Bedroom Makeover

I'm finally ready to show some before and after pictures of my bedroom! I finished painting a couple weeks ago but I was held up by my incomplete curtains, which I'll talk about in a minute. Here are some before pictures from one of the first couple days after I moved:

The room is very large as far as bedrooms go, and the wall of closets is awesome. Here it is today, after a few coats of paint, furniture rearrangement, and decorating:

I'm really happy with how the room turned out. The color is peaceful and relaxing. You can see where I chose to hang my embroidery hoop fabric collage, and I changed out the knobs on the closet doors.

About the curtains... There are a few utilitarian household items that I always think are overpriced - rugs, lamps, and curtains mainly. I really hate spending a lot on any of those things. So when I first moved in, I scoured the clearance bins in the curtain section of Bed Bath and Beyond and found two matching curtain scarves that were meant to be used as a decorative add-on to window treatments. They were made by Sound Asleep ("The Official Curtains of the National Sleep Foundation") - aka room darkening, which was a feature I was hoping for as the room gets a good amount of light. Premade Sound Asleep curtains would have cost at least $50 per panel, and my window is double-wide so I'm not even sure how many panels I would have needed. Instead I snagged these two scarves for $7.99 each and my mom and I customized them. 

My mom was very eager to help me customize curtains, so we did some measuring and decided to optimize the room darkening qualities of the fabric by creating three layers. I couldn't decide how I wanted to finish them off, so she left them unhemmed. I hung them anyway for the past few months to block the light, and in the meantime I decided to make some crocheted edgings for each layer of the panels. 

Miraculously, I found a package of six brand new skeins of yarn in the perfect color at a church rummage sale for fifty cents!! That yarn was probably worth about $40 truthfully. I found the crochet edging patterns in a free Kindle Ebook, and did them myself. When I finally finished crocheting the six edges, I took the curtains down and my mom hemmed them so that the edges would overlap slightly. I completed them by hand sewing the crocheted edges along the bottom, and rehung them this morning. 

I used three different edge patterns from this Ebook: http://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/B00IUQ9A98?pc_redir=1404622940&robot_redir=1. It was free when I downloaded it, but it seems to be $2.99 now. Here's a close up of some of the work:

I think they came out beautifully, and because we customized them I was able to get exactly what I wanted. And it is very exciting to me that I have a pair of custom curtains for a total cost of about $16.50, plus the clips to hang them and the curtain rod (both of which were also on clearance). 

What do you think? 

Frames

I've been collecting ornate picture frames for a couple months now, with a Pinterest project in mind. After my great garage sale haul last week, I had enough to get started.

I started off by priming all the frames because they were all different colors and finishes. I let them dry overnight in the middle of my living room:

The biggest frame in the photo (upper right) was a roadside rescue! The rest I paid somewhere between 50 cents and $3 each for. The $2/$3 ones were more expensive because they were actually framed prints with glass, and one was a mirror. 

The next day I gave them each two coats of paint. The paints I used were the leftover sample jars I purchased when I trying to choose wall colors! So not only do the colors all coordinate well with my decor, but it was also a good use of already purchased materials!

Again I let these dry overnight, particularly because it has been so humid lately. Today I finally cleaned up the drop cloth from the middle of my living room and set to work arranging the frames in a pattern on the floor. 

As you can see, Lily wanted to be involved but not actually help at all.  

I hung all of these today on the wall behind my dining table, and I think it looks fabulous. 

I'm very happy with how these turned out and I think I have just enough! I'm definitely running out of useable wall space now! :-)

Bathroom & Vintage Pyrex

Guys, this is why I've been absent from blogging for a few days.

Before:

White white white

After:

I've been trying to get this bathroom finished for a few days now and ran into all sorts of problems. I need to do some touch ups because the paint is peeling in places (ugh!!) and my edge lines are much less than perfect. But it's mostly done and I love the color! 

Today we have some serious yard-saling planned for the morning. Going to be on the lookout for some treasures. I've decided to hunt for an old fashioned telephone to use on my old fashioned telephone table. I asked the employees at Somerville Antiques Center if they could estimate what decade my piece is from, and they said the fact it is wood as opposed to chrome indicates 1940's, but the vinyl seat would indicate more the 1950's. They told me to check under the vinyl to see if there is an original fabric, which would confirm 1940's but had just been recovered. Which makes me think, when I recover it maybe I should go over the vinyl instead of removing it - to preserve the history, you know? Still thinking about the colors for it, but I'm pretty sure it's going to go right here after removing the quilt rack and shifting things around:

So to keep in the correct time period as the table, I'm going to look for either one of those old black phones or the fancy French style ones. It would be great if I could actually use it for my landline, we will see what I can find. 

Last night I took a stroll through the Friday night events in Downtown Somerville, and despite my lack of interest in cars, it was pretty cool to see all the classic cars lining Main Street, and the guys standing next to their cars speaking all proudly about them. That's when I wandered into the antique store and asked about the table, and I also went digging for what I look for every time - vintage Pyrex. They have a ton but most of it is either in complete sets or just boring patterns. I've been looking for small individual pieces to use as accents in my kitchen, specifically to match some of the pieces featured in this poster from Pocono Modern:

This was the first piece I found a couple months ago:

Last night I found three more!! I wouldn't have typically purchased all three at once, but it's been so hard to find specifically what I am looking for. 

The last one is not actually on the print, but I've never seen one like it and it was very reasonably priced.

I need to figure out a good way to display them. I was thinking for them to go across the top of my cabinets, but I still need a display method. Maybe small cake stands? 

Have a great Saturday everyone!!

Saturday Recap

Today was not the best garage sale day. I didn't find any good project material, but I did get a few Halloween and Christmas decorations for two bucks a piece!

I spent the rest of the day painting my bedroom. I think it came out really pretty - but I still need to rehang my artwork and finish making my curtains, so before/after photos will have to wait. Instead, here are photos of my living/dining room and kitchen, which I finished painting and decorating last weekend.

Before - the week I moved in:

After:

Paint colors are Glidden Oolong Tea and Dill.

I don't have any before photos of the kitchen, but here it is currently after last week's paint job:

Paint color is Glidden Enamelware. 

I'm really pleased with how cozy my apartment is feeling now!