Dressing the Dresser

My dresser in our bedroom is tall, and has always kind of perplexed me. Right now, the small television set I had in college is sitting on it and since we never really use it, Wes is getting his wish and the TV is getting the boot. Now that some space is free, I'm thinking about what else I can do with the top (right now I have a tray that holds my jewelry and an alabaster urn). These three in particular are inspiring me.



This one is especially appropriate since Wes bought this crewel bedspread (for my birthday in February) from Kelly's fabulous shop!

Photos: Jordan Ferney, Lonny, High Street Market.

Office to Guest Bedroom, Part 1: The Closet

In the process of making the guest bedroom the baby's room, we had to deal with the office. Since we were consolidating the two rooms, these were the priorities:

1. Closet space and a dresser for Wes. Our bedroom has a single closet. It's just not happening.

2. A place for guests to sleep. We have family and friends out of town so this is essential.

3. A smaller desk area. We made a skirted desk not long ago, but there wasn't room to keep it and bring in the bed. Admittedly, the desk didn't get much use, but we still needed a dedicated bill-paying station and a spot for our laptop (other than the dining room table).


First up was the closet. Wes has been using it, so it got a good clean-out, a fresh paint job, and a better arrangement to accommodate some of the things that were in the desk and elsewhere in the room.

We swapped a small, low dresser for the one that was in the guest bedroom. The small dresser is finding a new home at my sister's house.


The closet needed doors, and since we put the dresser in front of it, there wasn't really space for anything but a curtain. I made a simple one out of a drop cloth from Lowe's ($9.48) and a tension rod from Target ($3). I still haven't mastered my sewing machine so I just used iron-on hem tape.

On the wall that used to host the small dresser (the larger one couldn't go there with the bed in the room), I finally hung the warbler prints I've had for a few months. The frames are simple ones from Target ($16.99 each) that I painted with leftover trim paint (Bennington Gray by Benjamin Moore).

A Last Look at the Guest Bedroom

When I painted and decorated the guest bedroom last summer, I had in my head that it was temporary since we always planned to turn that room into the nursery. We didn't, however, expect to be doing so quite so soon. So, I'm a little sad to see it go. Especially now that I have this fabulous new-to-me lamp that really pulls it all together!


I can't take any credit at all for this Craig's List gem, as it was Joi who spotted it and included it in her Minneapolis round-up. I feel in lust immediately and e-mailed the seller to see if he was interested in shipping it to Alabama. Obviously, he was, and it is now happily at home under a yard sale shade I picked up for a $1 last summer (I knew I would eventually use it!).


The rest of the room is looking a little scary. The 10-inch square recessed light fixture is gone, thankfully, and the patch it required is joined by an even bigger patch -- a casualty of my paranoia about the "water spot" you see on right. Oh well, we were going to have to paint the ceiling anyway!


The room is also home to Random Pink Thrift Store Chair (under $30!), which will hopefully become Beautiful Nursery Chair sometime in the next 6 months.

Could I Do This?

I've got curtains on my mind lately. Particularly the lack of them in our bedroom. I love these Greek key-trimmed beauties featured in Coastal Living and wonder, could I make these? I could save some cash by using a drop cloth or other inexpensive fabric, and I feel good about my box pleat-making skills after making the skirted desk. Wes could break out his carpentry skills to help me with the body of the valance, and surely my limited sewing skills could handle a trim. If not, a little hem tape would do the job.


Lewis & Sheron has a pretty and affordable Greek key trim ($12/yard).


This flat tape might be interesting ($8/yard).


But I am especially leaning toward this blue and blue geometric ($12/yard).

Lanterns in Bedrooms

I adore the lantern in our dining room, and have given it a spot on the short list of things I will want to grab should our house catch on fire. (It's morbid to have such a list, I know.) It's definitely coming with us to our next house, where the trouble will be choosing a room to put it in. Over a small dining table? Yes. Living room? Yes. Bedroom? Also, yes!





Photos: Mary Evelyn Interiors as seen in Southern Accents; Anne Coyle Interiors, photographed by Robbie Caponetto for Cottage Living; unknown source via Little Green Notebook; photographed by Roger Davies for Cottage Living; unknown source via Cote de Texas.

Day 999: progress inside and out

We have been busy, busy bees lately! Our backyard deck is coming along nicely after four Saturdays of work at countless trips to Lowe's.


Wes has braved cold rain, humidity, and mountains of mud to get it ready for our wonderful spring weather. We have a large and very private backyard (more so when the trees have leaves on them) and have been looking forward to having breakfast, lunch and dinner out there since we moved in two years ago.


Wes' Dad and our friend Ben have lent their hands, and I even helped mix concrete one weekend, but it has really been Wes' labor of love and I am so proud of (and thankful for) his hard work.


Meanwhile, I have been working on a little makeover in our bedroom (here is my inspiration). It was the first room in the house we painted, and I can't really say that I ever loved it. At first it was a bit difficult to admit that I'd made a "mistake," but after going through three paint colors in the office, I decided there wasn't any harm in painting the bedroom again. Paint, after all, is one of the easiest and least expensive thing to change, and usually has the greatest impact.

