Author: Quandie

I find that things never tend to look quite like I pictured them in my head.  This is especially true when I am decorating a room.  I’m sure there are people out there who are much better able to envision exactly how something will look, but those people are probably professionals while I am definitely an amateur.  Although then again, I’ve been watching old Fixer Uppers on Hulu lately and I just saw one where Joanna Gaines repainted an entire house because her first color choice didn’t look right.  So maybe we all have this problem.

When I started planning my bedroom makeover I knew I wanted to paint the jelly cupboard in my bedroom that I use for storing my clothes.  Easy enough.  I painted it in Miss Mustard Seed milk paint in Grain Sack, and then I added some Iron Orchid Designs transfers to the doors.  So far, this is exactly how I pictured the cupboard would look.

By the way, the IOD transfers that I used are meant for clay pots (google ‘Iron Orchid Designs French Pots III’ to find sources for purchasing online).  They come in a set of 3 different designs.  To get two of the same design I purchased two sets.  As you can see the design is curved to work with applying it to the curved surface of a pot, but I thought it worked just fine on the flat surface of my cupboard door as well.

I felt like the design of the one I chose was particularly appropriate.  Les industries d’amateurs for sure!

It was the next step that threw me off.  I had this vision of bringing up the vintage suitcases that were beside the Welsh cupboard in my dining room.  In my head they were going to be perfect stacked next to the cupboard.

But once I had them in place they looked really … well … brown.

Don’t forget that on the other side of the room is my black headboard …

But I do also have the brown bench.  And the bedding and walls are very warm greige tones.  So brown isn’t wrong, but I felt like the stack of suitcases was throwing the balance of the room in favor of brown tones and I didn’t like it.

So I took them away and I brought up the cane back chair from the living room.  I also added an old black shutter on the wall layered with a framed architectural drawing.

Definitely less brown.

But the height of the chair is a bit off, don’t you think?  It’s just too low for next to the tall cupboard.  But I love the shutter and print in that spot.

So I took away the chair and shopped around my house for something else to put in front of the shutter and I came across my faux dress form, Lula.

Turns out she is the perfect height for that spot, don’t you think?

When it comes to adding details to a room I often tend to ‘shop’ my own house.  I like to move things around, they always feel fresh when they are placed in a new spot.

I had to laugh when I was editing the above photo by the way.  Can you see why?  There are two things that are upside down.  I hadn’t really noticed that until I took a close look at the picture.  Did you spot them?  The Arctic Aire label on the fan, and the label on the spine of the book are both on upside down.  What a weird coincidence!

Anyway, I didn’t purchase any new things for this side of the room.  I just worked with items I already had.  Which is a good thing since I am pretty much out of money for this makeover after buying all of that bedding.  Luckily it’s almost done.  I’m just waiting on some mail order items and once they arrive and are installed I’ll share the full reveal.  In the meantime, I’m back to working on other projects.  I have a gorgeous dresser almost completed that I’ll be sharing soon.  So be sure to stay tuned.

As part of my bedroom makeover, I knew I wanted to get rid of our 90’s sleigh bed.

I thought about using the barn doors that I salvaged from my in-law’s barn as a headboard.  But with the ship lap wall behind the bed the planked barn door felt like it would be a bit redundant. I also considered using a vintage door that I had on hand and placing it sideways on the wall behind the bed.

But then I saw this idea of modifying an antique headboard from Rachel at Shades of Blue Interiors.

Isn’t it gorgeous?

I started looking around on Craigslist for likely candidates and it quickly became apparent that the slanted wall behind my bed definitely limited my options.  Just scroll back up and look at that inspiration photo again, it’s tall!  And the height is a big part of what makes it fabulous.  I found several similar beds on Craigslist, all of which were far too tall to fit under my slanted wall.

Next I started looking for an antique headboard that either was short enough already, or could be cut down.  That’s when I spotted the ad for this bedroom set.

The headboard was about 4” too tall, plus the photo with the ad showed the bed with a mattress and box spring in place.  I couldn’t see the legs of the headboard to determine if they could be cut down.  So I contacted the seller and he happily provided both a photo of the legs and the opinion that I could easily cut 4” off the bottoms of them.

As you may know, Queen and King sized beds did not become popular until the 50’s and 60’s.  For that reason it’s next to impossible to find antique bed frames in those sizes.  But you can modify a full sized antique headboard to fit a queen sized bed pretty easily and I’m about to show you how.

