
Some people (mostly B) say I love to paint. Errr wrong, try again. I really just love a lot of change for my decorating buck and painting is where it’s at for big impact on a not so big budget. Actually, I usually find painting to be a long and tedious process but in the end the rewards usually outweigh the tedium… except for that one time I accidentally painted the Living Room a lovely shade of highlighter green and then quickly painted over it the next morning. But that’s a paint disaster story for another day.
So based on my lovely inspiration board for our Bedroom overhaul I had decided to repaint our bedroom in Martha Stewart’s Milk .
But once the Robert Allen Ikat curtain fabric and the Braemore Wonderland pillow fabric (number 1 & number 9 on the board) arrived I was feeling a little less sure in my choice being the exact right light shade.. Luckily that was quickly remedied with my generous paint chip collection and a couple of minutes of staring at a bunch of paint chips.
So we broke out the paint chips held them up to our new fabric and chose a new white. Namely Martha Stewart’s Pip. It’s one of those so totally subtle color difference that you’d never be able to tell on a computer monitor but just feel better in person kind of differences. Believe me I’ve tried to photograph the difference between the two and it just isn’t happening, So you’ll have to trust me on this one.
With the the color decided again it was off to the paint store for an easy paint pick-up or so we thought. Martha Stewart paint happened to be on clearance for $12.00 a gallon. But due to the awesome price it happened to be sold out, discontinued, not coming back. Bummer. So of course after some more pondering of shades of whites I went to my local Benjamin Moore pain dealer and had them color matched to BM’s interior paint in a flat finish to minimize the look of bumps and nicks on the wall.
I was so excited about it brought it home, slapped a test swatch on the wall and quickly realized that in order to cover the dark green color we’d need to prime first.

Thankfully things got Rollin’ even if it was a little later in the day than I had planned after we made our third and final trip to the store to grab some primer. Give 2 cheers to under-planners like us! I set out to start the cutting in/edging process. This has always been my job whenever we set out to paint. B just doesn’t have the patience for it. He’s more of the immediate gratification of slapping some paint on the walls with a roller kind of guy. Even though he’s had more painting experience then he’d care to remember given that he married me.
Since where the walls meet the ceiling are awfully crooked and never look quite right no matter how carefully I edge. I decided this time to tape along the ceiling about 1/4 of an inch in. I would carry the wall color onto the ceiling instead of stopping right out the edge. It’s given the walls so a pretty finished look without the crooked edges even if some of the ceiling paint peeled slightly when I removed the tape. Oh well nothing a little patching and touch up paint can’t fix.

As for what we did with the furniture, we just pushed it into the middle of the room and squeezed around it. Doesn’t it look just lovely completely painted in primer with the glow of the flash against the room since it was pretty late by this point? We painted over a 2 day period since it ended up needing 1 coat of primer and 2 coats of paint to completely cover the old green paint. We finished the first coat of primer around 10:00 pm and camped out in the Living Room over night.
By the next afternoon, 3 coats of paint later and the help of our resident measurer…

We had the room completely painted and the TV newly hung on the wall instead of sitting on the dresser by the next evening.
We’ll be the first to admit that the room was already starting to look much better without changing the wall color and just by changing out a few accessories and bedding but we’re going for a whole new look here. So far the bedroom has gone from greens and oranges just thrown together haphazardly from whatever we had lying around.

To this with a few quick tweaks, like changing out the side tables, switching the lampshades. Adding some vintage chairs and a new side table between the bookcase.

All the way to this with a coat of paint.

The white is really soft and pretty in person, while we were rolling it on it kept reminding me of butter cream frosting and perfectly matches the colorful fabrics we chose for the curtains and pillows. I’m glad we switched at the last minute.

It’s a small room, so it’s feeling a lot more open with the lighter color paint. I’m fond of dark greens in a room but when we painted this one right as we moved into the house we didn’t realize that the light only really streams into the room in the morning not so much in the afternoon. The room felt more like a cave which could be good for sleeping but not so good for rising and shining.
On the side tables I added a couple of pretty placemats to protect the furniture from glasses of water and phones charging on the bedside tables at night.

My mom has always added a pretty little table scarf to the tops of furniture to lay things down and protect them from water rings and the daily grind.

Over time I may change these our for something larger. Maybe a vintage item, the sweet vintage style clock is also a new addition courtesy of an awesome friend for Christmas.
We’re also loving how big of an impact hanging the TV on the wall versus it sitting on the dresser has had on the space. It really opened up the entire area even in it’s unfinished state with Wires hanging down the wall and the not so pretty cable box sitting on the dresser. We definitely need to figure out what to do with that next.

It also really goes well with the new side tables we purchased allowing for a more open seamless feel across the back wall.

