Master Bedroom Update: New Campaign Style Nightstands

Decorating has always been one of my biggest passions. I truly believe that coming home to a space you find beautiful and relaxing improves your day-to-day life. 

Having said that, our master bedroom has always been very blah to me (and still is). I don't love that it doesn't have a lot of windows and that overall is just feels really boring.  Part of the reason for that is because I never prioritized the space.  Because our kitchen, dining room and living room are all in one, large, open concept space on one floor, I prioritized decorating our second floor because we spend the most time there (though, I still need window treatments for the second floor).

Our master bedroom still has a long way to come, but we've made a small improvement by switching out our bedside tables.  I had H do a popular IKEA hack to make new bedside tables that were larger, brighter and more suited to the scale of the room and our king- sized bed.

He followed this campaign dresser tutorial from the blog Sequins & Stripes.  I didn't post step-by-step instructions on my blog because we followed that blog's directions and bought all of the same products except for the paint color (we used a different shade of white by BEHR and did not use a high gloss paint because it as not available in no VOC formula).

Here is what our night stands looked like before (also from IKEA):

See how they're so small you can hardly see them next to the bed?  They also didn't have a lot of storage and I like to keep books and magazines by the bed.

The new ones look like this:

I am really pleased with how they turned out. The project also means that we now own an electric drill. I told H to watch out---now that he completed this project, I know I'll have many more to add to his list.  

So, whats next for the master bedroom?  

• Artwork on the walls---I am thinking above the bed because that wall is so bare and could be a great focal point
• Mirrors above the nightstands (I just need to find the perfect size!) I'd love to do gold framed ones
• Possibly moving the tall, thinner dresser to another side of the room
• possibly adding a chair in one of the corners

I would just love to make our master bedroom a space I love walking into everyday, like our kitchen, dining room and living room.  

My next decorating focus will be the nursery, but I'd like to work on the master bedroom as well before the baby comes.  

Hope everyone is enjoying the first day of 2013!

Home Updates: Restoration Hardware Curtains for the Kitchen & Dining Room Chandelier

On Saturday, we had Kyle, our handyman from One Call Home Handyman come to our home to install our Restoration Hardware curtains, our Overstock.com chandelier and to wall-mount our TV in the master bedroom.

Some of you may recall that Kyle installed our original chandelier over the island in out kitchen.  We were so thrilled with the work he did that we hired him for what I'll refer to as "round two."

I decided to order the exact same chandelier that is in our kitchen for our dining room as well.  Since our entire second floor is one long, large space, it felt more cohesive to have the same look in the lighting.  Here's how it turned out:

And now, to the curtains. As you may have noticed, our dining room doesn't have curtains. We had to return half of the curtain hardware and fabric we got because we realized that the curtains we got for the dining room just weren't going to work there because of the spacing.  Also, the dining room window is really beautiful and it's on the side of the house, so no one can see inside and it brings a ton of light in. So for now, the plan is to leave it bare.

We did have or gorgeous Thai Silk curtains installed on our kitchen window and we are thrilled with how it turned out.  It really look very elegant, light and airy. They're still a little wrinkled on the bottom, but I love them!

As a reminder, here is what the kitchen window looked like before with our Ready Blinds:

and here is the window now...

It's amazing how much elegance an extra chandelier and curtains can add to your space. Considering we were using $10 Ready Blinds from Home Depot on our window previously, the curtains are a massive upgrade.

Source List:

Chandelier- Overstock.com

Curtains- Restoration Hardware (curtains/hardware)

Barstools- IKEA

Dining Table- Restoration Hardware Flatiron Collection, 72 inches

Dining Chairs- Home Source Houston- Lawford Chair

Miranda Trifle Bowl- Crate & Barrel

Faux Hydrangea Stem- similar at Pottery Barn 

Some of you mentioned in my comments on my dining room post that I should change the way the chairs are set. I personally like having chairs at either end of the table versus having two on each side for the everyday. If we ever need to seat more people at the table, we can move one of the chairs to one side and use the bench in our kitchen on the other side.

Thank you for reading and have a great week!

PS- if you are in Houston and are ever in need of a great handyman, please consider calling Kyle from One Call Home Handyman.  He is very professional and best of all knows what he is doing. He also gives good advice on what will work and what will not.  I highly recommend his services (and no, I was not paid to say that).  You can call (832) 800-4441 to set up any kind of home installation or renovation.

Dining Room Updates- Almost Done!

I am so incredibly thrilled with our dining room!  We are still waiting on the curtains and the chandelier to be installed, but I wanted to show a quick update about how it's looking in our space.

As you know, we have an extremely open floor plan, so it was important for us to get a table that made a statement so that it stood out in its "own space" but not so much that it didn't feel cohesive with the rest of the space.  

We ended up keeping the Restoration Hardware table that had a tiny flaw on it because the replacement table had some broken parts under it and the color of the wood was not as nice as the one we have. Restoration Hardware had incredible customer service and we were able to get a discount on the table due to the stain.

I can't wait to put the finishing touches on our dining room. It feels so "grown up" to have a real dining room table and chairs (though we still at at our kitchen island).

Source List:

Dining Table- Restoration Hardware Flatiron Collection, 72 inches

Dining Chairs- Home Source Houston- Lawford Chair

Miranda Trifle Bowl- Crate & Barrel

Faux Hydrangea Stem- similar at Pottery Barn 

Do you have and use your dining room furniture? I think we will eat at this table for more special occasions and when we have guests over. I like that this table has sort of a rustic glam look (the glam will come from the Thai silk curtains and crystal chandelier) so it can sort of be dressed up or dressed down depending on the occasion. I can't wait to dress it up for the holidays!

Hung Up (on the walls)

In our last house, we didn't hang a lot on our walls because we knew we wouldn't really be there for a long time.  In this house, I want to hang more art, mirrors and everything in between to truly make it feel like a home (because, hey, walls get lonely).

Though I'd still like to add even more artwork and mirrors, I think we're off to a pretty good start.  I also have to give major thanks to my father-in-law because he did all of the work (and math) to hang all of this stuff!

First off is a mirror I got at Marshalls Home Goods for $34.99 (score!)  I may eventually paint it a glossy white, gold or a bright color...but for now I sort of like its distressed look.  I chose to hang it above our Crate & Barrel cabinet because that wall is so narrow and I thought it could use something to make it more of a focal point.

Next up, I got a super tall mirror (again, from Marshalls Home Goods, $79.99) for our stairway that goes up to the second floor of our home.  It's hard to get a good shot of it, but I absolutely love it in person!

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After taking these next photos, I realized that I've never shown our newly painted bathroom before on the blog. The color is called "Sienne" by Valspar. It's a very dark gray with brownish undertones. I chose to hang my ISeeNoise prints in our master bath since they seemed fitting for that room (hello pretty perfume bottles!) 

 

Finally, I hung the two dress prints I got at Marshalls Home Goods for $16.99 each in my master closet:

 

Next on our home to-do list:

• Refinish dresser
• New, larger nightstands
• New dining room table and chairs (I think we are getting these ones) 
• New coffee table (ours is on the fritz)
• Chandelier for master bathroom (because they are awesome)
• Side table for living room
• More mirrors and wall art

Do you have a lot of artwork or other wall art in your home?  I can't wait to hang even more (I'd like to make some of my own paintings and also hang my LOVE prints that I framed).
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