master bedroom |

A new baby and a new house!

Posted on April 12, 2013 by Amy

**Our newest giveaway is up and running over on our Current Giveaways page. We’re giving away two copies of 31 Days to a Heart of Hospitality, an ebook by our friend Edie over at Life{in}Grace.**

Here is a bit of what’s been going on with the other two of us while Christy’s been covering 11 Magnolia Lane over the last two weeks! She did a great job of course She is now in the midst of preparing to move, and winding up the school year, so I told her I would jump back in and give everyone all the news.

First of all, we are SO proud to share our newest resident at Magnolia Lane. Last week Terry and her family welcomed this sweet bundle of joy to their family. I have been lucky enough to spend time with him and can attest he will just melt your heart!

Gorgeous photo by Courtney Anderson Photography. He is in his beautiful nursery, see the whole room HERE.

And we’ve completed our move! Well, at least as far as we are able to reside in our home, but we still have boxes everywhere. We really jumped back in our new area with kids’ activities, school events, sporting events and of course, that new baby pictured above to visit :) so unpacking has taken a backseat.

Our new home is very different from our former lakefront home near the beach. We traded the water view for space, space and more space. Just having a basement for ~~storage~~ the kids to play in is so nice, not to mention all this closet space I will be sure to show off more of the house once I get it more presentable but for now here is a bit of a sneak peak via my phone.

{the dining room}

While we waited for our belongings to arrive, I had a few days in the empty house to make some adaptions so it would match our current cooler, light color scheme. Much of this home is decorated in warmer tones like yellow, mustard, moss green and burgundy.

{the family room}

We discovered the other day that the stripes on the fireplace wall are not what they seem–wallpaper–but actually painted on the wall. I need to find out the scoop on that from the owner, it’s just amazing to me someone could paint perfect stripes on a two-story wall.

{the front hall}

{the screened porch–I have BIG plans for this space!}

I did have a few projects right at the top of my list. First off, my oldest son is moving into the room that was a former office. I tackled removing the flowered wallpaper border, as it is not really my son’s taste. I’ll do a post on that shortly, I learned a lot of what to do and not do removing wallpaper. Here is the room previously, it was an easy fix and after the border came down, the beige walls work perfectly for a preteen boy.

I also painted the master bedroom. It was formerly dark minty green, and our bedding and accessories didn’t really match. I have been obsessed with the Sherwin Williams color ‘Blue Diamond’ since I saw it in my brother in law’s beach condo last winter. Its the perfect palest blue, with just hints of gray, and couldn’t wait to use it in my bedroom. Had I not just painted my old master bedroom, I would have redone it immediately to that color after our visit.

Unfortunately things didn’t go as planned with the color, it came out WAY more blue then I expected. Here is the repainted room, and while I like it, its obviously not the ‘palest’ blue out there. I am not sure if its the dark green behind {but I used paint with primer?} or perhaps I incorrectly remembered the color and got something else similar instead, or maybe the color was off from being mixed at Home Depot? {Thoughts?} Anyway, lesson learned but I will just live with it–or repaint the room again down the road!

I am off to go unpack, but thanks for stopping by!

XO,

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Posted in Before and After, General & About Us, Home Inspiration, Home Tours, Real Spaces | Tagged baby, bedroom, before, Dining Room, master bedroom, moving, new house, Porch | 4 Comments

Dutch Boy Paints & Master Bedroom Makeover {sneak peek}

Posted on November 1, 2012 by Amy

Several months ago Dutch Boy paints asked us girls to give their new line of Refresh Paint a try. I was the one with a big project–my master bedroom makeover was on the horizon–so I was the lucky one to get two gallons of Dutch Boy paint to use.

Our bedroom is large, so large I let the paint sit for awhile before I mustered up the energy to tackle painting the large space. It also has a tray ceiling, so I knew I was going to have my work cut out for me! Hiring painters crossed my mind many times, but since I had to actually use the paint to tell you about it, that really wasn’t an option!

I finally dove into the project. The before of our room is really to bad to even show online–trust me, white walls, white bedding. It was boring, boring boring! We’ve just put off doing anything to our room in light of many other projects in the more public spaces in our home.

But, back to the paint. I have become a bit of a paint “snob” over the last year. After too many trips back to the store to buy more cheaper paint, I have learned it’s easier to spend more up front and do fewer coats.

In our home we have these HORRIBLE textured walls. They don’t take paint well, and of course, are ugly–a lovely surprise from the builder! The Dutch Boy paint covered them exceptionally well, in fact the whole room was easier to paint then I expected because the first coat went on so well, it only took a little bit of touching up to do the second coat and then I was done.

The color I chose was beautiful, its called Driftwood Gray. There isn’t a store close to me, so I picked online which made me very nervous as my computer monitor is not reliable. The paint came out a gorgeous blue/gray color that picks up the color of the lake outside our home.

The best part of the paint is it is odorless–Zero VOC and Greenguard Indoor Air Quality Certified as well as mildew resistant. Like with my Mom’s Craft Room makeover, using an odorless paint makes such a difference. Overall it was a great choice for this room, and I am thrilled that I was asked to try it out. I expect we’ll be using this low VOC paint again very shortly in Terry’s baby room makeover too! Thanks Dutch Boy!

So, the rest of the room is still “in progress” but I am at work on it and hope to show it all to you soon. Here is a peak of how its coming along…

Don’t forget to enter our PSA Essentials Custom Stamp giveaway!

