The Master Bedroom Part 1

When we moved in this room was hunter green with white trim.  It is a very small bedroom at about 10 x 13.  This is the big downfall with split level homes, they all have small bedrooms.  We have a family room and a living room and that was a huge selling feature for us, so we sacrificed bedroom size.  Obviously the people before us had a thing for outlets.

A lot has happened in this room since then.  We never had a bed  frame, our furniture was refinished in a pecan stain, and we had an ugly blonde nightstand.  We put up board and batten and bought a sleigh bed.  You can read about that here.

Last fall we ripped up all the upstairs floors and put utility oak hardwoods down from Lumber Liquidators.  We opted not to stain them and just polyurethane them.  This may change in the future, but I will hire someone to do it.  My marriage will not survive anymore diy floor installations.  You can read about the floors here.

I stained the furniture American Walnut & Rosewood to try to match the bed but in certain lights it looked very red and light. 

We put this dresser in my husbands closet.  The furniture felt too dark for the room so we opted to paint it.  The furniture is done and was inspired by one of my favorite stores.  I will go into all the details in my next post.

This week we painted our ugly brass ceiling fan.  To save money we used oil rubbed bronze on the brass parts, painted the blades black and replaced the glass.

This was $40 to do.  We had everything but the new globes, which we bought at Lowes.

Before…

 

After…

  

We just have to touch up some paint, put up some art, and finalize our knick knacks.

Next post I promise to show the furniture and reveal the inspiration store.

Janet

Linking to these parties:

 

Cute Gumball Machine

Remember that Gumball Machine I found at a thrift store for $3. I finally made it over. I had to find a globe for it. Thank goodness for EBay, I found one on there.

After cleaning it, I sprayed it white.

I have a tip for any Carousel Gumball owners. The 1” gumballs are too large. We bought the double bubble gumballs (so yummy) at the local candy store, but they are too big. I even scooped out just Halloween colors. The next batch I’ll order online.

Now, I just have to decide where it’s permanent home will be.

Large Wall Art

I made this over the summer, but never posted it. I was going to wait and finish a few more things in our family room. I just haven’t gotten around to them.

Layla from the Lettered Cottage shared this flag over the summer and I was inspired.

I had a sunburst I bought for this room, but it looked so small on this wall. I thought of attaching picket fence boards and put the sunburst on that. I love her painting technique of dipping a paintbrush in water. It gave the wood the perfect look.

Here’s how I made it.

This was my first time using a miter saw. It is pretty easy to use. I figured out how long I wanted the pickets to be and drew a line where I needed to cut. These pickets were around a dollar each and I used 6 of them.

To use the saw hold down the trigger and pull down.

Put the board on the saw.

Without holding the trigger button from the earlier picture pull down the blade and make sure it is lined up. Now you can cut.

I painted these using Layla’s technique. I dipped my paint brush into the gray paint than I dipped it into my container of water and swished it around.

We had these scrap wood strips leftover so we used them to attach the boards.

We bought a picture hanging kit and than hung it up on the wall.

I bought these sconces at Marshalls and sprayed them white. I’m not totally in love with them but I felt the wall needed more than just the art. I wanted a big chunky wooden hurricane sconce, but couldn’t find any that was in my budget that I liked. I might just have to make what I have pictured in my head.

Janet

Halloween Yard Decor…Part 2

We put out our graveyard yesterday.  This year we decided to add a Circle of Dancing Ghosts and to make our house look like a creepy Jack O’ Lantern.

We made the tombstones in 2005.  I will tell you how to make them but I don’t have any pictures.

You need a sheet of 4’ x 8’ blue Styrofoam insulation.  Cut out the tombstone shapes with a steak knife or electric carving knife.  You must prime the Styrofoam, regular paint will dissolve it.  It is ok to paint after priming it.  We used black and gray spray paint and lightly covered with stone effects spray paint. Our tombstones say Ima Rotten, Yul. B Next, Justin Pieces, Myra Mains, Yetta Nother, Bea Ware, and a bunch of RIP’s.

   

To make the Ghosts you need 6 sheets, 6 five foot bars of conduit, and masking tape and plastic shopping bags.  Arrange the poles in a circle and hammer about 1 foot into the ground. Stuff the plastic shopping bags into a head.  Tape bag onto the pole.

Loosely tie fishing wire around the neck.  Tie the ends together with fishing wire to form the holding hands.

 

To make the scary eyes you need 1 package of orange tissue paper and two pieces of oak tag.  Place the two pieces together and draw your shape on the backside.  I used crayon it showed up well.  Cut out shape on both pieces at the same time. 

Tape the eyes to the window first.

Tape tissue paper over the eye.  Do not overlap the tissue paper it will show up at night.

We are having issues with our lighting scheme, two of our green floodlights broke.  When we have laid out our lights I will post an evening photo.

We are still thinking of a few more things.  These are very budget friendly decorations.  The ghosts were $18 and the eyes were $2.