Some cottage bedroom pretty

So I went for a haircut yesterday. As the hairdresser was cutting my hair, she asked me, “Have you been painting?” Yep, got paint in my hair and it still hasn’t washed out a few days later! Oh well, that’s how I roll.

So far, cottage bedroom makeover update #1 and update #2 haven’t been very glamourous. So today, I thought I’d share some of the pretty that will be going into the room.

I want to put a swing arm wall lamp above each bed. I found this one at Bellacor – it’s a plug-in with the switch right on the lamp, which is exactly what I was looking for. I really like the brushed brass finish, and the price was right too – on sale four about $60.

I really can’t spend a lot on the bedroom, and I’m trying to re-use & re-purpose as much as possible. But I don’t have any suitable bedding for twin beds – which were originally the bunk bed that my brother and I slept in when we were kids. I popped into Target a couple of weeks ago and found this comforter set that’s blue and cheap – sold!

My mom’s old night table that I made over a few weeks ago will go between the beds.

This weekend, I hope to start working on the two dressers that I bought from Kijiji. I’ve pretty much decided how to make over one of them, still thinking about the other one. These are some inspiration pieces…

As I’ve mentioned on my blog many times, I love original art and supporting artists. I discovered the work of Derriere Les Bois at the New Art Festival this past June. They had sold their only sailboat piece, but they said they take custom orders and would make one for me. Yay! Isn’t this cool?

I have a lot of other coastal-themed artwork that didn’t make it onto my gallery wall at home. So those pieces will go up in the bedroom as well.

OK, this isn’t exactly glamourous, but galvanized boat cleats are the perfect solution to a problem I’ve been trying to solve for years. At $2.00 a pop from iboats.com, really can’t go wrong!

And after whole lot of waffling and debating. I’ve narrowed down my white choices to two – Benjamin Moore Simply White or Cloud White. Turns out that Paper Mache is more yellow than I thought (thanks Lindsay for the feedback!)

Yes, they look almost identical. Yes, I’m way over-thinking this!

Cottage bedroom makeover: Update #2

We didn’t get much done on the cottage bedroom two weekends ago with family get togethers on both Saturday and Sunday. But we made up for lost time this past weekend :-) The fact that it rained pretty much all day Monday certainly helped – if you can’t play outside, may as well work inside!

If you remember my first update, the cottage bedroom was stripped down to the studs. It occurs to me now that I didn’t take any good “before” pics of the addition. You can see a bit of it on the right of this picture:

Hubby drywalled the bottom of the storage shelf and the ceiling in the addition last week, and he finished paneling all the walls on Sunday. Yay, it finally looks like a room again! A very messy room, but it’s all part of the process :-)

 

I primed the paneling and drywall on Sunday and Monday, and painted the first coat of blue on the bottom of the storage shelf and the ceiling in the addition.

  

Now I REALLY need to decide on a white, because painting the walls is on the agenda for next weekend. I keep going back to Benjamin Moore’s Paper Mache in the Aura collection.

Lindsay at Little House Blog used Paper Mache on the crown moulding on her Adele kitchen cabinets from Ikea. You can see that the colour is a bit creamier than the white ceiling.

Another example of Adele cabinets with Paper Mache crown moulding from  Danks & Honey. You can see the difference between the creamy white of the cabinets and the white trim.

I have until Saturday to decide – choosing a white really shouldn’t be so hard! Do you have Ikea’s Adele cabinets? Have you used BM Paper Mache? If yes, please let me know what you think of the colour.

Night table makeover: Who says blue & green must never be seen?

Not me! I love blue & green together! Especially bright green with turquoise. While the paint on the bedroom ceiling was drying last weekend, I worked on a smaller and much easier project. This side table has been at the cottage forever – probably since the mid 1950s when the cottage was built.

It was only after I’d painted it that my dad mentioned that my grandparents had the night table and a matching dresser custom made for my mom when she was a little girl. I had a sudden feeling of guilt over painting it, but my dad said not to worry, he loves the new look. Whew!

This was a super-fast and easy makeover. The night table is in perfect shape and only needed a quick cleaning with a damp cloth to remove some dirt and cobwebs. A couple of years ago, I accidentally discovered that sanding brass with a fine grit sandpaper is a great way to get rid of the tarnish and gives a beautiful brushed metal finish. So with a little bit of elbow grease, the drawer pull went from this:

…to this in about 5 minutes:

Painting the table was almost as fast and easy! No need to prime because I used chalk paint. I painted the shelf and drawer front Annie Sloan Chalk Paint Provence, and the rest of the table FAT Paint Apple.

