BEDROOM--BEFORE & AFTER

I know, this has taken FOREVER to post--I'm sorry! This first picture is how my bedroom looked before we painted it & put in new bedding & drapes. The room was a little outdated considering I had a bunch of roses on the wall, bedside table & dresser. Plus, the drapes that I picked out when I bought the house were awful! I hated them from the beginning.

Thank goodness Shannon so nicely volunteered to help me paint!! I don't know what I would have done without her help. I had painted my living room & hallway right before Christmas--yep, dumb time to do it, but I had just gotten new furniture & my parents were coming so vanity caused me to undertake this awful job during the busiest time of the year. It had taken me 4 days doing it by myself (stubborn me--Shannon had volunteered then too, but I couldn't bring myself to inflict that kind of awfulness on her), getting up & down the ladder with a bad back & afraid of heights was NOT fun--the ceiling is higher than normal. Afterwards, I felt like a crippled old lady. So, when Shannon volunteered this time, I gladly accepted. She didn't know what she was in for.

The first day was kind of busy for us (Shanon working, me puttering), so by the time we got together, all we had time for was to buy the paint, rollers, move the bed away from the wall, etc. Fine by me. I just wasn't looking forward to it, ya know? It was weird sleeping in the middle of the room. My cats kept looking at me like I was goofier than usual. The next day we got started. Shannon had this WONDERFUL idea of using this new little edger thing (called Shur-Line) so you don't have to tape the ceiling, corners, & baseboards. You end up doing very little touch-up or taping. It was GREAT! Anyway...we were only able to paint a few hours each night because she was so nice & helped me after work, but we got it done in about 3 1/2 days. We also painted the computer room that connects to my bedroom & then I had this wonderful, bright idea that since my bathroom also joined my bedroom, it had to be painted too. The second day, I told Shannon that I was happy she was there so she could paint the high places--remember I don't like heights--& after she had been painting all the high places all along, she said, "I don't like high places either." How cool is that? She braved it out for me?

When we got into the bathroom to paint, I got in the shower to tape above the tile, stepped onto the stupid fiberglass seat & promptly broke a big hole in it. I thought fiberglass was strong! I guess not for standing but for sitting??? This project was fast becoming VERY expensive. I could just envision me having to put in a new shower if the hole
(can you see that awful thing???) couldn't be fixed. I was talking to my Dad about it & he had what I thought was a goofy idea to have Matt (Jodi's contractor/builder husband) just tile over the 2 seats. I thought, "Well, that's going to look really bad." But, I mentioned it to Matt & he said that the idea was a pretty good one--we would get some cultured marble the same color as the shower & he could cut it to fit the seats & put them on top for hardly any cost at all. I still have to get in touch with someone who might have scraps I could buy. (I'll do that when I get back from my trip to Utah.) Meanwhile, I'm taking showers in the spare bathroom. Do you know how fun it is to plaster the shower curtain against the shower walls so the water won't leak through to the floor, only to find out that the water somehow mysteriously leaks through anyway. I always have big puddles on the floor. Again, my cats seem to understand there's something really weird going on with the new shower situation. They follow me to the bathroom, sit there for a minute, & then lay down to wait.

Anyway, here's a picture of my "new" bedroom, Jodi made the green pillow out of the material that I bought. I just happened to find 2 new lamps that match the pillow material almost exactly at "my favorite store" (Bed, Bath & Beyond). If you see on the picture of the old bedroom, the lamp was TOTALLY ugly so of course...great reason to BUY new lamps! YAY!

I couldn't find a bedside tablecloth to match the terra cotta color that I wanted so I bought cheap white sheets, dyed them (but they turned out too light), dyed them again (just a little darker), added more brown (a little darker) & fourth time added "Scarlett" (just the right shade I wanted). Then, I tried cutting it out & found out the sheets were too narrow--my luck of course, so I was going to have to make ruffles. JUST GREAT! Me sewing--remember, I DON'T SEW! Well, that day, I just so happened to go to a different Bed, Bath & Beyond & lo & behold!! Yippee!! They had a terra cotta table cloth for $14, then with the coupon, it came to about $11. So, I got it. See...


So anyway, I hope you like the "new" bedroom. I still have to get a few things like pictures & that kind of stuff. And I'm not used to something so fancy (the bedspread's all this fancy, shiny material), but I'm getting used to it.