Master Bedroom Reveal: Part 2 - Transforming A Room

(This is PART 2 of the Reveal of my Master Bedroom.   Master Bedroom Reveal: Part 1 covered the before images and initial plans to transform this room from dull to dynamic.  You can go back and read that post at anytime if you wish.)

Redecorating a room while you live in it requires some suffering.  That is just the way it is.  Nothing good comes easy.  Sometimes you have to sleep on the ground, as seen in the above image.  I knew that I would use my outside patio to paint the furniture, but I didn't anticipate how difficult that was going to be.  Dragging large, heavy pieces in and out during the process requires a lot of strength.  The first piece to get redone was my chest of drawers.  I highlighted the redo in my blog post Mom's Cherish Chest of Drawers if you are interested in seeing the entire process.  Here is the before and after of that piece.

-Before-

-After-

The next piece was the bookcase.  As I announced in my post, Throwing in the Towel, I attempted to paint this bookcase, but in the end removed it to my workshop, eliminating it from the room.  I replaced it with a pine armoire that I got for a song. I told you about this pine armoire in this post. (click here) I decided on pine because I knew the room would benefit from the visual texture of the piece, plus the idea of closing off the contents appeals to me.

Bookcase outback in process.

Pine Armoire in the store
on day of purchase.

With the bookcase eliminated, I set my sights on the Four Poster Bed and Hall Tree.  The Poster Bed was a lengthy process, so the Hall Tree even though it was started after the bed was completed first.  Here is the before and after images of the Hall Tree.  The after image was taken before we painted the room.  If you want to read the entire post about the Hall Tree click here.

-Before-

At this point, you can see from the last image that the chair rail was installed, but that the walls were still red.  I didn't want to paint the room until the four poster bed was complete.  As a part of the plan to declutter the space, I had made the decision to lower the posters on the foot-board portion of the bed.  The tall posters cut off the visual space in the room, so I removed the large carved pieces from the middle and fixed the finials on the lower part.

The four poster bed got dragged outside and back inside a total of 4 times!  It was my largest undertaking to date.  I decided to use the Annie Sloan's Chalk Paint in Old White on this project because the initial reviews sounded like it would save me a ton of time.  The idea of having to sand and prime this bed complete with a ton of carved surfaces was more than I could handle.

Ugg! Ran out of paint!

The Annie Sloan product didn't require initial priming and sanding, but I didn't anticipate two things.  One, was that the paint wouldn't go very far and the job would be held up while I waited for a second can.  Two, that the sanding of this paint was so crazy messy that it would cause me a sinus infection and a ton of work in clean up of my patio.  The paint dust was so severe that just bringing the pieces inside between coats left a mess in my bedroom as well. I couldn't leave them outside and risk damage from wet weather.  This paint is not secure until it is fully waxed.  

Following are a series of photographs taken while the painting was in process.....

-Before-

-After-

-Before-
This images shows how I
shortened the foot-board posters.

Ran out of paint.  Couldn't finish.

Even Ruby is upset that we ran
out of paint!

In the end, the finish was made breathtaking by the Fiddles and Sons finishing wax that Miss Mustard Seed recommended.  Two coats and a buff with a baby diaper and this bed was finally completed!  I dragged it in one last time and set it up in place, putting the old bedding onto the bed.  I wish I had taken images at this point, but it looked ugly and I didn't anticipate wanting to show that.  

With the room readied for paint, I contacted Ravi and we got together to talk about whites.  He dropped off three white colors with varying undertones.  I spoke about this in my blog post Covered in White.  In the end, I realized that I am just a color girl.  I had to pick something that would brighten the room without taking over the idea of whites. This was challenging because many paint shades today are somewhat muted, meaning toned down into a darker rendition of themselves.  I wanted something with a pure color, pale pastel and bright. 

I decided on a pastel yellow and set out to develop the color myself.   I have a Sherwin William's paint deck, and I knew they didn't have the shade that I wanted, so I collected swatches from the paint sections of Lowes and taped them on the walls in the room.  I took my favorite pale, lemon yellow shade to be matched at my Sherwin Williams and came up with the shade that I loved.  Ravi got right to work and painted the walls yellow and the bead-board a fresh white.   

Comforter worth hundreds bought for $20.

Then it was time to dress the bed.  For three months, I have been collecting pillows, shams, sheets and a blanket as I have seen them on sale.  I snagged an amazing comforter for 20 dollars at a yard sale in my neighborhood.  I celebrated that find in my blog post way back at the beginning of April entitled It's Saturday! Yard Sales! Yippee!  If you are interested, it's a funny post written about my experience that day shopping in my neighborhood.  I found blankets when I shopped Ikea, pillows on major markdown at Pier One, sheets half price at Bloomingdale's and a wonderful shabby chic blanket at Target on sale. 

A few days ago, I showed you some of the details surround this bed, like the fun things I set on my new mirrored Pier One night stands.  The two cool lucite lamps were a huge snag at a recent yard sale for 10 bucks!  The lampshade were 24 bucks at Target.  The setting gives a cool vibe to the room and make me smile. The second image below does a good job of showing how the yellow actually looks on the walls.  I am still working through my photography skills and sometimes have a hard time capturing accurate colors.

Good shot of the lucite lamp along with my little
owl on a pedestal and a nosegay from Target.

Hubby's nightstand
Chair cushion still needs
a new cover.

So.....are you ready to finally see this darn Four Poster Bed that I have obsessed over?!!  Well, here it is......

I am so excited about this bed....and yes, it is a dream to sleep in!!!  More images.....

Love this peacock pillow
that I got at Pier One for
 7 bucks! 
(the yellow is not that bright)

Turned the heat off on this
image so you could see
the variety of tones and textures

I have several other areas of the bedroom to work on details.  I have this pretty nifty bird cage in one corner waiting to be addressed.  I have a comfy chair in one corner that needs a new cover and is  along side a vintage dress form that I haven't landed on the right dressings.  I also have the decor to complete atop the little chest of drawers.  Additionally, I want to hand paint on a set of upper and lower cabinets that sit in a nook near the Hall Tree.  My cabinet guy, Larry, who is getting ready to start working on my master bath will also be making a built in for the master bedroom television alcove.  I showed you the plans for that cabinet in my blog post Action! Forward Progress with The Master Bedroom and Bath Projects.   I will most likely post these projects separately as I tackle them.  Hope you stay tuned.


So, the room is far from complete.  I was just so excited about the huge changes and the beautiful bed and wanted to show them to you.  Phew!  This was as undertaking!

-The End-
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