Dressing room to bedroom

Before we put our house on the market, I knew I had to turn my dressing room back into a bedroom.  There wasn't much to do, I just had to move the bookcases and bench out and find a bed.  Luckily, my mother in law had acquired a charming vintage metal bed for us, and it was a perfect piece for this room!  Here it is with a bad paint job and faux wood contact paper over the adorable metal flower design.  I can't believe I didn't get a shot of the contact paper!  Seriously, it was awful and I scraped at it for a long time.  

I thought about painting it a fun color, but ultimately decided white would be best.  Shaun told me the flower design was ugly and I should paint the entire bed white, but I wanted to keep that detail.  I figured if it looked ugly once painted, I could always paint it later!  

I used two cans of spray primer, and two cans of Rustoleum Universal spray in satin white.  I think the end result is darling!  It is amazing what some fresh white paint can do.

Once I cleaned up the insets, I loved them, and they keep the bed from looking too much like a hospital bed. Which it does, I'm aware.  

The rest of the room turned out great!  I finally hung the yellow clock on the wall, it had been resting on top of the window blinds for the last three years.  

I added this little half-moon table, which was also given to me by my mother in law and painted white years ago.  It works so well under the window, a perfect fit!  An old Ikea desk lamp was a free bedside light, even though I wanted to buy a cuter one.  I was actually pretty impressed with my restraint.  (Since, you know, I get Shaun's employee discount at TJ Maxx!)

I found the sheets, bed skirt, and reversible throw at Target, the pillows and blanket I already had from various places.  The yellow vase was purchased years ago from Crate and Barrel.  I decided to leave the racks on the wall as display rather than take them down and deal with patching all the holes.  I couldn't think of anything creative to use them for, so I hung my colorful skinny belts and a girly purse.  

The other rack holds a robe and some other random items.  Yep, I stole one of Ashford's toys because it matched the room.  

The other side of the room looks exactly the same.  I did paint the windows in this room, which I hadn't done yet.  I was actually shocked at how many doors and windows we hadn't painted in the five years we've lived here.  Awful that you do it all when you are going to be leaving soon!

I still get ready in here every morning, as you can see I didn't remove all my shoes or extra overflow clothes in the closet.  I'm very happy with the way it turned out, and even happier that it only cost me a few cans of spray paint and some bedding that I can use when Ashford is old enough for a twin bed.  

On the home sale front, we have had huge turnouts for our open houses, lots of showings, fabulous comments, and a few very interested buyers, but only one couple that has had a second showing....which was yesterday.  They really like the house and do NOT have a house to sell, which is amazeballs.  We are hoping and praying that this is the couple that puts in our first offer.  Wish us luck!

Hot summer cleaning

I noticed a little while ago that my beloved Moorish Tile rug in the dressing room was getting a little too worn in the places I walked all the time.  Mainly, the entrance to the room and in front of the dresser where I primp myself on the regular.  So, I decided to flip the rug so it would wear more evenly.  This was pretty annoying to do. 

We decided instead of moving the dresser out of the room, that we'd just have Shaun lift it up while I shimmied the rug out and back in.  It actually worked really well, and saved the trouble of me cleaning off all my crap from the moving the dresser.  Guess what I found behind the bookcases holding my tops?

Awe yeah, that's the good stuff.  There were tons of hairy dust bunnies dangling from the walls back there, too.  No wonder I walk into this house and have allergy fits!  This was behind the tall mirror:

Since that mirror is light and highly mobile, there really isn't any excuse for this!  I'm seriously the messiest fashionista you've ever seen.  Consider me reformed.

Order is restored

It seems like I've been trying to get my dressing room put back together for weeks.  Probably because I have been.  Actually, it's been almost a month since we moved the furniture back in there.  Yikes!  I'm happy to say that I can finally shut the door on the room without feeling guilty.

I love the dark floors with the yellow rug! 

