The Blog

I’ve been putting off redoing our smallest bedroom but I got tired of looking at its bare white walls, so I finally tackled it a couple of weeks ago.  It’s a room almost entirely made up of leftover accessories and furniture, but Alex commented that it’s the most coordinated of all of the bedrooms.  Funny how that works.  Here’s the “before”:

And now here are the broad views of the “After”:

The dresser was left in our garage when we moved in, the mirror we pulled out of the trash, and the sconces were purchased for another project but didn’t work out.  The wall paint was also supposed to be leftover but I made a mistake and bought some supplemental paint that was a shade darker than what I had been planning to use out of my stash.  It all ended up being Sherwin Williams Silver Strand.

The curtains hung in our basement for awhile until I replaced them with some others that I fell in love with at Ikea.  The nightstand is part of my childhood furniture set that is scattered throughout the house.  The orange chair belonged to my Gamma (paternal grandmother).  The lamp and teal pillows are more items that we had in our collection, leftover from our earlier lives.

The desk is part of that same childhood set.  The chair was purchased from the neighbors across the street – originally intended for a refinishing project but I’ve stolen it for myself for the time being.

I had this dresser in our other guest room for awhile but I decided to move it out since it was a tad too big for the space.  I love the wood grain veneer on the front. Please pardon the cords.

Two new additions are this owl print (Rockfish Gap Antiques) and this gold framed box (Target).  The gold box has pieces of coral that my dad harvested in Hawaii before it was illegal, and the owl print reminds me of my Grandpa, Henry. When he passed, my cousin Chip noticed an owl hanging around in the daylight and decided it was a sign that Grandpa was watching over us.  I believe he is.

These birds are another item we had in our collection, waiting to be hung.  They were a gift from my Mom about 5 years ago and used to hang above our bed in our first apartment.  They used to be black (someone once mistook them for bats!) but I spray painted them white and gold to match the room.

This twin bed was mine in college.  The London print over the bed was purchased on clearance at Pottery Barn and was the color inspiration for the room (gray, orange, teal, gold & white). The duvet was a new purchase from Ikea, as was the curtain rod, and the frames in this part of the room.

This photo was taken by my dad when he was a student at Annandale High School.  It fits with the bird theme (can you tell I like birds?).

Another photo taken by my dad in high school.

On the desk — more vintage cat art from a family trunk full of photos and prints; a lovely quote by John Wesley given to me by a friend at church, and an angel given to me this Christmas by my mother-in-law.  The wooden box behind contains all of my work files.

Over the desk, these rails were purchased for another project but didn’t make the cut. Here, they’re doing their job keeping me organized.