Sunday, March 27, 2011

Progress!

Despite my constant state of stress and feeling like we're not getting anything done around here...we are, in fact, getting things done around here.  None of the rooms are finished but we've been focusing most of our attention on the living room and master bedroom and they're getting there.  The other rooms...let's not talk about that.  I'm trying not to have too much renovation ADD, which is tough because it's so easy to ignore the things you don't want to do (I'm looking at you, living room baseboards) and move on to more fun things (which is why I just spent 3 hours building furniture in the back yard).

Anyhow, I promised some master bedroom photos today and so here's a few before-and-afters.  Assuming that "after" means "after just a little bit of progress and no decorating."

Before:


The small size of the universe glued on the wall is totally out of proportion with what a huge pain in the ass it was to remove.  Don't even get Sean started about the 170 glow-in-the-dark stars he peeled off the ceiling.  Yes, he counted.

After:


Horray for a smooth ceiling and walls!  We painted the walls Glidden's Navajo Sand after trying (literally) about 10 different colors.  For some reason the light in this room makes every swatch of paint look about 57 shades darker than it did in the store.  I originally thought this color was too close to plain off-white but (Sean was right) it actually reads as the slightly darker beige we were going for.  I want to keep the bedroom pretty light and airy so I thought a nice light neutral color on the walls would be a good place to start.  But really I don't know what I'm talking about.

This picture also gives a sneak peak at a little hallway makeover - when we had the floors re-done the floor guy also removed the fugly and non-functioning floor furnaces for us and put drywall/new wood floors in their place.

Before:


I pulled about a million screws out of the old, crumbling plaster walls.  Then re-plastered.  Then sanded.  Then cried.

After:


I tried to match up the camera angles for the before and afters but it looks like I did a pretty terrible job of that, huh? 

If you can't tell, the window treatments are a work in progress...I mean I think that curtains nailed into the top of the window frame look really nice but I'm thinking actually curtain rods may look even better.  The bedroom windows face the house next door so I needed to get something up quickly. 

The floral curtain is a test.  Florals are totally not my style, but I saw this design on display at World Market and it grew on me.  I thought the colors could be worked into the rest of the room when I get around to decorating.  I was originally going to put up my usual white curtains because I wanted light and airy, but then I thought they made the room look too flat.  The jury is still out on these but I picked up 2 sets on sale (for $22 a panel) just in case.

Before:


Another angle.  Also not shown: the peeling drywall tape on the ceiling that had to be removed...which left a 2" wide strip on the ceiling that had to be patched and sanded as well.  It was uuuugly and took an outrageous amount of time to fix. 

After:


These photos totally didn't line up at all.  Oh well!  This angle shows the original white curtains that I hung/nailed up - too flat, right?  Also shown: the chunky ikea dressers that we bought when we first moved to CA that are on the list to be replaced, and my beloved vanity.  I'm not sure if the vanity is going to live in this room forever but I love that it's in front of a window.  In our apartment my vanity got no light so if you ever saw me and thought "did she put her makeup on in the dark?" you were right, I totally did.

We also painted the ceiling and the crown molding and trim.  So much fun...which I think is why I'm taking a break from painting now.

So that's the master bedroom in it's current state.  Definitely a LONG way from done, but I think our standards are low because I'm just happy to have a room not covered in dirt and dust.

1 comment:

  1. lovin the new paint and the touched up moldings--very polished look

    GO UCONN!!

    ReplyDelete