I cannot begin to tell you how perfect these two colours are together. Obviously whoever said that blue & green must never be seen never ate an Apple in Provence! ;-)

After one coat…

Two coats of paint and a coat of clear wax later, and this is the final result :-)

The brass pull stands out so nicely against the turquoise.

I think my mom would approve :-)

I bought two dressers off Kijiji for the cottage bedroom as well. I’m going to try out some other colours from FAT Paint – gotta support my friend and former blog buddy Victoria :-)

Sharing with Inspire Me Monday

Cottage bedroom makeover: Update #1

I should have mentioned in my previous post about the cottage bedroom makeover that the whole reason for the makeover is because last fall, hubby added a 4’ extension to the back of our cottage. The extra space is amazing, but there’s a lot of inside work to do. So I figured now is the time to make some drastic changes, seeing as this bedroom has been the same since the mid 1950s.

These are sort-of before pics – before the painting, but after the extension went on and the addition of the storage platform above the bed.

View from the doorway

  View from the extension

This past weekend was the worst part of the makeover – priming and painting the ceiling. Half the job involved painting in the most awkward position ever – lying on my back 2 feet from the ceiling. It’s very discombobulating to paint upside down!

Such a glamourous shot of my feet ;-)

And it was hot up there too – whoever said that hot air rises was right! ;-) Amazingly, I managed to get all the priming & painting done without dripping any paint into my eyes. My shoe didn’t fare quite as well…

Very impressed with how well the Zinsser All Surface Primer adhered to the  paneling and varnished beams.

After two coats of paint…

I wish I knew what colour this is, but I really have no idea! I have 1-1/2 gallons of a mystery blue paint in the basement that I decided to use to save some money. It’s pretty close to PARA Paints In The Loop:

Next weekend, hubby will be hanging drywall on the ceiling in the extension and paneling the walls. Then I get to do more priming and painting – YAY ME! ;-) But at least the hard part is done :-) The walls are going to be white. Which white? Well, that’s a harder choice than you’d think. White is white, right? Weeeeeelllllllll, not so much…

Image via Home Decor – A blog by Quality Bath

I’ve never actually painted a whole room white, but I really like the white that I used on the trim in our master bathroom, PARA Paints Jo Jo Whitewash.

But not being a white expert, I put out the question to some designer friends – what’s you’re favourite white? The three most popular choices were Benjamin Moore’s Simply White, Chantilly Lace, and Oxford White.

At least the choice is already narrowed down to just four :-) Have you ever painted a room white? Do you have a favourite go-to white?

Cottage bedroom makeover

Some inspiration pictures for the cottage bedroom makeover than I’m starting this weekend…

 Image via Chic Coastal Living

 

 Image via Pinterest

 

Image via Better Home and Garden 

 

Image via clark|pharm

 

Blue crab by Laura Trevey

 

Image via Pottery Barn Kids

Not sure how I’m going to pull myself away from the lake to go inside and paint, but a girl’s gotta do what a girl’s gotta do!

Before and after pics coming soon….

New bathroom build

So no sooner has one bathroom renovation ended, and we’re on to…. another bathroom renovation! Well, this one isn’t so much a renovation as a build – we’re adding a bathroom in the basement as part of our basement reno. It’s just going to be a small room with the basics – vanity, corner shower, toilet.

This was quite possibly the fastest and easiest decision making process ever. I love the backsplash tiles and countertop that I’m using in another bathroom project, so I decided why not use them in our bathroom too!

The backsplash tiles are Avenue Mosaic Ripple and will be installed vertically from the top of the vanity right up to the ceiling,

The countertop is this super-cool solid surface by Affinity. The colour is called Celestial Azure – it’s a beautiful turquoise with tiny silver shimmery flecks.

There are sooooooooooooo many funky floor tile options out there, but I decided to go with something subtle(ish) so as not to compete with the backsplash & countertop. Savoia Silk Silver porcelain tiles fit the bill perfectly.

This is how they look together in the sun on my back patio :-)

We’re going to design and build a floating vanity, similar to this vanity that I helped design for a friend’s bathroom makeover.

We’ll re-use the toilet and the faucet & sink from our pre-reno master bathroom to save money. Plus that means less stuff going to the landfill, which is always a good thing :-)

I haven’t decided on a wall colour yet, but I’m thinking PARA Paints Preque’Ile Point. It’s a soft greeny-grey that goes really well with the backsplash tiles.

And there it is, our soon-to-be new bathroom. Hubby has been hard at work jack hammering concrete and moving pipes and framing out walls and basically turning the house into a big dust fest ;-) I’ll post progress pics as soon as there’s progress to show you :-)