the room because they were already painted to match the previous color scheme.  It's a darker gray from the same color family as the wall paint - here's a sample on the door trim.

Yay, a real bedside table for me (Walmart, $60)!  It doesn't match Andrew's on the other side, but you can't really even see his so I wasn't too worried about them matching at this point in our lives.  I can hide all my junk now.

Mind-blowing redecorating tip!!  Did you know Hobby Lobby sells pillow cases for decorative throw pillows??  Instead of buying brand new throw pillows at at least $20 a pop, I bought these beautiful charcoal satin covers for $6 each and used our old pillows.  Hobby Lobby has a huge assortment of them in all sorts of colors and fabrics for square pillows 16x16 and 18x18.  They are located in the same aisle as curtain rods, near the fabric section.

Peek a boo, old pillow!

And our bedroom just wouldn't be ours if our shoes weren't on the floor by the bed instead of 1 foot away in the closet.  :-)