My New Room!

Here it is! I love it!

Well, let me show you the before picture...

Then we have the primer stage...

Then the paint stage with the stripes...

And now...drum roll, please...

(Use your imagination here, folks.)

The finished product!





I truly do love my new room!

I've had this sleigh bed since I was about twelve,

and I don't know if I'll ever change it.

I have always found dark wood enchanting anyway.

Let me say that I do need to come up with something to make my curtains longer.

We have high ceilings so all normal curtains are too short.

Here are a few more pics.

My inspiration for this vintage room came from two Paris pictures

that I got for $4 or $5 on clearance at Hobby Lobby.

I love that artichoke candle holder from Anthropologie, too!

(Present from my sister...thanks, Mer!)



And I am currently in love with this topiary from Michael's

and this vintage bird clock from Pier 1.

The clock is definitely my new favorite purchase.

The open bookshelf came from Hobby Lobby. Love, love.

 

My New York corner...

A bench on the Brooklyn Bridge

and Central Park in the snow.

And my favorite part of my new room...

My gallery wall!

All of my frames came from Michael's.

 

I've had this chair for a couple years.

Love it, too!

Chair was from Pier 1, pillow from Target.

My bedding was on clearance

at Bed, Bath, & Beyond.

It matched my vintage idea perfectly!
And the frames above the bed also came from Pier 1.
That was the coolest find ever.
They are ivory vintage frames
on a circular wire hanger. One of my new favorites!

Anyway, I've been dying to show all of you my pictures, but I was trying to wait until my sister saw it in person. Hope you love it as much as I do!

"Be My Valentine?" Applications now accepted.

 Bahahaha! I cracked myself up with that title! Since Monica and I are both single, I had to make this post a little fun! At least I have an amazing best friend with which to spend it!

I decided to send my Mom some flowers for Valentine's Day! Well, what I didn't realize, AFTER I HAD ALREADY SENT THEM, was that my Mom was going to be gone to a teacher's conference! Bah! I had already sent them to the school where she teaches to "brighten up your day and your classroom." Some of my exact words on her card. :( Anyway, because I have the best sister in the world, they were able to make it to the house before she got back home. My sister rearranged her day and waited at the church for them to arrive! I know...she's the best. :) Thanks, Rachel! Love you!

They were sitting on the table with the note when she got home. :) Who says your mom can't be your Valentine?! Love you, Mom!!

Well, I did have one project for Valentine's this year and that was...can you guess? A wreath!! Surprise! Definitely have an obsession with those right now!

Ahh! I'm having a hard time getting these pictures up right now! Ok...one more time...

Yay! It worked! Alright...here is what I started with for this project. I bought the heart styrofoam wreath from Hobby Lobby and bought three different colors of pink streamers. Lots of rose-making and hot-glue!!

Happy Valentine's Day!!

The Makings of a Disaster

Have you ever been so motivated to start a project and then you start it and...you think of another project? Then in the middle of that one, another brilliant idea strikes? Well, you can only do that so many times, you know. In this room I'm making over, I (Monica) decided to go for a vintage Paris theme...with spring accents (just during spring, of course)...and somehow the projects just keep multiplying.

Good news, though. The room is painted! I love the color. The stripes are subtle, but that's good. I didn't want to be going cross-eyed with some crazy colors.

Here is a collection of a few spring ideas.

But what am I thinking? I should be arranging my room!

Have you ever found yourself inexplicably drawn to a certain thing?

I'm going through a bird phase.

I think I got it from my sister. She's going through the same phase.

At least it's not something weird, like porcupines or armadillos.

(My sincerest apologies if you collect either.)

Every time I see anything bird-related, I just want to buy it.

Then I think to myself, "Self...really...get control.

Just put the bird down and slowly back away."

Here, I have limited myself to three birds and a cage.

But doesn't it just scream spring to you?

Love hydrangeas, too. Sharing that phase with Merri.

The coffee by the spray paint is a nice added touch, don't you think?

That's to keep me awake while I'm doing projects.

Definitely a necessity.

Oh dear, how did that slip in there?

And now we know why Merri isn't a preferred Pier 1 customer.

We caught her making fun of their sweet decor. :)

And now for the painting update!