XO,

Amy

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Posted in Home Inspiration, Master Bedroom | Tagged gray, master bedroom, paint, room makeover | Leave a comment

My Master Bedroom & Sitting Room (aka the office!) Redo Reveal

Posted on April 1, 2012 by Christy

This has been a long time coming–I’ve actually had the room painted since January, as this was high on my list of home improvement goals for 2012, but I just didn’t have time to decorate the room because I kept getting derailed by, well, life!

We’re fortunate to have a really large master suite that includes a bedroom with vaulted ceiling, a sitting area, two walk-in closets, and an en suite bathroom. It’s almost 950 square feet, which is more than half the size of our first house, so I fully realize that we’re blessed with great space. I wasn’t convinced that we were using our space wisely, though, especially in the sitting area, which became more of a “treadmill room” and a catch-all for stuff that I was selling on Ebay and Craigslist.

When we bought the house, the whole area was painted a vivid shade of green apple. I loved this shade of green, but I loved it about ten years ago, and it was looking a little dated. Here are a few before pictures:

Check out that green!

I completely understood why the previous owners hadn’t repainted. The room is huge and the cathedral ceiling is about 16′ high, requiring an extension ladder (which I somehow have managed to survive without for all these years). What won out in the end is my feeling that I always neglect the master bedroom and it gets fixed up last when we move to a new house, and this time I wanted to make it nice and enjoy it for as long as we’re here.

I started with the bathroom, which I painted right before Christmas, because I didn’t have anything better to do (yeah, right). You can read all about that {here}. I love how it turned out, and I also love the color I chose for the walls, Benjamin Moore’s Pebble Beach. It looks gray on the paint chip, but it’s a blue gray on the walls. The cabinets in the bathroom are cherry, which I didn’t feel like painting after my kitchen redo {here}, and we also have a TON of cherry furniture in the bedroom that I also didn’t feel like painting, although it may happen one day if I can talk hubby into it. I’ve mentioned all that because, although I don’t really like dark wood anymore, I’m stuck with it in this space, so a pale blue is one of the best colors to set off the beauty of dark wood. You can see how it worked out in this picture of the bathroom:

Once I got all the Christmas stuff put away in January, I borrowed an extension ladder from our neighbor, bought two gallons of paint, and went for it. I covered everything but the closets (they are still on my to-do list and will be painted then). I also pulled down the flush mount ceiling light in the sitting room and replaced it with this chandelier I scored on Craigslist for $20. It was a rusty red when I bought it. I spray painted it white and added a ceiling medallion, a cord cover, and black shades that I found at Goodwill for $.99 apiece–can’t beat that!

After moving a few pieces of furniture around, I would up with half of the sitting room for my home office area and the other half for my treadmill and my husband’s armoire. The Barcelona chair in front of the window is the real deal–we have pictures of me when I was five years old sitting on this thing and there is also green shag carpet in the photos! It’s not my usual style, but it works in this room as a nice balance to the other furniture.

The white table and chairs were my mom and dad’s. I repainted them white about five years ago and recovered the chairs and enjoy them so much more now.

The little bookshelf below was a thrift store find. The tutorial on the chalkboard picture frame is {here}. The wire basket on the bottom shelf (from Target) holds my file folders, although I have fewer of them now that I have Pinterest! I love the polka dotted frame with the picture of me and my sweet goddaughter (Amy’s baby girl). When I see her picture, it reminds me to pray for her.

The infinity shelves were a freebie from a neighbor, but they sagged a bit when I hung them, so I bought corbels and hung them beneath. It was still less than buying or making shelves. The picture of me with my mom and son always takes the place of honor in every house. It’s been almost ten years since I lost my precious mother, and I love to look at her face and remember what an amazing gift she had for making others feel good about themselves.

I spent about $200 total on this room redo–mostly paint, curtain rods, and this black and white beauty. If you’re like my husband, you’re wondering WHY I needed a mannequin for my office? I’m not sure either, but I had to have her! She was $55 at Hobby Lobby.

Oh, of course, she can hold three necklaces to earn her keep! The cute white one is from Terry; she brought them to me and Amy when we had our fun girls’ weekend {here}.

I blog at the table, and find it very inspiring!

I was going to add black curtains with a white fretwork pattern, but even the ones at Target were $30 a panel. I had three pairs of gauzy white panels from Ikea (“Lill”) that I bought for $5 a pair and even though the color didn’t “pop” as much, I couldn’t justify the extra expense of the black panels. They do let in tons of light, though, and I love the way they puddle on the floor.

Since getting rid of the treadmill wasn’t an option because I actually use it I decided to do what I could to decorate the corner it takes up. I hung all my race medals from a hook and framed two Bible verses that are all about running (1 Cor. 9:24 and Hebrews 12:1-2). Hopefully they’ll give me inspiration as I knock out the miles!

**You can see the post and get your own free set of these printables HERE**

Moving into the bedroom, I have yet to add something above the bed; I am thinking about bringing down a tin-framed mirror from Pottery Barn that’s currently in the guest room, or something sparkly. Oh, and despite the fact that I have changed out several light fixtures for chandeliers in this room, please note that I left the ceiling fan above the bed in deference to my husband’s request!

The two sconces are from Ikea and I was so happy to hang them up and put away the lamps we had on our nightstands. They sell conduit at Lowe’s and Home Depot that can be painted to match your wall color, and then the cord just disappears.

Before conduit…

After conduit…

Here’s the view into the bathroom:

I’m so pleased with this room–it’s peaceful, calm, and soothing, just like a master “retreat” should be. And I’m even more pleased with the price, because for little more than the cost of paint (and my mannequin!), I managed to redo the room, proving that you don’t have to spend a fortune to update your space.