Making a House a Home :: Master Bedroom - Decorate

Let's face it.  When we moved into our home, it was UGLY!  The master bedroom was no different.  The walls, trim and baseboards were this awful dirty dusty pink with navy floral border.  Half of the border was ripped down... or maybe I ripped it down I hated it so much, I can't remember.  But we moved in circa 1990's and back in the '80's when the original homeowner decorated, that was the style... I guess. Not mine that's for sure.  There were no curtains and if there were I ripped them down and threw them out - they were full of dust and stunk like smoke and again ugly.  

Photo by SilverLining Designs (prior to digital)

Sorry for the bad picture.  Digital cameras were not discovered back then.  As you can sorta see we didn't have a lot of furniture back then and what we did have was a mix and match of hand me downs and stuff we brought into the marriage.  This room lacked style completely.

Photo by SilverLining Designs (prior to digital)

Shortly thereafter, we transformed the room by painting the walls an antique white.  To this day, I love this colour and never get tired of it.  The windows face west so in the afternoon it is very bright in this room and you hardly see the colour making it very soft.  In the evening and early morning it deepens and is quite beautiful.  Sometimes I find myself just looking around the room to see how the light catches the walls.  We also splurged and bought the bedroom furniture I have always wanted... a four poster bed.  I was surprised because it is little more ornate than what my tastes are usually, but there was something romantic about the detail and hardware. We put some pictures on the walls, purchased new bedding and put a new to us big comfy chair in the corner of the room, which was my aunts and has since now passed, so it is special because now whenever I look at it or sit in it, I think of her.  Again not my style in fabric, but it was in excellent condition and it worked and it is super comfy so I left it as is.  One day I will recover it.  The lamps were hand me downs which I did a little DIY.  They were originally peach ceramic.  Back then and still now I am so over peach.  It use to be my favourite... everything was peach.  I spray painted them gold.  The drapery, way back then, was given to me also.  I loved the fabric but the length was way too short. I needed something to cover the windows, so I threw them up on the windows until I was ready to have something made. 


So that, at the time was a room decorated.  I was able to walk in the room and be in the room and enjoy it to some extent.  There was still more things to be done, but for now it was livable.

Making a house a home

When we first moved into our home approximately 14 years ago, everybody wondered and voiced their concerns as to what I was thinking and that "boy do you ever have vision".  The reason they said that was because the house we bought was totally neglected when it came to the upkeep and a complete decorating disaster.  Imagine muddy dark pink walls, navy blue floral borders throughout the whole house including doors. Mismatched casings.  Light blue family room with a dog border through the middle of the wall. Little houses on a border in the kitchen.  Oh, I could go on with the decorating horror stories.  I don't think the owner ever cleaned.  There were cob webs on the walls as old as the house.  Food spilled in the kitchen cupboards.  I think you are getting the picture. They basically lived in the house. Period.

So why do you ask did I want this house?  It had good bones, the layout was what I wanted and the other thing that was a must, which the Mister insisted on, was that the property had to be bigger than a postage stamp.  So after two years of searching we finally found it.  Something had to give right? I was up for the challenge and anything we bought we knew we would rip apart and make it our own.The ideas were already swirling in my head.

Since I was 5 months pregnant at the time we took over the house, I was very lucky to have a team of people helping us move, clean and settle us in.  I would have never been able to do it without them.

The first thing I wanted to do was settle in Big Sister.  I wanted her to adjust well and feel like it was her home and space, so the first thing I did was paint and purchase bedroom furniture.  Since the previous owners were smokers I wanted to paint the whole house to get rid of the smoke smell, so we quickly painted ceilings and walls.  Since a baby was on its way, I knew I would be spending a lot of time in the master bedroom  feeding, sleeping, changing, etc. so that was the next room to paint.

Fast forward 14 years and we have accomplished a lot of renovations in our home from new hardwood floors that we sanded and stained ourselves to new kitchens and bathrooms.

After we finished a complete kitchen reno about 8 years ago we were burned out and everything came to a halt.  We gave ourselves a break and only just a few years ago have started up again and have been working on the landscaping in the backyard, installing new windows.... and began to slowly redecorate and repaint some rooms.