Overall we’re really happy with how bright and airy it’s making everything feel. So the next thing on my to-do list is to sew some pillows for the bed using the Braemore Wonderland fabric pictured above. I’m think ones with an envelope back in a neutral fabric so I can make the most of the 2 yards I have and spread it around the room. Then it’ll be onto sewing the drapes, picking out some nice colorful art to break up all the neutral walls and add pops of colors. I’m really liking the idea of using some original art pieces combined with prints. Oh and of course we still need to pick fabric for our two vintage chairs and get to reupholstering them. Fingers crossed it will be a record breaking fast sewing experience so we can add some color back into our nice neutral backdrop.



















29 comments :
Michelle January 6, 2012 11:29PM
I love your bedroom makeover! It is beautiful – good choice of color!
Having done some paint rolling of our own recently, I can totally sympathize with the tedium but more for your money concept.
Maria January 7, 2012 12:54PM
Thanks Michelle, I’m so glad it’s done now though. I love the new look.
Andrea @ Bubblewrapp'd January 7, 2012 10:16AM
Love it!! It looks awesome!
Also, I am in love with your blog tagline!
Maria January 7, 2012 12:55PM
Haha thanks Andrea. I think it describes me perfectly. Someone once told me they were going to make it into word art. I loved that idea.
Rachael January 7, 2012 1:07PM
Beautiful room. I love the transformation paint makes too. Nice work.
Maria January 7, 2012 1:22PM
Thanks Rachael. It’s amazing what paint can do.
Rhonda January 9, 2012 10:32PM
What a beautiful redo – love how light and airy your bedroom is now! My master is also a dark green color – I can’t wait to hit it with some paint!
Visiting from Tuesday’s Treasures…
Rhonda @ home.made.
Maria January 10, 2012 10:00PM
Oh thanks Rhonda, I say do it. Paint made such a huge difference in our room already.
Rosemary January 10, 2012 10:14PM
I love the brighter look, and your measurer is adorable.
Maria January 10, 2012 11:10PM
Oh thanks Rosemary, we like to keep him around because he’s cute for the cameras
Korrie@RedHenHome January 10, 2012 10:20PM
Thanks for a very honest accounting of how it is to paint a room! I had to laugh at your reference to the “highlighter green” mistake…once upon a time I painted our basement what my dh referred to as “key-lime-pie-yellow.” It lasted about as long as yours did
Maria January 10, 2012 11:12PM
HAHAHA, Thanks Korrie, glad I’m not the only one who accidentally paints obscenely horrid colors their husband’s hate sometimes. At least we know when to repaint!
dee dee January 10, 2012 11:19PM
I love your newly painted bedroom! It’s wonderful!
dee dee
Maria January 11, 2012 5:08PM
Aw thanks Dee Dee
Amanda Jones (@creativendeavor) January 10, 2012 11:50PM
What an amazing transformation! Your bedroom is beautiful! It is amazing how white can bring out your space and make it seem bigger! I am stopping by from TT&J –
Amanda
everycreativeendeavor.com
Maria January 11, 2012 5:08PM
Thank you Amanda
Jae January 11, 2012 7:35PM
Love the updates! The room really looks great.
Maria January 12, 2012 9:38AM
Thank Jae, we’re really loving the bright airy feeling now.
Maryann @ Domestically Speaking January 14, 2012 12:54AM
What a great example of how paint can change the feel of a space. I’m putting your gorgeous room makeover in the PoPP Spotlight this weekend. Thanks for linking up.
Maria January 14, 2012 7:37AM
Thanks Maryann, thanks for featuring me
CAS January 14, 2012 8:39AM
It looks totally awesome! I was surprised when you said the room is rather small, because the color & placement of furniture, makes it look quite large. Great look!
CAS
Maria January 14, 2012 10:36AM
Thanks CAS, I’m actually surprised how much furniture has fit in there. I wouldn’t call it the smallest bedroom in the world but it’s definately not grand by Master Bedroom standards! Thanks for stopping by as usual
holly ll January 15, 2012 7:07PM
What a dreamy room! You did a remarkable job (I love your inspiration board too!). Thanks for linking up to Tickled Pink..I pinned your room on the tickled pink features Pinterest Board!
http://pinterest.com/holly_lefevre/tickled-pink-features/
Maria January 15, 2012 8:34PM
Thank you Holly
kristin January 16, 2012 5:50PM
Love your new room, so bright and airy!
Thanks for linking up!
XO
kristin
Kristin January 23, 2012 1:40PM
It’s amazing what a fresh coat of paint will do! Thanks for sharing at Simply Klassic Home!
Courtney January 27, 2012 6:22PM
Beautiful~ I love the green but do love the lighter brighter look too! Would love for you to come share this at Feathered Nest Friday going on all weekend at my blog!
Maria January 27, 2012 7:52PM
Thanks Courtney, I’ll come stop by.
Dwayne December 28, 2012 10:34AM
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