J Cooper Photography

Well I woke up this morning and realized that it was Wednesday and I had all together missed my 10 on Tuesday posts.  I have an excuse.  Plus…I actually made my deadline two whole weeks in a row which might just happen to be a record for me.  Plus…I was busy re-arranging furniture until midnight last night and couldn’t be bothered with picture taking and blog post writing.  When inspiration hits you run with it.  At least I do…as it seems to hit infrequently these days.

So we’ll skip the 10 on Tuesday post this week and make up for it next week.  I’ll do my best to be extra entertaining rather than bore you with 20 random thoughts on my week!

And before you read this excessively long decorating post you will want to watch one of my BEST BUDDIES on National Television!  Her segment on the Nate Berkus show aired today on ABC.  You can also catch her web exclusive tips to distressing furniture HERE.  She is the true Dumpster Diva and if you live in Kansas City you can check out her awesome stuff in person at Good JuJu!

Back to the midnight moving.  We (I use that term VERY loosely as Mr. P has only provided the brute strength) have been sprucing up our master bedroom.  I mentioned earlier that we decided to gift our entire bedroom suite to my brother in law.  Which left us sleeping on a mattress on the floor like newlyweds (not nearly as fun this time around however).  In fact…in our first apartment (complete with carpet squares and a fridge which stood in our family room) we slept all summer on a mattress on the living room floor as that was the only room which benefited from the 30 year old window air conditioner unit.  But I digress.  I had in my head a completely different idea of how this room would turn out.  But my decorating schizophrenia was in full force this month and therefore the room turned out completely different in the end.  But no worries…it is still a happy retreat at the end of the day and so all is well in our little universe.

The room is probably far from complete.  We definitely need to add some accessories and things to “make it our own” but the bones are in place.   There were several criteria for the completed room:  CHEAP, king sized bed, CHEAP (did I mention that already?), and comfy.  The rest was a free for all.  I had envisioned painting the walls a silvery blue.  I had dreamed about a big white fluffy duvet with a colorful quilt and quirky accents.  But what I ended up with was a bit more polished and refined (that is almost laughable coming out of my mouth I realize).

It started with the bed.  I love the king sized bed…not gonna lie.  We seem to always have some little person sandwiched in between us so space was definitely at a premium.  I love our fluffy duvet.  I love my clearance bin 400 thread count sheets.  I never knew the heaven that is high thread count sheets.  I have always slept on Target clearance sheets…oh be still my heart!   Next I needed my “inspiration piece”.  I can barely say that with a straight face…do you remember that Ethan Allen comercial from years ago “it’s the comforter really that ties the whole room together”.  HA!  Well…ironically…I started with the quilt.  I fell in love with this one that went super cheap at Pottery Barn on clearance.  Only I was too late to the game and had to pay a {slightly} inflated price on ebay.  Still a good deal however so I’m not complaining.  I like that the quilt is fluffier than most.  It gets points for it’s fluff for sure.  My idea of a white duvet was crushed, however, when the quilt arrived as it was strewn with a soft cream color.  After a panicked mid day call to a friend though I headed to Target (on her recommendation) to check out the Rachel Ashwell line for a linen duvet cover.  Lo and Behold!  They had one in a king size with 2 ruffled shams for $99.  I had a gift card for $65.  Double wammy.  That is is some serious shopping juju folks!

Then I stuffed that giant king sized (did I mention SUPER puffy?) quilt into a hideously large bag and hauled it around in my car for a few weeks as I searched for things to match.  I settled on these pretty smocked shams located at Home Goods.  They were $35 each which seemed really expensive to me at first glance.  But then once I calculated in the fact that they came with the very full and plump down pillows as well I was sold.  I wondered if the shams were too “pretty” and not enough “quirky” but I was stopped no less than 234 times in Home Goods by other housewifes lusting over my shams.  So I just ran to the cashier and handed over my card.

One would think that Home Goods was paying me to write this post as I am about to do an insane job of adverstising for them.

Dear Mr. Home Goods President,

I do truly love your store and have been a repeat customer for years.  I will admit to several binges of returning and exchanging over the past few months.  But I’m sure you will find me to be a loyal customer for years to come.  Should you decide to pay me in gift cards for this post…I would be eternally grateful!

Sincerly,

Your most favorite customer

OK…now that we have that out of the way.  All the pillows….Home Goods.  The RIDICULOUS glass lamps that should have cost me $200 each but didn’t…Home Goods.  The chair which has sat with its pair in my living room for the past year (hence the major furniture overhaul last night)….Home Goods.  Assorted knick knacks…Home Goods.  The crazy cool mirror above the bed…yep.

So basically that just leaves the drapes and the bedskirt which I made myself.   Taking advantage of having that gigantic puffy quilt securely in the plastic bag…I popped into my favorite fabric clearance center and picked up a bolt of this linen ticking.  The drapes are just big giant rectangles with deep hems clipped with drapery clips.  No rocket science here.  The bedskirt is the same fabric attached to the box spring with double stick velcro.  Notice my faux box pleats…nice touch, eh?

The furniture itself has been a bit of a fiasco.  I purchased the small dressers at a second hand furniture store.  First I sanded and primed two smaller nightstands from my childhood bedroom.  Then I became discouraged by my lack of sanding ability (remember the crazy crackle paint issue?) and handed them over to my FAVORITE GAL Jamie.  I had her paint them a beautiful yellowish gold.  Pictures of those to follow.  Unfortunately, the color I chose was not good in the room (and they ended up being to small scaled for the bed) so they are going to be re-purposed elsewhere in the house (living room…entry?)  The headboard came from a local antique store on clearance.  I loved the caning as it has a certain “je ne sais quoi”.  I thought it was rather serendipitous that the headboard was already a beautiful bluish grey so I loaded it directly into my mini van and rushed home…only to find that that beautiful bluish grey was entirely the wrong bluish grey for the room.  So I headed to the Walmart paint department at 9pm like any sane mom would do and grabbed a quart of a slightly different bluish grey paint (lighter and less bluish).  Then I sanded down the edges, stained a bit, and added some poly (so that the next round of kid barf will wipe off nice and clean).

Are you still reading this?

The bookcases were in our loft at the top of the stairs.  Late last night we unloaded 1045 kid books from them and brought them into our room to balance out the other side of our little master haven.  These bookcases have been following me around since junior high.  My dad made them for me and they have always been in some part of my house!

And that pretty much wraps up the tour.

Any ideas for something above the chair?  There is definitely some blank wall that needs to be filled.  Also…the bookcases are a hodge podge of decorative cast-offs at the moments.  I have noticed that I have a pension for dark colored chotchkies which don’t show up well against darker wood…not to mention there are yet a couple of empty shelves.  So I will have to make a few more shopping trips to look for some special pieces to fill out the shelves.  Anyone know any good Home stores