Saturday, September 20, 2014

New Bedroom

So, one of the reasons I haven't posted much over the summer is that I have been getting ready for graduate school.I'm the kind of person who hates doing something big under a tight time constraint. So I pretty much spent 2 months of this summer organizing my stuff and getting packed up.
One of the cool things about this, however, is that I am returning to the blog with a new room to show you!

My wonderful mom drove 6 hours across the state with me to help me move in, clean, and paint. We ended up dividing the work up so that she painted while I cleaned, since we only had a day and a half until she needed to return home.
I had already decided on a color scheme, red and aqua, while I was back home, in part because my bedroom all through high school included red as one of the main colors. So I was able to re-use quite a bit of stuff. Some things that I hadn't seen in years seemed brand new when I took them out and paired them with a few newer items. And, luckily, my landlords were OK with me painting my bedroom, so I was able to update the look by adding a new complimentary color in aqua.
Without further ado are some pictures!
The view in from my bedroom door.
I already had the red gingham and cherry pillow-shams. I sewed up some additional pillowcases to tie everything together. The two red-and-aqua larger squares are coordinating quilting cottons from Jo Anns, and I was very proud of the way I inserted the zippers. Really, they are my best looking zippers to date. The white flour-sack look smaller squares (you can see on center front) are from some Ikea dish towels. At 75c each towel, I was able to create something that is a very current look for very little money.
I love my little needle felted mushrooms, to the far left, they were previously a gift from my mom. The little flocked deer were Christmas ornaments I found at the Antique Mall in Bellingham.
I found the metal wheeled-kitchen cart at the same antique mall, for a ridiculously low price. I think it was $12, which is a steal since those mid-century enameled carts are a popular item right now. It was originally a light yellow, but it was spray painted red to match the rest of the decor.

View of the closets
I hung some semi-sheer curtains over the closet openings, since there weren't any doors. They are nice big closets, but that isn't what I want people to notice when they walk into the room. Between the two closets is an ad for Jello from the 1950s (I think.)
Here's a close-up of that Jello ad. I think it's pretty cute.

Here is a better view of the handkerchief banner I just put up today. It consists of vintage hankies attached to white bias tape with some mini clothes-pins.

I repainted the ca 1960's dresser in cream, and spray painted some ceramic knobs in aqua. I brought my record player, since it's such a nice color. The record holder was found at Goodwill. You might notice that the tote-bag hanging on the dresser and the paper lantern in the corner are in a matching pattern. I purchased them both from Blue-Q online.

Here is my desk/ vanity. I sewed the seat cushion from another Jo Anns quilting fabric. The desk is actually a vanity that I removed the mirror from, because I didn't like how it looked with the mirror. I made the jewelry hanger from an old cupboard door and some white-coated cup-hooks. You can also see a couple of my sewing supplies and a recent issue of Mollie Makes.

A close-up of a little file cabinet that was spray painted aqua. The top drawer has my hairdryer and straightener in it. The bottom drawer is for more sewing supplies. Right now I am storing my backpack and a little red-leather valet for my keys etc. on top.

So that's my new room! I think it looks pretty great now, but I still have some art I would like to put up on the walls soon.
Until next time!