It was a lot of little things that I've done recently that have made my bedroom such a happier space :)
Let's take a trip down memory lane shall we?
When we first bought the house, my bedroom looked like this:
ain't it pretty?
pretty soon after, I'd remodeled it as such:
But there was still lots of little things that bothered me about the room so how about I show you how I fixed them :)
First off was this cable going to the TV. Looks pretty trashy, huh?
I armed myself with about $8 in supplies (Spray paint, painters tape, a white cable, cable staples)
Part of the cable I couldn't easily replace so I taped off the wall and spray painted it. After it dried, I attached the white cable and used the cable staples to nail it next to the trim. All-in-all this took about 20 minutes of work and I couldn't be happier with the finished product!
Next up was the lack of pillows on my bed. My Martha Steward bedspread came with some matching euro shams but they had this silly pink lining on them which didn't fit in with my color scheme at all so they just sat in my closet.
It finally hit me that I had a sewing machine so I took to ripping out the stitches in the shams to remove the pink piping, sewed them back up, and bought some Euro pillows for 7.99 a piece at JC Penny's (thanks to a 50% off sale) and just like that I had dirt cheap new pillows for my bed :)
(I didn't buy a new bedspread, I just decided to flip it over for a change)
These next two ideas I found on Young House Love (which they found somewhere else but I can't remember where).
First off was this slouchy dust ruffle that was a tad too long
I bought some upholstery screws and screwed them into the mattress every 18" or so after adjusting the height and now my dust ruffle hangs in the perfect spot!
No before picture for this one, but if any of you have a feather mattress topper you know how much it likes to move around. I picked up some jumbo safety pins and again, about every 18" (and again - thanks to inspiration from Young House Love) I stuck a pin through the feather bed, feather bed cover, and the piping on my mattress:
It's like magic!!!! I've had these pinned on for about a month now and the mattress has not budged an inch! It's like I have a whole new bed!!
Next, I needed a dressing mirror. I had this cheap one in my closet from college, I got it at Target I think. It didn't match though so, again, armed with some painters tape, newspaper, and spray paint, I transformed it.
I then hung it directly across from the door leading to my backyard to bounce around as much light as possible.
Ok now for the biggie - window treatments!!!
As you can see in this BEFORE picture, there are two main problems with my existing window treatments
1. The drapes on the door are hung way too narrow so when they are fully open they still block half the light coming into the room. They needed to be re-hung about 12" wider on either side so when they are fully open, all the light gets to come in!
2. That UGLY roller shade on the window behind the bed had no personality (and was ripped).
The first problem I solved by myself by simply remounting the drapes wider, filling in the old holes, sanding and painting. Piece of cake and such a HUGE difference right?
I couldn't do the other ones by myself though so Adam got up and helped screw in my new bamboo shades (again thanks to Young House Love for the inspiration)
Aren't they pretty (the white sheer ones actually came with my bed set too - they have a cute green trim at the bottom)
We also bought a new flat screen tv for the bedroom. It has a build in DVD player so that we can drag it outside and watch movies in the hot tub ;)
Since I took this picture I also bought a pretty blue pillow that matches the walls to go right in the middle of the bed (behind the roll pillow). I don't feel like taking another picture though ;)
SO... I think that's it... all my little renovations to the bedroom that make it so much better :)
We do have one project left in here. That awful ceiling fan. I'd love to replace it with a modern chandelier (like this one) but Adam insists on a fan so I'm on the lookout for a great sleek, updated, non-brass one that will match the room.
Now... do I need this pillow? :P