Alicia's bedroom

I finished my friend Alicia's bedroom finally and here's the end product. I didn't take any before pictures so you'll have to imagine it. Let me set the "before" scene. Imagine white walls... and a king sized mattress. That's it. We got rid of her old furniture she'd had since she got married so I had to find all new stuff. Here are a couple before pictures of the furniture and other items I got on craigslist and thrift stores. I also used a few accessories she already had.




I painted her room Gobi Desert from Behr. It's absolutely my favorite neutral tan. She really wanted a relaxing retreat so I knew I wanted to do a ton of white. And blue's her favorite color so the palette was the easiest thing about this room.

The damask print on the focal wall was done using a stencil my friend cut out of vinyl lettering. I stuck it onto a blank stencil I bought at hobby lobby and used an exacto knife to cut it out. Then I just drew it on the wall and painted it by hand.

The chandelier was from my lovely sister Tara. We spray painted it white and made a white cord hider from an old sheet.

I got the mantel from my Mom. She was kind enough to donate it to the cause and we painted it blue.

My carpenter/husband built this amazing storage solution/reading nook. Did I mention what a hunk he is? I guess he will think twice before coming with me on a job! We built the window seat with a door at the top you can take off and store stuff you don't want out. Plus it makes a great nook for reading or watching the kids sword fight in the back yard.

I got the bench at the foot of her bed on craigslist. It was a beautiful mauve color. Ok, maybe it wasn't so beautiful. After a quick slipcover made out of duck cloth for %50 off at joanns, it fit much better in the room. And I didn't have to use a seam ripper once. Which was a first for me.

The art piece was my favorite project. I've never painted on canvas before and it was really fun. I don't know if you remember me talking about Alicia before but she recently lost her sweet boy. She has 5 children still here so I wanted to do an art project that reminded her of her family and the one who "flew" away. When I gave it to her she started crying and said she loved it so I think she got the message.

She wanted a little memory box made for her son. So I made a shadow box from some kind of antique sifter. We pinned his blessing outfit to it and put up a picture of him.

The headboard was out of that door in the "before" shots. I used some 1x4 pine and a little molding and then painted it blue.

Now here's a breakdown of the costs. Once I wrote them out, I was surprised by what I spent the most on. You'd think the furniture would be the most expensive.

$250 on bedding (ebay and home goods)
$100 on furniture (end of bed bench, dresser, night stands, mantel and headboard)
$100 on paint and accessories
$ 50 on lumber for the window seat

That's a grand total of $500. Yes I spent every penny of our very small budget. Yes I shopped at Goodwill and dug lumber out of the cull bin at Home Depot. But I stayed on budget. One more image just because...