I'll be back soon.  Hope you'll follow along on my re-decorating journey. 

If you Want Something Done Right You Gotta Do it Yourself!

I am sure you have all heard it, if not used this phrase yourself at one point or another.

Getting the stairs prepped - removing stringers and rail

Well, I have been using that phrase this week and last. I hired a trade to refinish my stairs. He came recommended by someone I know and was told that he does a good job and is particular about his work. He started last Monday and was fired last Tuesday. Yes, that's right he didn't even last two days and no he is not particular about ANYTHING! From the moment he walked in on Monday, he was stressing me out.

Let me start by saying that we have been in our current house now for 10 years. From the moment we moved in we have been renovating and when I say renovating, I mean ripping up flooring, painting, installing new casing and baseboards, gutting bathrooms and redesigning and installing a new kitchen. Then that is where it stopped - at the kitchen. It's been probably about 3-4 years since we did any major reno here. I have wanted/desperately needed to get new windows for the whole house, but husband has been procrastinating for one reason or another, so they haven't been done. Our ensuite bathroom has been ripped to the bare walls for 6 years now and marble has been sitting in my garage for probably 5 years. You know the story of the shoemaker never having any shoes because he is too busy making everyone else’s. That is part of the reason here and the fact that we have lost steam and gotten to the point where I am tired of the DIY major reno and just want to hire someone to come in and get it done and then I can enjoy. Hence the stairs - this is where the story begins. I have wanted to refinish these stairs since the moment I saw them. I even tried to find someone to come in and do them. Do you know how hard it is to get someone to come and refinish stairs? Let me tell you.... Really. Hard. Even some designer friends I know couldn’t drop me any names. So a couple weeks before the end of school, I was talking to someone I know who told me he knew this really good guy that does really good work. So I called him up and asked him to come and take a look at my stairs. He gave me a price and said he could start the following Monday.Everything has been stripped and sanded

Safety rail put in place

We felt like the Swiss Family Robinson climbing up to our treehouse at night

To make a long story short, Monday he arrived and I was already stressed out. Tuesday he was taping and getting ready to stain - and just so you know, there are 13 steps and 68 pickets. He was no where near ready to stain and I told him so. He didn't want to listen or prepare them properly, so I fired him. I told him that if he didn't want to do the job right, then don't do it at all and I will finish what he started. So three weeks later I've stripped, sanded, washed and sanded and stained and polyurethaned and I am almost done. I am pretty much sick of doing this. For one, I wasn't even ready to have them done and second, I had no intention of even tackling this job by myself. It's a big undertaking and tedious work. Hopefully, by the end of this week it will be put back together and I will be able to enjoy the outcome, no thanks to the tradesman or the person who recommended him.Starting to stain all the stringers and stairs - the end is near... thank goodness!

If you are going to do any renovations in your home, the following are just some of the things you should know*:

A. Get at least 3 quotes from reputable tradesman - cheapest isn't always the best;
B. Do your homework and ask a lot of questions before you hire them;
C. Ask for referrals and then call them to see if they are happy with the work they had done;
D. Be on-site to supervise or make quick decisions, if possible.

*These are just my personal opinions which I have learned throughout the years of renovating and dealing with trade and do not necessarily reflect the position or opinion of any interior design/home renovation guidelines.

In between all that, we took a short getaway to a resort to kick off the summer. We had a great time. The weather was nice. The kids had fun and me and husband relaxed.

So needless to say there hasn't been much sewing going on in these parts lately. Not by choice either... I might add.

I am hoping to get back into the swing of things once my stairs are all done and the mess is all cleaned up. Do some fun things with the girls and try and squeeze a little work in.

!!Update 21/7/08: The stairs are almost done. The pickets have been reinstalled and we are slowly getting the rail back in place. The trim has been stained and needs to be polyurethaned. I am hoping to have it complete by the end of this week. Then I will have the walls to touch up with paint where some stain got on them and where the tape pulled it off.