UncategorizedGuest Post Day 6 – Emily's Master Bedroom July 28, 2012Welcome to the sixth and final day of Guest Posts in our Week of House Tours! I hope y’all have enjoyed these ladies opening up their homes to us! I know I enjoyed setting it up! We’re headed home tomorrow and I’ll be back to blogging as usual and of course, I’ll be sharing some trip details with you guys. Today, we have Emily. Emily and I both went to Furman University and she was a leader on my freshman hall. We’ve reconnected through this blog world and I am so glad. Don’t you love how small our blog world seems to be? So, here’s Emily telling us all about her master bedroom: *** Hello all! I first want to say thank you to Lindsay for giving me space on her blog to show you a part of my humble home. I know Lindsay from college and aside from being a truly gentle soul, I can say with confidence that she had one of the sweetest dorm rooms I’ve ever seen. So, needless to say she has been setting a high standard for quite a while! I have been thoroughly enjoying reading Lindsay’s blog for a few months now. She and other DIY bloggers have really inspired me, particularly this summer while I was on the job hunt (job search = lots of free time). I knew that unpacking from our latest move from San Antonio, TX to Chapel Hill, NC and rewatching the first season of Downton Abbey would only take me so far through the summer, so I started looking at our bedroom for projects. I started by restaining my dresser and nightstand. Most of our furniture was either graciously donated by a family member or purchased at a thrift store. Trevor’s dresser and nightstand are lovely, dark wood pieces from his childhood. Mine were a bit too light for my taste and I have known for quite a while that I wanted to darken them to more closely match his pieces. I took the opportunity of my mom visiting to have her haul up my dad’s power sander and got to work. Being a newcomer to being handy, I will tell you that sanding down a dresser and nightstand with nine drawers is no short day’s work. It took me a few days to get every bit of varnish off and each piece smoothed. I chose a walnut stain and after consulting with a employee at a home improvement store, took his advice to buy a 2 in 1 stain/polyurethane. Knowing what I know now, I will not use this again. In the future I will use either an oil or gel stain followed by polyurethane. The 2 in 1 stain mixture left a heavy, thick feeling to the finished product. Perhaps I didn’t sand well enough between layers but it produced a more painted look than stained. To finish the two pieces, I picked out an assortment of knobs at Anthropologie to add a dash of intrigue. Here I am picking out knobs as part of my birthday gift from my sweet hubby! While I was busy with that project, a friend told Trevor and I about a fantastic Reuse Warehouse in Durham, NC. One Saturday morning we headed over to check it out after filling up our bags at the Farmer’s Market. This place is a dream world for home project lovers. The man who runs the warehouse has everything you would ever need: new wood, gorgeous old wood, windows, doors, shingles, iron railings, mantles, and even staircases (yes!). Different architects and construction companies bring him all their unused or discarded materials. The real gems are the things from houses and buildings they tear down. We went scavenging that day with a headboard in mind. After three years of marriage we were both ready for more that a metal bed frame but wanted something with a unique flair. Lo and behold, it was our lucky day when we found an old barn door in the antique section of the warehouse. We promptly bought it, finagled it into my little car and drove home feeling like we won the lottery. That is, until we got home and started brainstorming how to mount it. We couldn’t hang it on the wall and instead had to attach it to the frame of the bed. Trevor ended up securing the door to a couple of 2X4’s (after wiping it down well and putting a couple layers of poly on it) and then screwing those into the metal of the frame. We were both really pleased with the end product. With our new headboard in place, I began contemplating bed linens. For the hot months, we resorted to a thin Indian covering given to us as a wedding gift. While it was really lovely, it didn’t quite fit with the atmosphere I was trying to create. I knew I wanted a white base with splashes of color so I started looking for inspiration online with Pottery Barn, West Elm, Anthropologie, The Company Store, etc. I loved what I found but not the prices! On one of my periodic perusals of Homegoods, I scored a beautiful white quilt for less than half the price of my online findings. Score 1 for Emily! I absolutely love it, especially because the quilt pattern isn’t floral. I was trying hard to make the room not look too feminine. With that in place, I hit Joann’s in search of material for the Euro pillowcases. I did end up with a floral print that I couldn’t do without but also with a soft faux linen to hem for a nice throw at the end of the bed. I just finished sewing the pillow covers, which couldn’t have been more of a cinch even for a beginning sewer like myself. I found some directions online and was able to make them in two mornings. I will eventually add some subtle stripes to the mixture of linens and a bench at the end of the bed. All in good time. Here’s the whole room : Although it is not a complete makeover, I changed some major points in the room leaving small changes to come as will. Some things, like curtains and wall hangings, I won’t deal with until we buy a house and I know I won’t have to take them down every time the lease is up (it just isn’t worth it!). Well, that is our first home project. Thanks for reading and good luck with your own projects! *** Thank you so much, Emily, for your sweet post! I love the old door – seems like everyone is using old doors as headboards these days (atleast around this blog) and I LOVE it! It looks great and I can’t wait to see what else you do! Show Emily some love in the comments, ladies! I hope you’ve all had a great week. I’ll be back on Monday!