Master Bedroom Makeover

I finally took "after" pictures of our master bedroom.  Hopefully seeing all the before and after photos will get more of a reaction than, "Did you move your bed?"  (That was my Dad's reaction.  In his defense, I don't know if he ever saw it before I painted it.)

Let's go WAY back for the before before photo:

You know a room needs work when you can stand in your garage to take a picture of it.  However, after we got everything else furnished and we had the essentials in our bedroom, we just sort of left it as is for six years.  We were the only ones who ever saw it, so who cared, right?

Except that a few things started to annoy me.  Like the fact that the house painters barely put one coat of paint on our not-primered walls.  The morning light would hit it just so that I could see all the lines and spaces where there was barely a lick of paint.  Anyway, here's what it looked like BEFORE:

Not terrible, I know.  We chose to put a fireplace in our bedroom because our upstairs family room is tiny and it would have taken up too much space there.  Hmmm - what's that in the mirror?

That's right, a deer head.  I am in the Wife Hall of Fame for allowing Brian to put it in our bedroom.  Look at that bookcase piled with stuff.  I bought the curtains before I chose anything else - I now believe the curtains should be last.

Too bad the photos don't really show how disgusting that bed skirt is.

That's my Grandma Carol's sewing machine (the only thing I had of her's until a week ago).  On the wall in between the closet and the bathroom doors is a splatter of rust that goes from about the height of the sewing machine all the way to the top of the vaulted ceiling.  Remember that time Brian bounced a filthy little bouncy ball against the wall about 10 times before he noticed it was filthy?  That was awesome.

Okay, I'm getting stressed out seeing those before pictures.  Something had to be done.  We needed a sanctuary - a place where we didn't feel the urge to make Cat in the Hat stacks of papers and binders.  A place we looked forward to going to at the end of the day instead of a place where there were too many reminders of all the things we didn't accomplish in the day.  

I painted the walls with "Natural Choice" (I think it's just a Sherwin Williams paint) in satin, the ceiling and the trim with "Dover White" in semi-gloss, and the fireplace mantel with "Dover White" in gloss.  Everything but the fireplace got two coats of paint - the fireplace got about five.  Bridget helped me the whole time and I risked my life standing on the tippy top of our ladder to reach into the corners.  And yes, we moved the bed. :)

I'm still looking for something to go under that print so it doesn't look too big for the space...

I chose a red toile for the curtains and I love how it looks with the quilts and the deer head.  There are linen sheers in between the two toile panels, so it's much brighter in there, and yet more cozy.  The end!

 There are more makeovers where this came from if you go to the dance with Between Naps on the Front Porch.