The first step was to send the headboard over to Ken’s workshop.  It was a bit wonky and most of the joints were coming unglued.  Ken enjoys a project like this.  Remember the Humpty Dumpty dresser?  He likes to take these pieces apart and then put them back together again with all new glue (he also really enjoys jigsaw puzzles).  At one point the headboard was nothing more than a pile of pieces.  But Ken put it all back together again and now it’s nice and sturdy.  He also cut 4” off the bottom of each leg.

In the meantime, Mr. Q ordered a basic metal bed frame from Amazon.  Free shipping with Amazon Prime, and it was priced at less than $40.

Next we measured the width of the bed frame and Ken cut a board to fit that width and I painted the board black.

I debated stripping and refinishing the bed, which would have been lovely but a bit of a project with all of those details.

Since I firmly believe that every room should have a pop of black I ultimately decided to paint it black instead.  I painted it with Homestead House milk paint in Coal Black and I used their black wax as a finish.  I like pairing the black wax with the black milk paint because it deepens up the black so nicely.  By the way, in case you are wondering, the black wax has not rubbed off on our pillows at all and I waxed the bed about 4 days before we started using it.

Once all of the details were in place, we brought the headboard, the metal frame and the black board up to our room.  Ken thought it would best to assemble it in place.  Assembly was super simple.  Ken started by drilling holes in the board and bolting it to the metal frame.

Then we simply snugged it up to the headboard and attached the headboard to the board with screws.  Easy peasy.  As you can see, the metal frame is just a couple of inches wider than the headboard.  Once all of the bedding is in place, this difference won’t be noticeable at all.  Honestly, this could not be any simpler.  Anyone can accomplish this with a drill and some hardware.  So if you’re thinking about a new look for your bedroom, check out your local Craigslist and find a gorgeous antique that you can modify (if you are in the Twin Cities and can have a taller bed than I can, check out this one and this one).

Next came the bed skirt.  Since I wasn’t able to use the side rails and foot board that came with the bed, it definitely needed to have a bed skirt.  I looked at several online that I liked and the cheapest option was still $110.  It was much more affordable to copy from Catherine on Home Talk (check out that link if you want specific details) and use painter’s drop cloths.  I was able to get by with one 4’ by 15’ drop cloth that I cut in half lengthwise giving me two pieces that were 2′ by 15′, and it cost less than $15.

Catherine used upholstery tacks to attach the drop cloth, but I just used staples.  Honestly, I’m not sure how well they are going to hold it in place over time, but I can always reattach it with tacks if it becomes a problem.

Now comes the pricey part of the whole deal, the bedding.  Have you ever noticed that it’s easy to spend more on bedding than you do for a bed?  It adds up fast.  In my case I felt like it really was time to update more than just the duvet cover, it was time for new pillows, a new featherbed and a new down alternative duvet, plus the duvet cover and pillow shams that are the only items visible.  So I headed to my local Bed, Bath & Beyond to see what they had.  This was the second highest expense of the entire makeover.  I’d like to say that this post is sponsored by Bed, Bath & Beyond and they gave me all of this bedding for free, but no, I paid for it.

In addition to the pillows, etc. I found a Kenneth Cole stone washed linen duvet cover and pair of shams in the discount bin.  The color is called Mineral and is perfect with my wall color.

Since I wasn’t sure about all of the different shades of greige I had going on in the room plus the lack of any kind of pattern, I also ordered a ticking stripe duvet cover and pair of Euro shams from Ballard Designs in a color called Sandalwood.

I didn’t really intend to keep both duvet covers.  I thought I could try each and pick a favorite.  Instead I discovered that the bed looks amazing with both of them.  Dang!

In addition, the Ballard duvet cover is really very heavy, perfect for winter, while the Kenneth Cole duvet is quite lightweight, perfect for summer.  Can you tell that I’m working really hard to justify this expense?

I didn’t need new sheets, I’m just using a set of white sheets that I already had.  I’m also using a pair of vintage pillow cases with a tatted edge that I purchased at a garage sale.  You’ll sometimes find vintage linens like these at garage sales and it’s obvious that the owner never used them.  They probably were a wedding shower gift and were put in the cupboard back in 1959 and never taken back out.  These vintage linens have the most amazing weight, so much better quality than most things you can buy new.