I added these hot pink frames by the door because I loved the pop of pink.  The shade matched my closet accents, and I thought I could put in pictures of myself in a bikini to make me feel extra bad when my pants are tight.  Until then, they say HOT GOTH.  Seriously, Sheffield Home? 

Another TJ Maxx find was this little pink Jewelry Mannequin on the dresser - which was already spied by the eagle-eyed Amanda at Hip House Girl last week.  It was on mega clearance and I needed somewhere to put my necklaces that didn't involve a bulletin board, chicken wire or creativity.  I don't have time for that stuff!

I actually felt bad about stabbing it with the decorative pins.  So, I compromised by putting two pins as 'arms' and one as a non-critical side wound.  I'm such a weirdo!  I also thought for a moment about spraying the base to match the pewter of the dresser and mirror, and then decided living my life was more important. 

Thank goodness everything is back to normal.

Another closet makeover

At this point, I should probably rename my blog 'Russet Street Clothes Storage,' but it's a project I did, so you're gonna read about it.  My dressing room is just a big closet, but it has a small 'actual' closet where I store my shoes and extra clothes.  You know, the clothes that don't fit in the regular 9x12 space....sheesh!  Here it was empty:

When the closet was all emptied out for the floor refinish, there was no way I could just put everything back in there without painting it.  This closet had the same spackling mess that the master closet had, so I had lots of sanding to do.  There was also a pretty big hole that I filled with the old 'rolled up newspaper and spackle' trick:

After a coat of my leftover BM Coventry Gray paint, viola!  No more hole. 

The melamine of the closet organizer had yellowed considerably, so I rolled some Rustoleum white oil-based paint on all the edges with a foam roller.

Check out the difference the paint made in this 'action' shot!  Holy yellow.

And then everything was painted, the newly stained dowels were in, and I was very happy. 

And here is the closet all crapped up with my stuff:

I added some 98 cent hooks from Home Depot to the sides to hold purses....  

...scarves, or (what will ultimately happen) shirts that need to be ironed.

The yellow box (that matches my rug!) was a fortuitous find at TJ Maxx one day.  I found the hot pink tote at Target and it looked so great with that contrasting trim.  They are currently holding tights and trouser socks. 

And of course the wicker storage unit that you already met yesterday...

Here is a before and after:

It doesn't look that different with everything in there, but I love the changes.  

Cost:
TJ Maxx box: $5.99
Target Tote: $7.49
HD Hooks: $6
Wicker makeover: $10
Total: $29.50

Only 5 more closets to go....(please shoot me) 

Ugly wicker stuff

I have some.  Well, probably everyone has some.  But I have quite a pile of it.  Some of it still has Hobby Lobby tags on it, talk about a big fail. 

I decided to use that tall drawer unit, rather than give it to Goodwill.  It was pretty cool when my mom bought it, but has since lost it's appeal.  Don't be offended, mom....it just can't stay looking like that!  It needed a heavy dose of spray paint.  So I took it down to the dungeon.

I pulled a 'Boozie Susie' and made a very sad attempt at wiping everything down, I just didn't feel like it.  There are some painted dust bunnies inside the drawers, but if anyone is offended, I will just ask them to please stop snooping in my drawers.  

One coat of Cover Stain primer later, and it was looking pretty good!  Cover Stain is a great spray for wicker, it really clings to slick and shiny surfaces. 

I used Rustoleum Universal spray in White Gloss for a finish coat.  Love that stuff!

The frame was just about the most annoying thing to paint, ever.  Our entire basement now has a fine mist of white thanks to this thing and the crazy angles I had to spray in.

I cut a few more corners because this spray paint costs one million dollars and no one needs to see the back or bottom of my storage unit.  Got it, snoopers?!          

 So basically, the fronts look really nice.

And here she is looking cute in my closet!  Does it sort of echo the white wicker furniture that some of us girls (or our friends) had in our bedrooms as kids?  Yep.  But that is ok with me.  It's way better than the before!

