You know that story about the shoemaker that has no shoes. This is kinda like that story. Busy decorating other people’s spaces and not having the time to do my own house. Finally getting down to business and taking care of the kids rooms. I really wanted to switch the kids bedrooms in our house. Our son’s room was now going to be our daughters room and our daughter was moving into our son’s old room. We live in a 80 year old house and the walls have the old plaster. Eventually over time….the paint lifts off the old plaster starts to look really messy. This room required some much needed TLC to the walls to get it into better shape. When we moved into the house this room was purple and it was ok for while; our son was little but as he grew the purple was just not his personality and it definitely had to go! You know he never complained that his room wasn’t done it was only his mother who couldn’t stand it anymore and said we need to redesign your room. If you love your space it just makes you feel better. But before we get to the pretty lets step through the before’s to see how we get to the end results. It’s not like the TV shows where poof it’s all done lol it always seems to take longer then we think. We moved all the furniture out and emptied the room completely.
Before pictures of our son’s room.
Next we hired a guy to do the repairing of the plaster; You first have to peel away the old paint until it is smooth. The unknown is that you don’t know how far back you have to peel the paint, especially with old walls. The filling which took time to sand, then prep then a couple of days for the patching, sanding, another layer of patch, sanding and repair for the walls. This is also after trying to find someone in the first place to get the job done; we had to wait on that as well which is all part of the process but not the fun part lol.
When the patching was done and the room swept clean the painter came in to apply a fresh new colour for the walls and the trim. It’s already starting to take on a new look and feel. I mean we where changing from a boy’s room into a girls room. The colour of the walls is a beautiful soft sweet colour by Benjamin Moore called ‘Apple Blossom CC-158’. Not too pink, not too girly and feels calm and serene for a small bedroom. Looks great in the day and also in the night. It’s a fresh colour and really happy with the way it looks. Trim colour was Benjamin Moore ‘ Mountain Peak White 2148-70 and ceiling colour ‘Oxford White CC-30’ also Benjamin Moore.
The creative process usually starts with one thing to get some inspiration. Most of the furniture in our house has had many incarnations. If you look closely throughout my posts you will notice one piece of furniture that was used in one room somehow fits and gets relocated into another room. I love doing that. Sometimes we get so stuck with looking at our space that we can sometimes forget that there’s no reason we can’t switch things up and use them in a different location. Our daughters room before’ … this is the day that all the work started so I quickly grabbed my phone to take some shots. It’s not staged at all and the old antique wire bed was being delivered to a new home so it was being taken out of the room and I’m like wait ‘let me take a before’ shot hahahaha. Our daughters room before …
Now that the room was freshly painted it was time to start moving everything back in. The only thing I new that was not going in was the old farmhouse table. That was staying. The dresser, side table and pictures did get relocated into the new design.
Also in the new design was her new bed. New to her but not new to the house. This bed has been used as our son’s bed, as our spare room’s bed and now it’s the new showcase for this little bedroom makeover. I’ll tell you where this bed came from. You’d never know. We had a cottage in Kazsabaua Quebec and one of our neighbours put it out to pasture. Yup on the side of the road with a big ol’ sign saying ‘FREE’. We took it home and painted it this soft green colour and then sanded it down to get that rustic look. At first I thought of repainting it but the colour works in the grand design scheme so it stayed this mint green which is right on trend to that works too! The large oil painting is something very dear to my heart as my late sister (who is a beautiful artist ) painted this for my husband and I for our wedding. The image is from a card that I had sent my sister and she in turn painted it for me. A reminder that sisters are forever. She lived in British columbia at the time and overlooking the mountains reminded me of times in B.C. and also the lupins in the foreground are also native to Nova Scotia. Love the painting and since it is such a large piece it fits perfectly in this room. The side table I tried on the one side but didn’t work so it ended up on the right hand side of the bed. I can imagine things in my head then draw them on paper or in a program but until you see the furniture IN the space you have to rearrange until it just feels and looks right. It really is all about scale and balance.
Here’s three furniture arrangements I tried out on the computer first. I had a dresser that I was redoing in the shop and wanted to use this in the space from the window on the far right wall but it was too cramped and wasn’t going to work so had to go with Plan B. The last layout won with a few modifications. Can you spot them?
I was thrilled that her old dresser was the perfect fit for this walk in closet. Funny thing about this dresser which we found in the attic when we purchased the house. It has the long drawers and great depth to it which can be so useful for kids of any age. When we found it in the attic it had a old newspaper in it and when we looked at the date it was our son’s birthday June 27th!! Not if that’s not a sign that the house was meant to be for us I don’t what it. They say there are no coincidences ‘Do you believe that’ 🙂
There was no clothes hanging bar so I purchase a extendable show curtain rod and it fit in place. The shelf above was the perfect spot to store these blue storage containers filled with old cards and mementoes. All the stuffed animals perched on top. They peek over and keep watch 😉
Back to the rest of the room. The side table you see is a piece I had in the shop. See the transformation of this little piece here (insert link to remake of Broyhill Endtables). Pictures are placed where I need them hung then it’s just the finishing touches that will finish off this room. Almost done 🙂
This is my upcycle end table below that I repurposed in the studio. The ‘wrought iron’ grey colour is a perfect compliment to the ‘apple blossom’ on the wall. The lamp on the nightstand is from my grandmothers collection; another treasure from her estate that mixes well with the green flavour of the room. Love the black shade with gold on the inside. Makes for a nice glow in the night. Perfect height for little people as well.
More soft teddy bears close at hand for comfort and sitting in front of the old radiator do a great job of hiding what otherwise is an eyesore. Another option would have been to build a rad cover but for now this was the best least expensive option.
Before the room was painted I brought up this antique rolling luggage cart from the basement. I wanted to put to good use.
It now sits under the window with a secondhand 100% wool blanket from one of my favourite jewish bazzars that they have her in Sydney, perfect underneath the books that sit on top of it.
The curtains were bought many years ago and now they have a new lease on life in this room.
My jumping off point was originally this beautiful linen duvet cover from School House Electric called Woodland Meadow 
The colours in the duvet cover match perfectly with the grey, blossom pink and green in the bed. For now it’s on the wish list. I just love it! It’s a great combination of little girl blossoming into tween theme. Not to girly just right for a growing girl. A gift down the road for now.
It’s such a beautiful transformation and the room is completely changed from being dark and drab room into a fresh, cute and cheerful space for our little girl!
Now off to bed for this little one.
‘SWEET DREAMS MY LITTLE ANGEL’ XO
Another item for the wish list!! This would go perfect under foot … spotted at Home Depot.