The France 7 Postes pillow is one I purchased many years ago, I’m pretty sure from Restoration Hardware.  I have a pair of these and they get moved around all the time.  The mate to this one is currently being used on the Belgian bench in my dining room.

Overall, the bedding was a huge splurge for us and this is by far the most beautifully dressed bed we’ve ever had.  I figure now that we’ve made it nearly to our mid-50’s it’s about time we had some grown up bedding, right?

By the way, there is the cane bench at the foot of the bed.  What do you think of my choice to leave it unpainted now that you’re seeing it in place?

I’m loving how much more ‘presence’ the bed has now.  The height of the headboard is perfect.  It fills up the space all the way up to the angle in the wall.  I also love the black up against the ship lap.  I really could not be any happier with how the bed turned out.

So, at this point I’ve shared my faux ship lap wall, my refinished floors, the refreshed cane back bench, my repainted nightstands, and now my bed.  But there is still more to come for Mission Possible, I hope you’ll stay tuned!

Sharing with Feathered Nest Friday on French Country Cottage.

I shared my mismatched bedside tables with you in the post about Mission Possible.

His.

Her’s.

I was loosely planning to leave them ‘as is’ in the new version of the room, but as tends to be the case, the more silvery gray on the nightstands ending up being all wrong next to the Edgecomb Gray on the walls.

So I sanded them just a little, cleaned them with some TSP Substitute and painted them both with two coats of Miss Mustard Seed milk paint in Grain Sack.

Painting previously painted pieces with milk paint can sometimes be a little bit of a gamble.  Especially if you don’t know what kind of paint you are painting over.  Paints with a satin or glossy finish will likely resist the milk paint giving you a chippy look which can be great if you don’t mind the original color showing through all of those chips.  In this case I really didn’t want to see that color.

However, I originally painted these two pieces with homemade chalk paint (latex paint mixed with plaster of paris and water).  So I knew a little sanding and cleaning with TSP substitute would be all I needed to make sure my milk paint adhered fairly well.

I always feel a little more comfortable experimenting with new products on pieces that I’m keeping rather than selling, so I decided to try using Low Sheen Finishing Cream from the Real Milk Paint Co. to top coat both of these pieces.

I applied it using my Miss Mustard Seed wax brush.  The Finishing Cream is really quite different from wax.  First of all, it has a consistency sort of like a thick body cream.  You brush it on, but you don’t work it in like wax.  You also don’t need to buff it when you’re done applying it.  It’s quite a bit less labor intensive than wax.  It is a no-odor, zero VOC, water based gel top coat.  Although I applied it outside this time, you know I love products that I can also use in the house during our cold Minnesota winters and this will be great for that.  After 24 hours of drying time the finish is fully washable.

I read mixed messages online about whether or not this finish will change the color of milk paint, but in my experience it darkened up the color just ever so slightly.  Not as much as a wax would, and definitely not as much as hemp oil would.  It also adds just a little bit of a sheen.  Personally I prefer the really flat finish of milk paint without a top coat, but I want to add protection to my pieces.  The Real Milk Paint Co also makes a version of their Finishing Cream called Dead Flat.  I’m looking forward to trying that one next.

My bedroom is really coming together now.  Here’s my nightstand in place.  Initially I’d thought I might re-hang the floral plates that were over the nightstands before, but I soon realized that they didn’t work with my new look at all.  Instead I added some old black & white family photos in black frames.  I also hung some reading lamps that I purchased from World Market on either side of the bed.

I spray painted the lidded wicker basket where I keep my important bedside items out of sight, like lotion, tissues and lip balm.  I found the inexpensive alarm clock at Target.  Here’s what it has going for it; dual alarms, lights up at night, doesn’t tick (it’s electric) much smaller than my old clock.  Here’s what it’s missing; style of any kind.  If any of you have a source for vintage looking alarm clocks with modern functionality (I must have dual alarms), I’d love to hear about it.  I scoured the internet and came up empty.

Here’s Mr. Q’s nightstand …

It’s totally ‘staged’ for this photo with a vintage alarm clock and fan (both non-functioning).  These won’t actually stay on his nightstand, but it was fun to pretend just for these photos.

The room is really coming together now.  I’ll be sharing the story behind our new headboard on Friday, be sure to check back!