Re-doing my room: DIY style

Well, April didn't go quite as well as I had anticipated. I was sick for about two weeks (although the cough lingered longer!), and near the end of the month we ran into trouble with our phone/internet provider, so I was primarily without internet. So, there was a little chunk of time that was a large jar of Lamesauce. I'm getting back into the swing of things now, though! My messages are a little backed up, so I'll get that all sorted out soon. Please be patient. :)

  I took the extra time stuck at home I had to finally re-do my room, which I've been wanting to do for the past few years. It was a HUGE effort, but it was well worth it in the end! The room previously featured gold and purple, but didn't really have a specific theme, per se; it was sort of inspired to look royal, but in reality it was kind of mishymashy. The furniture was metallic gold, the curtains were royal purple (the ones on the windows had gold accent panels), and I had some gold wall decor, that's all that really matched. The rest of the room was sort of a grab bag of whatever I happened to have on hand. Most of the decorations were various gifts I wanted to display, meaning, it was all stuff that I liked, but nothing really went together. I've always envied bedrooms in magazines where everything complemented the rest of the room. Mum's room is all matchy, and she (and dad) just finished totally re-doing her bathroom, which also looks fabulous. I decided it was time for a change and finally just jump into my own project instead of procrastinating. I had the funds, I had the time.

  For about a year I'd been searching for the perfect bedding to no avail. I knew exactly what I wanted, I could see it in my mind's eye: a pale pink comforter/pillow set featuring shabby chic cabbage roses, with a white underside, preferably also with little roses, so I could fold it back at the top. I wanted the pillows to have ruffles along the edges, which I would have sewed on myself, if I had to. I also wanted pink satin sheets to go with along with the set. I also knew exactly what I didn't want, which was pretty much everything else, and told myself I wasn't going to spend money on something I didn't absolutely love and "settle". Eventually, I found the PERFECT set on Amazon. I was ecstatic! When it showed up I was even more thrilled, because it was even more beautiful than I thought it would be. Here it is in its packaging. IT'S PERFECT.

And yes, I did find the perfect beautiful pink satin sheets to go with it. :)

 I carried all my furniture into the yard (my parents helped with the larger pieces) and spray painted them. They went from now dull/grubby metallic gold to a lovely, crisp cream colour in about 9 cans of spray paint. 

          Here are some work in progress pictures.

  Here is a comparison of before and after spraying. All of the furniture was this colour. Alas, I didn't get the angles as similar as I'd have liked, but it's the same table. This isn't very flattering light for it, either; in this image, it looks more wood coloured, but it was gold inside the house. An example of it better lighting can be seen here. As you can see in the image below, the gold paint had this very unfortunate of retaining hand/foot prints permanently. There was no way I could get them out. It made for very grubby looking furniture!

  While all my furniture was outside, I took advantage of the empty room. First, I took everything except the mattress & boxspring out of the room so I could re-evaluate what to keep, and do a mini-purge. Having everything out of the room and deciding whether or not to bring it back in made it much, much easier. I finally let go of some sentimental clutter that was holding me back, and honestly, that was very hard to do, so I'm proud of myself for finally doing it.

  I spent four hours in total shampooing my bedroom rug, which was the worst part. Lugging buckets of water up and down the stairs for two hours at a time was tedious, and the rug smelled for days as it was drying- gross! The worst part was that it didn't get completely clean despite my best efforts, but it looks a LOT better than it did, so I'm happy with it. I also wiped down some problem spots on the walls.


 The whole process took about a week, after which I was completely exhausted. I still need to touch up the paint on a few teeny tiny spots on my furniture, and I'd really like for Dad to eventually make me a shelf above my bed for my book collection, but other than that, I declare my room finished. It was a huge effort, but I am thrilled with the result. The next post will feature pictures! Stay tuned!

Love,
Queen Werandra