Spare bedroom - upholstered floral headboard and more

It was in my bucket list of things to get done around Christmas and amazingly the guest bedroom was all finished and painted on Christmas Eve, right before our guests arrived.

One thing about our current house is that sometimes it looks better in person than in photos... I'm just learning this! It's the opposite to our last tiny place which photographed awesome.

This house is big and spacious and sunny - people seem to love being here and we love that. But the bright and airy vibe is hard to translate into pictures for some reason.

Anyhoo, here's the room from the doorway:


And just before we carry on, you might remember that it used to look like this...

[When we had just moved in]
 .... and then it was like this (below) for a while as I went nuts upholstering the headboard with a 'normal colour' fabric (navy).

I bought thin sheets of wood, fixed them over the slatted headboard you see above and then stapled wads of foam and batting around it, followed by fabric.

And I hated how it ended up!

(The boring blue that didn't last long, and the yucky apricoty cream walls behind)

I was so disappointed that what I had hoped was a safe option looked so blah. The Huz confirmed it when he told me 'you should do whatever you want to do. Since when have you cared what anybody else thinks?'

So naturally I changed it to a pink floral.


...and painted the walls in a pale aqua/mint and a neutral chalky cream.
Better.


The cream/lemon curtains used to be in our lounge, and the bedside tables are from our bedroom before we replaced them with bigger modern ones. I replaced the short yellow curtains above the bed with the roman blind, and put those modernish little lamps in although I'm unconvinced about them with the classic style drawers... but they have to stay for now.

I also just set up this little desk area so I can finally have a baby-free area to spend 5 if-I'm-lucky minutes sometimes to myself to think or pray or do whatever. I didn't really want any clutter there so it's not styled or filled with accessories like all the beautiful design bloggers desks that I see on the interwebs!



 Last but not least, there's a piano down here which was from my grandma. I just popped some leftover headboard fabric on the seat part.


 So there you have it, a quick update that massively changed this room, in person at least!

There is plenty more I would love to finish in this room (don't get me started) but without the time or money or any of that, it's doing it for now, and I figured I better just publish it before it ends up never happening.

Before:

After:






Master Bedroom progress update

I really miss posting about design projects and home makeovers. In recent days there have been little glimmers of time and energy where I've been able to do a bit more in this area. You may remember that a year or so ago we moved into this 70's house and then had a baby. Recently, after a year of living with no furniture in our bedroom other than the bed and these tiny bedside tables below...

Master Bedroom progress - fresh, warm, light - BEFORE
{Shortly after we moved in and bought a bed}
.... it became clear that the mess was out of control and we needed some proper storage solution for our clothes, and some surface area to put things. Our bedroom is really wide so the small bedside tables were lost against the wall. 

I found these sets of drawers (below) at Freedom Furniture and although we had to build them ourselves and ran into a few hiccups with parts not being supplied or being scratched, they are now ideal and exactly fit our space.

Master Bedroom progress - fresh, warm, light
{Husband's side with the new drawers}
It's a small step in the right direction. I love the warmth of the wood (which is still pale enough to not look orangey at all) and the width it adds to the room, visually. It also provides a bit more surface area to keep random bits and pieces:



What I don't love in this room...

Master Bedroom progress - fresh, warm, light 

...are the curtains! The whole scale of them is off and does nothing to flatter the dimensions of the room (which is really quite large). I also really dislike the colour of them in this room - they draw out all the cold/musty tones when I would prefer something fresh and warm and haven-like.

Speaking of tones, allow me to share this rendering I just whizzed up in 5 seconds. I know I know, my skills are off the hook:

Master Bedroom progress - fresh, warm, light
Amazingest photoshop of all time
I think I could have done a better job in Microsoft Paint and you'll have to forgive the random greigey mottled walls and all... but baby's naptime is almost over so time is of the essence!

But what I'm trying to say is, some less invasive window treatments such as a horizontal blind over the bed in a neutral colour, will open up the whole wall and elongate it visually. Then potentially some floor length curtains on the big side window (where the current half-length ones are) in a lighter colour. And in case you are pondering that weird green line I drew over the pillows - it's a potential headboard placement. In what colour I do not know. I really really really like the look of pale ones (off-whites and neutrals) but tan tones look awful with the brown dressers, and cream would show up every little mark or stain. So I don't know. Mint and change the wall colour????

*** Update: here is a more *proper* photoshop rendering showing minty/aqua walls and a cream-neutral headboard superimposed over the photo, to see how it could look:

{I like this look, not convinced about the wall colour but this colour headboard still grabs my attention the most, even tho it would get dirty I suppose.. :( }
 Here's another option with a warmer greyish headboard:
{What are your thoughts??? I really struggle to get on board with darker colours so I don't know... it bores me a little bit!}
***

In other very exciting news that I'm sure you're reading while seated on the edge of your chair (#oppositeday) is that I moved these Euro pillows up here from the spare bedroom after the husband complained that we didn't have cushy pillows. So for now they are kind of acting like a headboard except for they get plonked on the carpet at night which I find disgusting because of my hair-fluff-and-lint phobia. But I'll get over it...

Master Bedroom progress - fresh, warm, light

All that to say, I hope I have some actual 'After' photos for you sometime soon! And, what colour upholstered headboard would you choose? I usually love bright colours but I'm enjoying the kind of serene vibe that's starting to happen in here!