Our Bedroom is Finished!

This is what our bedroom looked like when we first moved in....blech...

And here it is now!

After living in a yucky, gray and unfinished, unorganized bedroom for 9 months, I now finally feel like I have a nice, airy retreat to end and start my days. If I had no boy around, the walls would probably be aqua and the furniture would be white...but this room is a perfect blend of Ben and I.

Ben doesn't like my "huge thing" as he calls it, but I think it's the perfect piece for the wall opposite the bed. It reaches toward the ceiling, drawing your eye up (to my new crown molding) and it provides long shallow drawers for my "drawers" and pretty Bavarian style display shelves up top.

We bought this piece together at a junk shop in the ghetto when we first moved to Boston. The piece on the top went with a different, boxier bottom, but the guy let us mix and match. I still love it, even if Ben tires of it.

The middle shelf houses some of my shell boxes and shell sailboat collection. I'm rethinking the creepy doll head though. lol

This little cubbies house Ben's spare change and my vintage mini-animals...and maybe a spun cotton creature or two.

Hoot hoot! Cluck cluck! And chapstick...

The head mug from Grandma's house hold some funny and unflattering "mug shots" of my grandfather (I think they were ID photos or something) and garage sale framed butterflies that need a less childish coat of paint on their frame.

I flanked the "huge thing" with precious framed cards, a card that still needs a frame, and my treasured embroidery from Sharon.

The secret door now has a nice clean secret wooden box to hold secret treasures. I was thinking of putting a handle on it...but then it wouldn't be so secret.

On the wall above the mirror I plan to hang a large 1960's map of Boston that I saved from the real estate development firm I used to work for. I need to make a frame for it first though.
And I didn't take a close up photo of the crystal chandelier, but I picked it up at a garage sale for ten bucks a while ago and I've been saving it for the perfect place. It replaced a super ugly thing that looked like a soggy square pillow.

Ben insisted on keeping his retro 80's alarm clock...but I supplied him with some back ups, just in case. The bunnies are out for Easter and my Aunt Barb gave me the amaryllis bulb as a housewarming gift that has now turned into a beautiful thing...worthy of it's own frame.

I sewed the pillow cases a long time ago, including the frisky lounging lady...I found the mostly complete embroidery at a flea market in Boston and turned into an accent/prop-up-your-head pillow.

My side table holds a pretty plant in a love-birds planter, a water decanter and glass, two lead deer and for now, my super awesome 1800-something edition of Robinson Crusoe.

It's the almost unedited original edition that was first published in 1719. They definitely had more time to read back then...the book is so much longer than the modern edition and has many details and redundancy's. But I am enjoying it immensely! He just finished building his house-cave...and whatever he does next, I know he won't spare any details and will probably describe it several times over!

We used to have large white milk glass lamps on either side of the bed, that were Ben's before I met him...but Ben didn't think they looked right, so we bought a pair of sconces from Ikea on our last trip downstate. They are very handy!

Ben has a cool retro (and super heavy) dresser. We weren't sure where or how to set the TV up. Ben, being like most modern men, needed to get the biggest TV I would allow him, so it was a challenge to make it fit into the room. Hopefully he'll wire it tonight when he gets home...he's good at hiding wires.

We couldn't really hang it on the wall above the dresser, because the thermostat sticks out in exactly the wrong spot. So the best I could come up with for now was to elevate the TV on a piece of barn wood fitted with casters, just for some masculine decoration. It needed to be elevated to fit his other accompanying TV equipment underneath. I'm not in love with it, but it will do for now.

We redid our closet too....

Ta-da!

I wish I were better at taking before photos (I think I'm always too eager to get to work)...but the before closet had a single bar with a shelf on top..very typical...leaving tons of vertical space for Ben to pile towels and sheets messily on top. I decided we need two closet rods and went to Lowe's and got some plumbing pipe and flanges instead of the flimsy wood and brackets. It doesn't even need a support in the middle like the other ones do. And now we have a rod for Ben, and a rod for me! (He's got the top...hehe.)

I used a lot of heavy duty dry wall anchors to hold the flanges in place, since there are virtually no studs anywhere in our bedroom or the closet (I think they must run horizontally). I also bought a whole set of cheap velvet hangers from Amazon and a bunch of pants hangers. I really love them because the clothes don't fall off and they are uniform and pretty. So much better than the mess of wire and plastic things we had before. I also took a few square antique nails and hammered them into the inside wall near the door for belts. The closet isn't finished quite yet though...I'd like to paint and stencil the closet to look like wall paper. Maybe next winter...

I also installed a set of vintage hooks on the inside of the door to hang our robes (something you may not have guessed about me...I love robes!).

And finally...spent a whole morning and part of an afternoon sewing curtain panels for the large windows. The white muslin is from our wedding (photos still to come...I promise!!!) and are light and airy. Don't worry...we have forced air heating and almost never use the baseboard heating...in case you were thinking of the fire hazard!

Now...the hallway is next...

I hope you enjoyed the tour of our new bedroom! :)