The Boy's Bedroom Reno: Hardscape

Now that the painting is all put to bed, we've moved on to what I'm calling "the hardscape" of the Boy's room. In this category, I include things like shelves, bed frame, dresser, etc... anything that is physically hard. Like, if you hit your head on it, it hurts. I know this from personal painful experience.

So first off, I decided to put The Boy's aquarium on a different base.

A few years ago, my middle child Dia, brought the above nightstand home. It was being chucked by some neighbours and she decided to rescue it. At the time, there was a very heavy monster-drawer in the bottom space that made you break into a sweat every time you tried to open it. So I hoyked the darn thing out of there. The blue paint is original to the piece but I distressed it a little more and painted the inside bright white. This little nightstand had lived in the basement collecting dust since that fateful day. I noticed it down there a few days ago and thought it might serve well as a home for The Boy's happy fish.

Next, Lo cut and installed new wooden brackets for the shelves. If you recall, the old brackets were those cheap metal ones that attach to a set of metal rails. So glad to see them gone. They were ancient. The shelves themselves are the same shelves - try saying that 3 times fast! - but freshened with a coat of paint.

Lo - my personal hero - also built a custom desk for the closet space. Didn't he do a fine job? I gave it a few coats of maple stain and varathane. I just love how simple it is. In fact, I'm so happy with everything Lo's done in the room. It's super super duper!

The wooden bed, old brown dresser that Lo's great-grandpa made (seen here), and tall white cabinet behind the door will all remain as-is for now. I'm trying to keep this bedroom overhaul simple, you see. I may decide to paint the dresser eventually, but that's a job best done outside when the weather is somewhere above freezing, even if only slightly.

Still have to deal with cushions and bedding and such... Uh huh... That's the next post, okay?

♥M

Previous posts on The Boy's bedroom overhaul: here, here and here.

The Boy's Bedroom Reno: Roman Blind

Lookee, I made a roman blind for The Boy's bedroom all by myself! Well... that's not entirely true. The boys helped a little. But the bulk of the help came from this talented lady (Alissa) and this talented lady (Jen). Ya, I couldn't have done it without these two and their beautifully detailed roman blind/shade tutorials HERE and HERE. Huge huge huge thanks to both of them!

The most exciting thing about The Boy's new roman blind is the action on it. What I mean to say is that it runs SO smoothely. That just makes me happy, you know? I pull the cord and the blind actually folds up so nicely! When things I make work this well, I feel like anything's possible. I love that feeling.

The Boy chose this fabric because he said it had a certain turkish flair. I have no idea what that means really... but I have to admit, Lo and I were both quite skeptical about it. Well not no more! Now we love it, and I'm so glad we let The Boy choose it.

He did good, didn't he?

♥M

Previous posts on this bedroom overhaul: here and here.

The Boy's Bedroom Reno: Paint Colours

Here we have the paint colours for The Boy's bedroom. The colour pendulum has swung 180〫from warm-slash-dark to cool-slash-light!

Aside from choosing paint colours, what have we done so far?

Well...

1) Lo gave the ceiling a single coat of white.
2) I sanded, primed, and painted the trim twice in your basic white. That was a job I did NOT find the joy in, I tell you. I looked for it too. But dang it, it was nowhere! Thankfully, I'm on the other side of it now so we're all good.
3) After much research, Lo installed an outlet in the closet. He had to cut through the drywall to do it but managed with minimal damage. I applied several coats of drywall mud to the area in question and sanded the Dickens out of it. You can't even tell anything was done there. Thing of beauty!
4) Patched all holes in walls with drywall mud. Sanded, dusted and washed the walls.
5) The Boy and I decided to tape off some areas of the window wall for a touch of fun. The idea being that the original red colour would show through in stripes when the tape was removed. Here's a peek at the effect...

6) Given the darkness of the previous colour, we had no choice but to prime the walls before painting. I cut in the primer and Lo rolled it on.
7) I was relieved to finally cut in the actual fancy-named paint, "Beige Chanterelle" of which we applied two coats. Lo rolled it on. Unsure of it at first, I am liking it more now but still getting used to it. Thank Pete, it's about 4 million times better than red and orange.
8) I painted the closet in "Vienna Lake", a colour The Boy chose. Here's a glimpse of all the colours playing together...

I'm excited about it! We're chugging along nicely, aren't we?

♥M

Find "before" photos here.

The Boy's "Before" Bedroom

We've officially made a start on The Boy's bedroom overhaul!

This is a project we've been discussing for about a year now... It's almost ludicrous, I know. But it is my belief that sometimes these things have to percolate in the mind for a time before they can be poured out into the real world... Anyway, the work has finally, finally begun. I know, I have an actual goal. Amazing stuff.

Before sharing any progress, I thought I'd show some "before" pictures and our BIG list of plans. There's a lot to be done in this little room but our hope is to keep the changes simple, work with many of the existing elements, donate a lot of stuff, keep the waste to a minimum, and be done swiftly!

Here's what the room looked like before we started, and our wish list for its improvement:

Can't wait to see the backside of that red and orange colour scheme. Yikes-ey... I'll be back with an update soon. Wish us luck!

♥M