Master Bedroom Reveal

Our master bedroom is finally done! We've had three houses in our almost 20 years of marriage but there was always some other room that had to be done first. Our bedroom wasn't a romantic retreat so much as a place where outdated furniture went to die.  Old bookcase. Check.  Old pine furniture set?  Check.  Old desk?  Yup. It had an Ode to University days mishmash feel to it.

There was one snafu (which I'll get to) but otherwise we are very happy with our new and much improved Master bedroom.  

When last I blogged about our Master boudoir we had just finished installing the paneled wall.  There was a lot of planning and prep involved, it took many evenings to install but wasn't an overly hard project.  To get Brad fully on board with my vision of paneling I promised to paint the paneled wall myself.  And I did.

I spent an entire Friday painting the 27 'boxes' on the wall.  We still had our TV in the bedroom so I put on movies that I loved but already seen for some background noise. Movies like Nottinghill, The Breakfast Club and Lord of the Rings: Fellowship of the Ring.  I will admit that I was surprised at how long it took to prime the MDF paneling and then give the entire wall two coats of paint.  Time estimating time is my Achilles heel.  Just ask Brad.

Choosing Paint
First things, first.  I had to choose the paint.  I scoured various paint sites, Pinterest etc to find the right colours for the room.  We ended up going back to Benjamin Moore (our basement was done entirely in Sherwin Williams).  We like both paint companies equally - their quality of paint, low to no VOC paints but without one of SW's big sales, BM is easier on the wallet. 

I had a general idea of what I wanted for style and colours for the room.  We had new bedding for inspiration that I had bought from Bouclair months ago in the hopes of getting a new bedroom set.  It's the Adnan set and not only was it on sale but I loved the colours and pattern. 

In the end, we went with the following Benjamin Moore colours ...

We used Revere Pewter (one of their most popular neutral colours) for three of the walls, Chelsea Gray on the paneled wall and we'd accent (with curtains, pillows etc) with a yellow similar to Chestertown Buff.

Prepping the Wall

Now that we had the paneling on the wall ...

... our next job was to fill in the nail holes, dings in the wall, edges where the planks meet the outer walls and seams where the horizontal boards met up with the vertical boards.  This is SO much fun (said nobody ever). This is the crappy work that no one praises you for but must be done. I knew that I didn't want to use wood filler again because when we used it on our large DIY planked wall in the basement it was dry, crumbly and not fun to use.  Instead we went with a spackling compound that we picked up at Home Depot ...

Yes, it's a Pepto-Bismol pink!  This compound went on easily with a small spackling knife. It goes on pink and when it dries to white you know it's ready to paint.  Our MDF planks were tight against the wall so we didn't spackle around the inside of each square. Thank goodness!

Painting
Now the wall was ready to paint so the first thing I did was prime all the MDF and any knicks in the wall that we had filled with spackle. Fun times.

The next step was to add some Chelsea Gray paint.  This is my favourite part.  It's the big 'Voila!' step!  I edged the panels twice ... 

... and then rolled within each square and on the MDF planks twice.  It took longer than I had expected but I love the result. It's exactly as I had pictured it.

Furniture
After 19 years of wedded bliss we got rid of our pine bedroom set and bought something much more suited to our current tastes.  The pine set was okay and what we could afford when we first got married but our styles have changed so we went with a black, clean lined king-sized set.  KING, baby!!

We bought it at a local, family owned furniture store.  It's from Vaughn-Bassett and called Reflections in Ebony. The bed (the Mansions Storage Bed), and the set in general, gives us much more storage space. The bed has two very deep drawers at the very end, we each have a huge side table and our own dresser (the TV will be mounted on the wall above my long dresser at some point).

Even Scout, our mini Schnoodle (pictured here in his Napping Old Dog yoga pose), agrees with our choices. 

Lamps
We bought side table lamps from Costco ...

I liked how the base wasn't chunky and let the paneled wall show through more. Simple, functional, a great price for the pair and they fit with the style we were going for.

Curtains
We ended up finding curtains at The Bay. I had been checking for curtains online and in stores for awhile.  No one had what I wanted. I found some options at Wayfair but didn't know anyone who had used that site and wanted to be able to physically take them back to a store if I didn't like them.

I ended up ordering SEVEN pairs of curtains during a sale at thebay.com. I immediately loved two pairs (the other pairs I returned to our local Bay store).  

I'm a very visual person and wanted to make sure that I loved my choices so we put up the new rod and both sets of curtains to see which we liked best ...

I loved both!!  The yellow set (Exclusively Home - Neptune Sundress) brings out the yellow in the duvet cover and gives the room a pop of colour.  But I equally like the curtains with the gray medallions (Exclusively Home - Sedgewick).  I got them for 50% off so I kept both and figured we can swap them out when the mood strikes me.  The window is eight feet wide so these panels will just stay at the edges to look nice, not to cover the entire window.

Here's the snafu I spoke of at the beginning of the post -- the yellow curtains were really wrinkled so we (self-proclaimed Type A peeps) followed the washing instructions to the tee and hung them to dry.  When I heard Brad utter "Oh sh... shucky darn!" (perhaps it was a stronger sentiment) I looked and saw that the curtains were now 7 1/2-inches shorter.  What in the name of all that is good and holy!?!?  I was not happy and called The Bay -- they were willing to exchange them since they had shrunk so badly even after following the instructions but they had no more stock. Just ... my ... luck.

So either I keep them or return them and have no curtains. I sent pictures to my two sisters and friend Allison for advice. I was immediately asked by my sisters how many people traipse through our boudoir on any given day to make this an issue. Huh. Don't beat around the bush, sistas!  Their point?  If it's only Brad and I that are usually in the room and we love the curtains then keep them.  All three of my Phone-A-Friends agreed - so the curtains were a little (lot) short and looked like 'floods' pants but they would be tucked behind Brad's bedside table and his tall dresser and I loved them, right?  So, in the end, we kept them and I'm still working on being okay with the shorter look that no one will notice but me.

So that's where our most recent renovation/revamp is at.  We are thrilled with the results.  We just need to get a bit of wall art, perhaps a comfy reading chair for moi and mount the TV on the wall above my big dresser.  Oh and repaint our ensuite - but I won't spring that one on Brad yet. We adore the new furniture (which, being dark, I've come to believe is a dust magnet) and we are very proud of the vast changes we made on the walls simply with some MDF and paint.

FYI - Our huge basement renovation is also done (if you don't count the fact that we have to paint the baseboards, trim and new five-panel doors).  I'll be posting the final pictures of that renovation soonish.  Stay tuned.