Sweet purple dreams ~ A guest bedroom makeover

We used to have a guest bedroom on the main floor and another one in the basement. Neither room was particularly functional – the furniture layout in the upstairs bedroom room was awkward. The only wall where the bed fit properly was the wall with the main door, so there was no proper focal point walking into the room. The basement bedroom was small, but the layout was pretty good and it was nicely decorated. But nobody ever wanted to sleep in it – maybe it was the unfinished ceiling looming above them while they were lying in bed ;-)

When we had the hardwood floors refinished a few years ago, we had to empty out all the rooms on the main floor. It was the perfect time to do some rearranging – so the office moved down to the basement and the guest bedroom moved up to the main floor.

This is the only picture I can find of the upstairs room before it was converted from an office into a bedroom:

Yes, that’s a wolf wallpaper border. Yes, I’m the one who put it up. Yes, I knew what I was doing! Hey, come on – it isn’t THAT bad!!! Is it?!?! OK, I guess it is :-)

I decided to start fresh with a new colour scheme when I found a couple of beaded purple cushions at HomeSense that I absolutely HAD to have. They inspired the colour scheme for the room.

Trying out different cushion and sham combos and a bed skirt – only the purple cushions and the comforter stayed.

I re-used all the furniture that was in the bedroom in the basement. It’s just cheapo stuff from Loblaws. But it looks good and doesn’t get much wear and tear, so it’s fine for a guest bedroom. I just changed the knobs from stainless steel to glass (from Lee Valley) to add some glam.

Hubby and I made the upholstered bed a few years ago.

We updated it for the new guest bedroom with leftover chocolate brown velvet from the headboard in the master bedroom. The fabric for the original headboard cost $4.00. The whole headboard cost about $80 to make. The base of the bed is an old platform from a waterbed – reduce,  reuse, recycle!

I finally decided on an ICI Dulux gray called Veil for the walls. It’s a nice light grey without any blue undertones – a hard gray to find!

Veil 00NN 53/000

I’d seen this wallpaper on the Graham & Brown web site and loved it. I ordered a sample, and it matched the colour of the purple cushions perfectly! The pattern is called Darcy and the colour is Amethyst.

Let’s just say that hanging the wallpaper was… an adventure ;-) Actually, it wasn’t too bad. I was the lucky one who rolled on the gooey wallpaper paste, hubby was the lucky one who stuck it to the wall :-) Sorry about the picture is fuzzy – the camera doesn’t seem to like all the circles.

We replaced the original brass & mirror sliding closet doors with these doors from Home Depot – a HUGE improvement!

The mirrored mirror is from HomeSense. I’d wanted one for the longest time, but didn’t have a place to put one. Till the redecorated guest bedroom! I bought the lamps about nine years ago, but never had a good place to put them – till now :-)

This chair was my grandma’s, and I really wanted to use it in the room. It’s the perfect size to fit into the corner, has nice lines, and gives guests a place to sit down or they can put their suitcase or clothes on it.

We removed the old fabric and replaced it with this shimmery charcoal fabric from C&M Textiles.

The new & improved chair with two little purple velvet cushions.

 
The base of the lamp on the night table echoes the circles on the wallpaper.

I love this chandelier – it’s a bit traditional and a bit contemporary.

And finally, some sparkly accessories to kick up the glam factor :-)

 

Diamonds are a girl’s best friend – especially big purple ones!! :-)

And the completed purple guest bedroom makeover.

What’s the most interesting item that you’ve used as inspiration for a room makeover?

A little bathroom eye candy

It’s taken 4-1/2 months, but hubby has finished all the plumbing in the master bathroom – YAY! And his work actually passed both the plumbing & building inspections ;-) So that means that it’s drywall time, and then we can FINALLY get the the fun part of putting the room back together. WOOT!

Plumbing pictures aren’t very exciting, so here are some pretty bathrooms instead. Love the bright shower curtain & accessories in this white bathroom.

Image via Martha Stewart

So many things to love in this pretty blue bathroom – the wall colours, the chandelier, the hand-scraped hardwood flooring, the mirror hung in front of the window…

Image via Ciao! Newport Beach

I can’t figure out if this is a real bathroom or a bathroom display Either way, it’s one seriously sexy space!  Awesome combination of the dark purple walls, grey wainscoting, and silver & chrome accents'.

Image via Michael Payne on Pinterest

Gorgeous stone wall and super-thick rustic wood countertop.

Image via Casa Decorada

Love the glam tub and the artwork hung on the mirror. But can you find what’s weird about this bathroom?

Image via Architectural Digest

Who wouldn’t want to relax in this tub…

Image via Sandy@OohLaFrouFrou

Bev Adams’s feminine marble & pink bathroom.

Colorado Homes & Lifestyle / Interior Intuitions / EMR Photography

Happy weekend!

The Elephant Poem

Elephants are lovely guys,
They're good and true and tell no lies.

   

They don't take more than they can eat,
And always watch where they put their feet.

They don't play with electric wires;
I never have heard of them starting fires.

They live healthily, they don't smoke
An Elephant is a kindly bloke.

Elephants take care of their young,
And rarely speak with angry tongue.

When in school, they do not cheat,
They walk in lines which are quite neat.

 

They don't beat up on smaller folks,
Don't care if they're the butt of jokes.

 
They don't fret, what to wear today,
Look simply splendid all in gray.

 
Super strong yet very nice,
They're really not afraid of mice.

I've tried and tried but I just can't
Find anything better than the Elephant.

by Wayne Hepburn

They also like to check out the Canal during Winterlude :-)

 

Planet Elephants was part of the Family Day celebration at the NAC this past Monday. Ottawa artist Christopher Griffin originally created his herd of concrete elephants for Ottawa’s first-ever Nuit Blanche last September. Christopher provided clay for people at both events to create their own little elephants. As you can see in the pictures, many of the little clay elephants hitched a ride on the large elephants :-) And some of them {including our two} made their way onto the Canal to enjoy the last day of Winterlude. Click here to check out more pictures on Christopher’s Facebook page.

Sorry about the crappy picture quality. I had my little point & shoot with me, and it’s useless – most pictures came out fuzzy, over-exposed, or under-exposed. Next time I’m bringing my Nikon!

Moving over to the dark side-Two PARA Paints Blog Crew projects

I have two half-PARA Paints Blog Crew projects to show you this week. One is half done and one is one-half PARA Paint :-)

The loft is painted, and I LOVE it! My final colour choice was PARA’s Rainy Skies. I had to repaint the baseboards (PARA’s Climb the Mast), which I got done this weekend, and now the loft is ready to be decorated – WOOT! So no final reveal pics today, but here’s a peek at the wall colour…

Orange and purple are going to be the accent colours. I went a little cushion-crazy at HomeSense last week! Still deciding which ones to keep, which ones to get more of, and which ones to bring back…

The runner-up colour for the walls was PARA’s Potion. But I had another project in mind for it. I’d started painting a coffee table with Annie Sloan’s Paris Grey and Provence, but then decided to use Potion instead of Provence. I know I took some before pics, but I can’t for the life of me find them. But the coffee table is from the same set as this end table that I Annie Sloane-i-fied last year:

And this is how it turned out:

Did you know that you can wax latex paint just as well as chalk paint? Yep, you can! I waxed the top and used a silver paint pen to highlight the groove.

I used pewter Rub N’ Buff on the pull…

And the feet…

I haven’t decided if I should sand the base to give it a distressed look or apply some dark wax or just leave it as it is. What do you think?

Thanks to PARA Paints and Bonds Decor on Bank Street for providing the paint :-)