Headboard History

Happy Monday, and Happy Autumn!  Today I wanted to share the transformation of my $30 head board.  This is how it looked when I first brought it home from a local flea market.

After an allover coat of cream, this is how it has looked for the past year.

It seemed to be the perfect candidate for a chevron paint pattern given that the wood was already carved into that shape - so no measuring or taping needed, yippee!

I used the existing cream as one chevron colour, and picked a colour 2 shades darker than the wall for the second chevron.  I wanted to make sure the tone would work in the room, so using a colour on the same paint chip was the easy option.  It only took a couple of coats and it was evenly covered.

It's like a little hidden surprise when you lay the pillows down, and is a much more interesting than it being in one colour.

 

Kate

xxx

Guest Room Before and After

It's fiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiinished!  Ok, so the ugly black ceiling fan is still up, but everything else is D.O.N.E!  About a week later than planned, our Guest Room makeover is complete.

Sit back, because this post is pretty photo heavy.

The bedding was from Ross, lamps from JC Penney, throw from TJ Maxx, nightstands from Target and crazy cat pillow from H&M.

I've had these 2 wall shelves sitting in a cupboard for months, so it was great to finally get them on the wall.

I mixed some vintage family items with thrift shop finds and a few new pieces.

The camera was my Grandads, the print was from the Christmas Tree Shop (for only $4!) and the little bowl was from a thrift shop.

You can just about see the newly painted headboard behind the pillows.  I left 2 of the panels in the cream, and painted the rest 2 shades darker than the wall colour.

I tried to add something to read and a place to put rings or coins or watches on each nightstand.

And of course no nightstand would be complete without a felt owl.

Can you believe my mum made this?  Love him!

Every time I see this pillow it makes me laugh.

And now for a good old before and after.



And after!

Kate

xxx

Finishing up

If you follow me on Instagram you'll have seen that the curtains in the guest room are finally up.  Here's a sneak peak at the texture - can you believe they were only $6 a panel from Lowes?  I couldn't make them for that!  The curtain rod was a steal for only $10 at Ross.  Somehow I always find good deals there, despite the fact that their shelves are usually half empty.

We've also had a new queen mattress delivered for the master (thank you Macys Labour day sale).  Look at how ridiculously tall the bed is now, ha!  You can't even see the nightstand because it's so high.  Poor Murph man needs a pole vault to get on there.  Seriously though, we'll be removing the box spring this weekend to take it back down to a normal height. 

We moved the old mattress from the master into the guest room (which is sooooo close to being done).  I have professional supervision arriving this weekend (ie my father in law) for the great 2013 fan switcheroo, one more coat on the headboard and I'm calling it.  Pics to follow on Monday.

Have a great weekend - and if you live in Birmingham check out the annual Art Walk downtown.

Kate

xxx

Living it up!

So how was your Labor Day?  I'm officially starting the campaign for a 3 day weekend at least once a month - who's with me?

Our Labour Day weekend meant having friends over for the first college football game of the season.  And that also meant we had a massive tidy - so I quickly whizzed round and snapped some shots while the place was looking halfway decent.  I've shown you bits and pieces of this room recently, so I thought it was about time we had a look at how everything has come together.

So here is where it all started - our hot dog family room (mustard and ketchup!) we inherited from the previous owners:

And here it is now.

My favorite piece in the whole room is the DIY Union Jack coffee table.  See more of it's journey from $30 craigslist find HERE.  Here's a little snap shot of the before/after:

And here it is front and center in our family room.  I bought two big baskets from HomeGoods to go underneath and it's worked out great for storing magazines.

My triangle paint chip art is going strong.  More on that freebie art HERE.  We're still rocking the hand me down sofas, but maybe next year we'll upgrade and pick something more our style.  Until then, I'm disguising the 80's style lumps and bumps with pillows and a strategic throw.  Sometimes you just have to work with what ya got!

Our crafty desk (made from wire shelving, cardboard and contact paper) is nestled next to the french doors.  Taking thrifty to whole new level!  Find more details on that transformation HERE.

Our mantle is a springy little treat, and I just love the pops of pink against the teal walls.  I really don't change it much from season to season so it'll probably stay like this until Christmas.  It's a mixture of high street and flea mall and thrift shop. 

The little 'love' is a Christmas decoration and the glass owl is vintage Blenko.

I'm still loving our JC Penney floor lamp.  I'm telling you, JC Penney wins every time for budget friendly modern lamps.

And there you have it :-)  I finally feel like it's starting to come together and is a room we love to spend time in - which is really all you can ask for.

Kate

xxx