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...

Before and after

I refinished this armoire for a client. I forgot to take pictures of it before I started painting. Oh well...
Before

After


I'm also in the process of a bedroom redo for a 12 year old girl. She wanted her daughter to have a new room for Christmas. Is that the best Christmas present or what? My client loved the headboard I did for Alicia's room and wanted one in her daughters room. I'm probably not going to post anything else until the room is done so see you next week!
Here is a peek at the headboard...

Kaylee's room

This was such a fun room renovation. My client wanted to surprise her 12 year old daughter for her birthday. I think I liked it because it gave me a chance to be all super sleuth. I did most of the prep work before like sewing and painting furniture so we could get it done in two days while her daughter was away at Grandma's.

Here's the room before...

Rachelle striking a pose on the bed.

The room is about 10x12 so we had to take out the closet doors for a homework space.


And here it is after...







Our budget was $300. Thankfully, she had quite a bit of things in her closet that I used in the room, like the curtain rod, frames, and the armoire. My client liked the headboard I did in Alicia's bedroom so I did one for her daughter. You can find doors for around $20 and the molding is about $10. I spent the most money on the bedding, again. The ruffled quilt is from Home Goods and the polka dot duvet was made out of sheets from Target. I ordered the poppy fabric to make the pillows off etsy and I made the black ruffled bolster pillow. The desk was from craigslist for $25 and the night stand is from this little thrift store on Ocotillo and Ellsworth called New 2 U. I got the chandelier and feather pillows at Ikea. Ikea is the cheapest place I've found to get pillows, duvet inserts, curtains, lighting, really delicious buffalo chicken wraps, and other things. And they have an "as is" section where you can get returned items for a fraction of the price. Good thing they're all the way in Tempe or I'd probably go there every day.

We got a video of her walking into the room that I'll try and post later.