Progress

Remember that one post that I wrote ages ago about a bedroom-face lift?

Well we've been making progress. Slowly but surely. I apologize in advance for the poor iPhone pics.

Stage 1:

This awesome antique mantle that I found on Craig's list for only $20 came in pieces (as opposed to well over $100 for being all in one piece!). So, with a little elbow grease, my dad and Greg put it alllllll back together. The next step was to figure out how to hang this bad boy on the wall. That thing was HEAVY. It's solid wood, so Greg had to get creative with how to hang it. Good news, my hubby is a genius and figured out a way to let the studs in the wall hold it up because it probably weighs a good 20-30 pounds. So, once it was up, Stage 1 of the re-do was complete!

Stage 2:

Stage 2 entailed moving the Coffee Filter Wreath in from our living room. Obtaining some antique glass bottles from my mom and a local antique store, and redo-ing some cardboard letters to mimic the expensive brushed metal letters found at Anthro. To make the letters, I just bought 3-d carboard letters (found at Hobby Lobby or JoAnn Fabrics, and painted them with "Hammered Metal" Spray Paint (also found at Hobby Lobby). They don't look exactly the same as the Anthro letters, but I still think they look pretty darn awesome!

Stage 3:

Stage three entailed finally hanging our Anthro-letter inspired monogram in a re-vamped frame. I used an old frame that my mom had stored in the attic (and she so graciously gave me - FOR FREE!). I spray-painted the frame with a clearance bottle of off-white spray paint that I found at Hobby Lobby for a couple bucks. After the spray-paint had dried, I ran a piece of sand-paper over the frame to "antique" the frame and have the brown peeking-through on all the ridges and designs. It turned out better than I would have hoped and looks like I paid quite a bit of money for it! We hung the letters with 3M strips, which was super easy and obviously meant no more holes in the walls! In addition, I stocked up on white candles at Hobby Lobby this past week as they were all 50% off. Definitely the way to go to save lots of money!


What's Next???

Stage 4:

Adding some baby's breath (or dried baby's breath) to the bottles for some more height and texture elements.

Stage 5:

Using the leftover fabric from the curtains that my mom and I crafted to make some 18x18 Grey & White Chevron Throw pillows. Cannot wait for the patterned element that this will add to our bed.

Yes, I know that I'm mixing designs and styles in our bedroom, but isn't that what Anthro does? Modern with antique like things? I like to think so.. haha! Maybe I'm just fooling myself but I absolutely love the way that things have been turning out. Once all is said and done, be looking for the final before & after pics!!!

Bedroom Facelift: UPDATE!

A while back... and I mean a while back, I shared a plan of a Bedroom Facelift that I had been envisioning. Slowly but surely, we've been trying to make it happen. We are in the interim phases and I'm just so excited about it that I had to share everything Greg and I have accomplished thus far!

First, I really wanted to hang up some curtains, but couldn't find any that I loved that weren't about $200. Womp Womp. Since when are curtains so stinkin' expensive?! So, I took matters into my own hands and enlisted the help of my mom, her sewing machine, and her sewing skills and we crafted some curtains that were long enough and lined. I saved SO much money by making them on my own and couldn't be happier in the way they turned out!

My inspiration: Carouseldesigns.com

The Fabric of Choice.

The outcome. I'm obsessed.

I decided to go ahead an buy enough extra fabric to make two 16x16 inch pillow covers for some throw pillows for our bed. This is on the list of crafts to complete!

The other "big" change that we've made to our room is to the decor above our bed. So this is what we had before:

We made some old decor that I had from college work until we could afford/decide what we really wanted to do. As of last night, this is the newest change to what's above our bed:

It's only in the beginning stages, but I'm so excited about how it turned out! The mantle is actually one that I found on Craigslist for $20! It was in pieces, and we did have to drive to a really sketchy part of the country to get it, but with a little bit of work, it was totally worth it! Not to mention, we found out that it was removed from a historic mansion in Highland Park that was being remodeled. How cool is that?

The decor on the mantle is no where near done or set-in-stone, but I was just so excited about it, I had to share. Plans: add lots of candles, hang and frame the letters on the wall, add some baby's breath to the bottles, and maybe even sneak an owl up there. We shall see!

So appreciative of this man and his hard work figuring out how to hang this thing.

A Bedroom Facelift

So one of my next Pinterest inspired projects it to give our bedroom a facelift. When we moved in, we tried to use things that we already had to help decorate out house to make it feel more "homey" until we had the money to decorate the way we wanted. Well, thanks to the invention of Pinterest, it has become so easy to decorate with designer style in an affordable way.

This is how our bed looks currently:

This is a rough sketch of how I want to transform the look over our bed.

The new updated look consists of a Distressed White Shelf, which I hope to find in an antique store or make my own from a simple white shelf from The Home Depot. In addition, I hope to re-purpose the Coffee Filter Wreath that I used as Christmas Decor and add some depth and texture to our wall. We recently purchased a Living Social deal for a 11x20 Print to Metal frame that I want to print one of our wedding photos on and lean against the wall on the right side of the shelf. In addition, I want to try and make my own form of "galvanized" letters, similar to the ones found at Anthropologie, from cardboard letters and some spray paint. As far as the finishing touches.. I would also love to find some old antique glass bottles and put some baby's breath in them as a simple and sweet touch to finish off the look.

It's alot, I know, but here is some of my inspiration for the look.

Shelf above Bed with homemade "zinc" letters. 

Zinc Letter Inspiration
DIY: http://346living.com/2011/06/06/letter-art/

Distressed Shelf above the bed. Mine will have to be a bit skinnier.

Baby's Breath in Old Glass Bottles

Glass Bottle Love.

For the bed, I want to begin to incorporate a mustard yellow color to tie the whole look together: Grey, White, Salmon, and Mustard Yellow. In order to incorporate this color, I want to either purchase or make fun pillows as decor for the bed. These are currently what I'm Feeling...

For purchase: http://www.etsy.com/shop/urbanfringe?ref=pr_shop#
DIY instructions: http://www.vanessachristenson.com/2010/05/guest-blogger-tutorial-allison-of-cluck.html

DIY: http://westermanfam.blogspot.com/2011/02/rosette-pillow.html

A ruffled pillow to tie in our lamp shades
DIY: http://inkblotsandpolkadots.blogspot.com/2011/02/drop-cloth-ruffle-pillow.html

As the process begins, I hope to keep you updated on the new look!