Guest Room REVEAL!

Well, ladies and gentlemen, we are finally done! Can you believe it?! Thank you so much for all your suggestions and input about a color choice from our inspiration photos. I think we could have decorated several rooms with all the great ideas that were shared!

Are you ready??  {Drum roll, please!}

Here is how the room looked BEFORE...

and .... AFTER! 

I absolutely LOVE it! 

We feel we were able to catch the calm beachy vibe without it appearing nautical. What do you think?

I am thrilled with the furniture and headboard we were able to build and stain specifically for the room. They really were not difficult to build.  Each piece has simple clean lines for a modern contemporary feel.

This was the photo inspiration that we settled upon. There is huge sentimental value in this Brazilian painting of fishing boats.  So, we wanted to select a color from the painting to be the color to paint the walls. 

We entered this photo into My Colortopia 's My Image Inspiration tool and began looking at their color suggestions. Our favorite was Antique Silver. My Colortopia did a great job selecting the colors from the painting. I also found it interesting that many of you noticed and recommended many of the same colors My Colortopia came up with!

I love the fact that in different lighting the color takes on different hues.  Sometimes it looks very grey, other times it has a rich blue tone.  Ah, the beauty of paint!

Glidden does an excellent job at providing a much more manageable color pallet.  There are not hundreds of colors to overwhelm you in your decision.  I could have lived with any of the colors they recommended.  We also found that the Glidden paint was GREAT to use.  We would definitely recommend their high-end selection which is paint and primer in one.

There she is... the inspiration photo in her new environment!  Now, onto more reveal photos...

Nothing says, "fun at the beach" quite like this photo.  Too bad we can't just jump in there ourselves.  Now that would make for a perfect guest retreat!

When we were accessorizing our room, I found another painting.  It sat in my parent's home and turned out to be a perfect fit for the guest room.  The new painting also brought in the wonderful burnt yellow color which was in the original painting.

Adding the burnt yellow to our color scheme was the perfect way to give our somewhat neutral palette a little burst of color.

We added some blinds, a ceiling fan and some curtains.  We did not want to do anything to inhibit the ample amount of natural window light in the room.  So, we settled on these very light and airy curtains.  They dramatically soften the mood and feel of our guest retreat.

So, there you have it!  Thank you everyone for your wonderful help.  You made my color decision easy.  Thank you also to Glidden for making this remodel possible.

Coming through North Texas anytime soon?  Come be our guests!
Wanting to see some more Glidden Paint inspirations?  Check out their Pinterest page.

From Drab Dresser to "Magnetic" Media Center

Last year I shared with you my decor ideas for the upstairs living room / family room.  I planned to decorate in red, white and blue without seeming nautical or patriotic.  The idea also included furniture pieces  that were a glossy black.   For the media center,  I needed something well made (which usually means an older piece) but I wanted the clean lines that are usually found in newer furniture! The ideal dresser was going to be a challenge to find - especially on a budget!  After a few months of looking around, garage sale bartering led me to a neutral stained solid-wood dresser for only $40.

Unfortunately, I didn't take a before picture.  You'll just have to picture this as an old, light brown dresser, badly in need of love.  The up-cycle started with sanding and ended with a coat of primer and charcoal black oil base paint.

Now came a new dilemma.  How do we store the gaming console and dvd player in a way that makes it accessible, yet hidden?  Well, we came up with the idea of giving a detachable "door" to one of the drawers.  Basically, we cut the front panel off the top center drawer and attached magnets to it so that it could easily be detached from the dresser.  The rest of the drawer was painted, put back in, and screwed in place so that it would not slide out.  The end result was a drawer made into a type of built in shelf with a detachable door!

As you can see, the magnet is attached to each side of the inside of the drawer.  These magnets line up with the metal pieces on the back of the drawer panel.

Here you can see the front panel of the drawer.  We just lay it to a side when the console or DVD player is in use.  When not in use, the panel just snaps back into place to hide the "ugliness".  You would never know that the devices are there!

As an extra BONUS, our kids can play their Wii without ever taking off the panel.  As long as their game disk is in, the console works wirelessly via the bluetooth controls.

We love it!  Dozens of movies, game disks, and controllers are all hidden away in the bountiful drawers of this old up-cycled dresser.  How about you?  Have you created your own media center?  What did you do?

No Longer a Dining Room!

We moved into our home in January.  I was very excited as this was the largest home we had owned.  It is not huge by any means, but it was large for us!  There was one room in the house that I knew was going to need to be re-thought........the dining room.  We love to have guests, but really our kitchen was big enough for our large table that seats at least 8...........so, what do to with the dining room?  Keep it as a dining room and let it collect dust?  No......

Or maybe, just use it for storage?  Ha!  Not when it is one of the first rooms you see when you walk into the house!  It actually did look like this for a month or two.  :0)

Nope, we decided to turn it into a library!  I found all kinds of inspiration online and came up with a look that fit us.

For the color we decided to be brave and do black. Well, not exactly black. It actually has quite a bit of brown in it.  The paint color is called Stealth Jet by Behr.  We really think it adds a unique elegance.  We painted the shelving the exact same color to simulate the built-in shelving look.

After searching and searching for fabric, I finally found what I wanted for our curtains.  To my surprise they were at Lowes.


Frame wall.....more to come on this in a later post.

Books galore...........

....... and a chandelier, of course!

Reupholstered chairs fit nicely in the corners, then when we are ready to play a game we pull them up to the table.

Here's the full view.   It's no longer a boring dining room, but an elegant and useful library.  We love it!  We play games, read books, and do homework in here.

How about you?  Have you completely changed the function of one of your rooms?

Note:  Here is how we made the curtain rods for under $5.  Also, another post about the secret to making the built-in shelves.

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Bedroom Remodel Update

We got another phase of the bedroom remodel done!  We accomplished this by making our own photo art.

If you have been following Redfly then you know that I have been remodeling our master bedroom slowly but surely over the past few months.  First, was the sneak peek about the stenciled wall:

You may view that post here.

Next, came the challenging reupholstery project...

This project was a learning experience.

Well, the bedroom is not quite done.  I still have to make my own headboard and add a few finishing touches.  Today I am excited to show you the prints we had made.  I think they are the perfect final touch to our stenciled wall.  Here are some pictures of the finished wall:

The framed roses we used are each 16x20.  We got the prints done through the mail at Mpix.com.  We have found Mpix.com to be much more professional and better quality than most other websites like Kodak, Shutterfly, etc.  They turned out great.  The large prints were $20 each.  The frames were purchased at The Garden Ridge.  I think they were a little under $12 a piece.

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Monochromatic Guest Bath

The before shot:

I have always loved black and white.  Even our wedding colors were black and white (with a pop of red).  

I also, however, love color enough that I didn't want our whole house to be just black and white ( though I have seen several that way and they are absolutely beautiful!).  So, when I spotted this little half bath next to the kitchen, I knew it would be the perfect place to decorate with black and white.

The mirror we made ourselves.  We purchased the glass and then my husband glued on the boards to create a frame.  We also added some molding to add a little more interest.  Total cost was bout $20 for what could be about a $70 mirror!

Here is a close-up of the mirror:

The tulip prints are ones my hubby took several years ago.  I have always loved them!

The soap dispenser was a beautiful salmon color :(  So we used Rustoleum Professional semi-gloss black spray paint, and fixed that little color problem.

We love it!