This is where I left you earlier...

Please notice that blame chair still in the middle of the room.

My dad called me today and asked what chair I had stuck in here.

He definitely got it out in less than five seconds.

What in the bunch of crazies?

And ta-da!!!

Summer Sandcastle stripes!

See you soon!

And the "Early Bird Special" goes to...

First, I just want to tell Monica that I'm still thinking of a come-back for that Wizard of Oz munchkin joke on the last post. So be ready for it! hehe! :) 

Anyway, on a more serious note...bahahaha! Yeah, right! :)

I (Merribeth) know that it is still winter and quite a while until spring actually starts, but I couldn't help myself. :) I actually started to put up just a couple of spring things up over the mantle! I know! I know! Definitely still winter! But it was needing some attention up there and...well, I couldn't resist. My sister is the same way! It must run in the family...although our Mother isn't like that. Hmmm...anyway, when we get excited about a new idea we can't help jumping right in. :) She happens to be redecorating her house. I should show ya'll a picture of her subway art sometime! Amazing!

Ok, so I'm just gonna give ya'll a little peak at some of the things I'm working on for...SPRING! :)

Can you guess what this will be for?? Not telling! You'll have to wait until I'm finished. hehe!

I needed a wreath, of course! Ha! Here is what I started with.

Working on a couple flower arrangements

Ignore my messy bookshelf, please. :)

I waited until all of the floral stuff was 50% off at Hobby Lobby. The manager definitely knows Monica and I since we are there quite a bit. When I was checking out he stopped by and said to the cashier, "Make sure you punch her frequent shopper card!" Lol! Girl, we should have our pictures mounted above the doors! :)

 This old chair was sitting on our front porch...rotting. You could tell it had seen some rain and such. It wasn't painted and it is falling apart. I need to put a few screws in it to make it more sturdy. You can see in the picture how the wood has shifted. I forgot to take a before picture! Sorry! This picture is after the spray-paint, but I'm not finished with it yet! It would be a lot easier if I actually knew what I needed to do to fix it and had the tools to do it...or had a cute handyman around. hehe! ;) Instead, I'm just gonna have to improvise. We will see what I come up with! Oh dear! :)

I love to spray paint!!! I thought this color would brighten it up and be springy!

Now you...and I will have to wait until spring to see all of it come together!

Painting Party

I (Monica) have decided to take on a project...painting and moving to another bedroom in the house. It's actually my sister's old room. That's what happens if you move out. You barely get your stuff out the door, and someone is turning your bedroom into an office or a weight room. Sorry, Mer. :)

This is how it started. I love the terracotta color, but I was going for a vintage Parisian look.

We started painting around 8:30 on Friday night a week night.

(can't be admitting we didn't have some major weekend plans, ya know)

First thing was getting out the junk. All was well until...

This crazy chair!!! How in the world did anyone ever get it into the room?!

Merri:  "Okay, I have a good idea."

Monica:  "What is it?"
Merri:  "Push really hard."

(Monica, waiting patiently)

Monica:  "Okay...push."

Merri:  (long pause) "I did."

We were definitely laughing hysterically.

Now for the coat of primer.

We got gray because we heard it worked the same and...

the white was too high up on the shelves without asking for help. :)

I am average height. Merri is average...for the munchkin auditions on Wizard of Oz.

Point proven. This is as high as we could go without a ladder.

Or in our case, a Pilates workout machine. :)

You can see in the corner that the chair is still sitting in the middle of the room.

Apparently now a forever fixture. :)

Here's where I was still excited about the project ahead.

Little did I know about all that work!

We painted for pretty much forever.

I mean, for real, it was like an hour. :)

By then, my shoulder was cramping from reaching that high,

and Merri's hand was permanently curled around the brush handle.  

We took a little break, watched part of One Fine Day, and got back to work.

The plan is to paint stripes on the wall. This is the end of our day.

The color is Summer Sandcastle from Glidden.

It dried a lot darker, and, so far, I really like it a lot.

Next day...

 

And then...Merri got sidetracked. Her own version of

Gone with the Wind. Courtesy of Carol Burnett.

Well, more to come!

If we can get our shoulders to uncramp and our fingers to uncurl

long enough to paint those beastly stripes.