Master Bedroom Updates

So over the past couple of weeks I've made a couple of updates to our Master Bedroom.

This is what our bedroom looked like before...

The blue bedside table was mine from my childhood room that we painted with Aubusson Blue Annie Sloan Chalk Paint. It turned out to be too deep for the room, so we dry brushed Old Ochre Chalk paint over it.


The other bedside table, finally got a skirt and a glass top!
I may never make another round table skirt because of the blood, sweat, tears, and curse words that went into it, but I am happy with how it turned out.


We also got a new headboard! We originally wanted the Raleigh headboard from Pottery Barn, but ended up getting the Carlton headboard from JCPenny because it was similar and several hundred dollars cheaper.  


I also decided that the bird duvet and shams were too busy even though I loved the print, so I broke up all the print by layering in the Fieldcrest Matelasse Coverlet from Target.

So here it is now...

Here is a close up of the Chalk Paint bedside table.

Before

After

And here is a close up of the finished table skirt.

So I feel like we're close to having this room finished. 
I have some leftover table skirt fabric to make a toss pillow or two for the bed to tie it together.
Also we need something over the bed and over the dresser at the other end of the room.

 
 I feel like I will know when I find the right thing. 
Until then I feel like we've made some great progress!


-Bethany

What We've Been Up To: Furniture Make Overs

On Fridays, my good friend Toni and I get up really early and hit all the local estate sales. We're usually not looking for anything in particular, just browsing until something speaks to one of us.

Well this past Friday, a dresser spoke to me...

(It had all 8 drawers...we had just removed 4 before I thought "OMG, the blog! Where's the camera?!". And...we're lazy and figured you'd get the idea without replacing all the drawers)

 

My eye went straight to it as soon as we walked in the sale. You see, since Jason and I got married we've been sharing 5 drawers in our bedroom. Yes, five. All our other folded clothes and unmentionables were stacked up in makeshift cubbies in the closet. Pretty ridiculous if you ask me. So I had been thinking we needed another dresser, especially since the new house has a bigger Master Bedroom and can easily accommodate more furniture.

It is solid mahogany, Drexel, with dovetail joints so I knew it was a well made and had potential. I loved the serpentine front and its a really good size...large but not too large. So after approval from corporate (AKA: a quick text to the hubby making sure it was okay to buy) and $225.00, it was all mine!

 

So Saturday, Jason and I went back with his 4Runner to pick it up, and made a few pit stops for supplies to make it over. I have read so much good stuff in blogland about Annie Sloan Chalk Paint, I decided to give it a go. (In case you're not familiar...it's made for painting and antiquing furniture, requires no sanding or priming, does not show brush strokes, dries in about an hour, low VOCs means no odor, and comes in some beautiful colors.) The colors we (Jason helped me through out this entire project. Thank you, Jason!) chose are Old Oche (a creamy neutral) for the body of the dresser and French Linen (a greige) for the drawers. We also got the clear wax (made for sealing and protecting) and dark wax (to give it an antiqued, distressed look). 

 

(Is that enough parentheses for you?)

And then we painted. And waxed.

The painting was super easy. The wax was a little tricky until we got the hang of it.

I hit the brass bail pulls with a coat Oil Rubbed Bronze metallic spray paint.

(Easy peasy.)

 

And here's how she turned out...

 

 ( Isn't she beautiful?)

 

Pretty good for a $300.00 investment. So good, in fact, we decided to tackle Jason's 5 drawer chest...

 (Once again, I am lazy and new to blogging and didn't get any before shots with the drawers in.)

As you can see, it was in need of an update too. We are, of course, extremely grateful for all the 1980s furniture our parents have gifted us, we just didn't want him to feel bad sitting next to his newly made over serpentine sister. :)

This was the real test of the Annie Sloan Chalk Paint claim that no sanding or priming was required since the dresser I bought was primed by the previous owner. We didn't even knock the shine of the polyurethane off...we just started painting. This time we decided to go with the french linen all over. 

This is how it turned out:

(TA-DA!)

 

On Jason's chest we replaced the hardware with new, but felt it was worth the money since again it was a brand name, solid wood (and FREE) piece of furniture. 

 

We couldn't be more please with how both pieces turned out. 

We will be using Annie Sloan Chalk Paint on future projects and can't say enough good about it. 

I definitely recommend it if you have a piece of future you'd like to change up!

 

-Bethany