Now I have somewhere to store my extra toiletries, sewing supplies (using 'sewing' very loosely) and other things I don't want to clutter up the linen closet.  Best thing is the whole makeover cost about $10 in spray paint.  Thanks, mom!

Replacing a sad light fixture

There was a big snag in my dressing room makeover.  It was this hideous excuse for a light fixture:

I had initially thought I could use it underneath the lovely White Capiz Hanging Pendant from World Market that I scored with a $20 off coupon this fall: 

Then I saw the small hole in the middle of the pendant, and knew that this fixture wouldn't work because the big metal 'neck' wouldn't fit through the teeny hole. 

Denied!  So, I went to Home Depot and bought a $6 'globe base' fixture to replace it.  I've never replaced a light fixture without help, but I really wanted to do this myself for the bragging rights to encourage others to DIY.  If you are interested, here are the steps to my successful switcheroo:

Turn off the power
Or just turn off the light switch, if you like to live on the edge.  No really, don't do that.
 
Unscrew the fugly fixture
This one had little screw caps coated with decades of cooties paint:

They initially didn't want to budge, however they were no match for a pliers and my bodacious biceps! 

It was off in a flash and I could see more fleshy peach/yellow paint.  What is it with this color in old houses??  I can't believe it ever looked good.

There are screws holding the cross bar into the light box, and screws that hold the fixture onto the cross bar.  Here I'm removing the screws that hold the bar into the light box:

Disconnect the existing wiring
Our old house has cloth wrapped wiring and old ceramic wire nuts.  I gave em a turn...

....untwisted the wires.....

And BOOYA!  Old fixture waves goodbye with sad electrical tenticles.  How cringe-worthy.

'To medallion or not to medallion'
Inevitably, you will have ceiling damage and/or paint differences when the old fixture comes down.  You can just patch up your ceiling and repaint, or use one of these guys:

I happened to have this laying around the house, and I thought it would look nice as a bigger fixture 'base' to equal the diameter of the capiz pendant.  Up it went with some painters tape while I attached the new fixture.  Some people use adhesive on medallions, but the fixture itself will hold it on, so I don't bother with it.

Here is my new fixture, a 4 inch globe base. I planned to use the three small holes that are meant for attaching the globe to hang the pendant with wire.  And paint out the black.

Attach the new fixture

Here is where you would usually screw in the new fixture cross bar, however my old cloth-wrapped wiring wouldn't stretch far enough to come down the few inches needed to attach in this manner, so I connected the wiring first and then stuffed it up into the ceiling.  Eh, you work with what you got.  I just twisted the wires together and used some new wire nuts to connect them fully. 

The cross bar/mounting strap gets screwed on to the light box.  Wrap your grounding wire around a screw. 

Follow the directions on your fixture for how it gets attached to the mounting strap.  This one had a twist and lock mechanism.  After tightening up the screws a tad, I jumped off the ladder to survey whether the medallion was straight before tightening fully. 

Good enough, people!  I tested the fixture (of course it worked without incident because I'm awesome) then I stuffed some kleenex in the receptacle, hit the entire thing with some glossy white Rustoleum 'Universal' spray paint, touched up the ceiling with flat paint, and saw this fresh and clean result:

The next step was to get some picture wire to attach the capiz pendant to the fixture.  Shaun held up the pendant while I wrapped the wire.  Did I do a beautiful job?

Heck, no.  But no one will notice the wire, and it is a strong hold.  And my arms hurt.  After a successful attachment, I spent the next 15 minutes unwrapping all the shells.

All the work was worth it in the end, I'm in LOVE with this light!

As are all the other bloggers who have the same type of pendant light...Chris, Freckles Chick, Rebecca, and of course John and Sherry.  What can I say, dozens of bloggers can't be wrong about this beautiful fixture!  It helped me take my room from this ho-hum space:

To this fit-for-a-princess primping spot:

I hope this post has inspired you to tackle the ugly lights in your life!  And thank you all so much for your wonderful comments about my new favorite room of the house!