I painted the walls China White and the ceiling 1/2 formula of Palladian Blue (both by Benjamin Moore) and I love it. After the China White went up I wasn't sure I hadn't made another mistake (this is my first foray into white walls), but now that the ceiling is done it's perfect. Now if I can tear Wes away from the deck for a minute, we can deal with the space our lovely recessed square lighting left us, hang the new light fixture (well, it's new to us) and caulk and paint the crown, and we'll be in business!

Day 998's spring update

As the weather is warming and the flowers are peeking out, I suppose it's time to lose the plaid blankets in our bedrooms. I love them and can't wait to bring them back in September, but, I like to keep things fresh. Changing things around a little helps satisfy my shopping urge, honestly.

In the guest bedroom, I wasn't ready to go to the full-on summer look of lots of crisp blue and white. I went to my fabric stash and found a pretty green and blue floral remnant I bought out of a clearance bin for next-to-nothing.


The repeat is large and needed to be appreciated, so I took a cue from the bedroom in this house and just hung it over the upholstered headboard. I folded the edges under and ironed the creases. A couple of pieces of painter's tape (I didn't have any straight pins handy) holds the bottom in place.

It doesn't match exactly, but I think it "goes." And I love the way gold-toned mirror picks up golds in the fabric. A quick, easy -- and free! -- fix for spring.

Day 991: bedroom makeover inspiration

I mentioned a few weeks ago that my bedroom was in need (and by need I mean want) of a makeover. I'm happy to say that it's underway -- inexpensively, of course -- but the room's layout still has me perplexed in terms of furniture layout, what to do with the windows, and what I can put on the floor. Those are the main problems, but it also needs a little more personality and direction and I'm slowly making progress on those. While I (attempt to) sort all that out, here are a few bedrooms that are inspiring me, for one reason or another.









If you could change one thing about your bedroom, what would it be?

Photos: Elizabeth Martin, Grace Happens, Elle Decor, Schuyler Samperton, unknown source via Little Green Notebook, Phoebe Howard, Mallory Mathison via StyleCourt, Donna Griffith for Style At Home (still not tired of that one!), and unknown via LGN.

Day 970's bedroom

My bedroom has kind of been driving me crazy lately. It was the first room I painted after we moved in and I'm starting to think it's too dark (Benjamin Moore's Bar Harbour Beige). The room is on the Northeast corner of the house and, despite windows on two walls, it definitely gets the least amount of sunlight. You've probably never even seen it because it's so dark I can't manage a decent photo for the life of me.

Not to mention, this is still looking kind of wonky. I just painted my kitchen China White and, though I never considered myself a white-walls kind of girl, I have to say I kind of love it! Should I repeat it in the bedroom?


This lovely bedroom is from the 2009 Southern Accents showhouse at Riverhills, which, sadly, was never published in the magazine. You can still see it all online here. Is it just me or is the ceiling blue? Hmmmm maybe that would satisfy my supposed-need for some kind of color the walls? Before I get ahead of myself (and give Wes a heart attack) maybe I should just replace the navy lampshades and see if that helps with the light situation.

Day 936's favorite images from Cottage Living

Today I am especially missing Cottage Living, for some reason. I thought you might like a random sampling of some (some!) of my favorites ...









By the way, if you miss Cottage Living too, you can find archive images on MyHomeIdeas.com.

Photos are by Tria Giovan, Megan Thompson, Tim Street-Porter and Robbie Caponetto.

Day 873: pretty bedroom makeover

I love this guest bedroom makeover, featured in the November issue of Southern Living (along with this great house).


Associate decorating editor (and Cottage Living alum and fellow Auburn graduate) Anne Turner Carroll took a blank slate and a few family heirlooms (the bed and the desk) and turned them into a bedroom that, if I were the homeowner, I would have to move into!


Gray-green grasscloth (Chevron Sisal (SE1808) by York Wallcoverings) set the tone for the neutral-but-not-a-bit-boring room.


On the bed, white linens are off-set by a graphic fabric (La Fiorentina in Grey, 2430-GWF 611 by Groundworks through Lee Jofa) on the underside of the canopy and on the bedskirt. That amazing pillow is actually a rug that was bought for the floor (they went with a cowhide instead), folded in half, filled with batting, and sewn together. A great idea if you can't find just the right fabric for the job.


The vintage desk was left as-is and is topped with sketches from a sketchbook in ready-made frames. The lamp shade was covered in a coordinating fabric (Sand Strie in Chiffon by Kelly Wearstler through Lee Jofa) and the desk chair was painted and recovered for a modern touch (fabric is Plush Mohair in graphite by Beacon Hill). The homeowner found the abstract painting by Scott Nedrelow on ebay.


Roman shades (in Slubby Linen in Mushroom by Calico Corners) are hung just under the crown molding.