Showing posts with label bedroom. Show all posts
Showing posts with label bedroom. Show all posts

Sunday, June 8, 2014

Bedroom Update

New Mattress Set
Okay, confession: I started this and was really quite tired of the bedroom project and couldn't drum up any enthusiasm to take pictures. So it's been sitting for a little while. But it'll be good to document this stuff, so I'm finally finishing this post.

It's been two weeks since the bed arrived and three since we started the refresh in earnest. We ended up taking the better part of a week off, as we were both burned out.

It has been really challenging to buy bedding for this refreshing. Seriously. I am surprised about that. I figured it would be a piece of cake.
up close sides

The duvet insert, was fairly easy. I read several articles on what the different measurements are for down and once I knew what all the numbers meant, it was easy to pick out an insert. While I was nervous about not being able to feel it before purchasing, I'm really glad I went with my instincts. Our new insert is lighter, yet warmer than our previous one and was very reasonably priced.

Sheets. That's a different story altogether. I have yet to find a gray patterned sheet that I like or that isn't too clashy for our pillows. Even online. The other challenge with online is the color. I ordered some flannel sheets that looked to be gray and white, but in reality are gray and tan. Very disappointing.

Top. Beautiful.
I did successfully order a duvet cover in a subtle gray on gray stripe. It's nice and very soft and well priced. I would prefer it to not be a solid color but for now its good.

Our sheets are cream colored. Not my first color choice, but they are great quality and that is way more important.


We decided to take out everything and only bring back in what we really want. The room is huge! And we haven't put anything on the walls. I must say am enjoying it, a little surprised by how much.

Duvet Cover
So, it's coming together! A little more to do that will hopefully be finished this week. (BTW - that didn't happen. It's still not quite finished.)

Okay, that was the unfinished post... Here come the new updates: 

Confession: One I've probably already told you... I don't really enjoy shopping. I don't do it for fun. I especially don't like to do it for a specific thing. I find it terribly frustrating to look for a specific thing, in every store in the greater metropolitan area. Terribly frustrating.

Basket!
I did more shopping in the month of May than I would enjoy doing in a year. And still couldn't find exactly what I wanted. But things I did find are fun additions to the room. Notice the dandelion basket. I found two and they are currently holding all of my secret (well, not so secret) clutter that I absolutely cannot live without. The gray of the dandelion looks good with the walls!

Towels. We found really fun and interesting towels. They were the easiest and most fun purchases since the pillows.

Rug. See my toes, oops.
We found a new rug, too. Oh, we rearranged the furniture in the room, thanks to our youngest son, who is really gifted with spatial planning. Hmmm... maybe he should think about architecture instead of political science. Anyway, we were also looking at rugs, everywhere we went. Hubby liked the one in the picture and though we looked and looked, this was still his favorite. He calls me one day and says, I still like that rug we saw called... I say: To be honest, I can't remember what it looked like. We'd seen so many blessed rugs, towels, paint chips, sheets, etc., you understand. So he offers to stop by the store and take a picture of it. I say Okay! Some time later, he arrives home with the rug. I am thrilled. I could have wept. Not because it looks perfect in the space or that in the array of colors on the rug has both the wall color and the duvet color. No. I nearly wept with relief that I neither had to shop for nor make the decision about what rug to buy.

That was when I knew that we needed some time away. More than a week. We needed some breathing room and decided to shelve the refresh.

washcloths
But, we are nearly finished. The big thing is the headboard. Because we live in an old quirky house, there isn't a wall without a window or door on it. It makes bed placement tricky. In it's old configuration, the bed was in front of two windows - see picture above. But in the old configuration we had a queen. Now we have a king. It was too squishy in it's old place. In the new, it's only in front of one window. (there will be finished photos soon!) This makes the headboard tricky. Plus my husband, whom I totally love, makes stuff difficult. (I say with love). He does. He overthinks, plans, replans, strategizes, rethinks and then starts over. I say, mount it to the wall. He says, when the bed moves, the headboard won't. I say, So? Mount it to the wall. He says they are plaster walls. I say, So? Mount it to the wall. He says it partially covers the window, can't mount it to the window. I say, build it so it rests on the sill. He says then there's no possibility of airflow. He shows me drawings, looking down. Seriously my head is spinning at this point. I'm trying. Really trying, but these drawings make no sense to me whatsoever. He's so earnest in trying to explain it to me, but I have no idea why it has to be this complicated. So I finally describe what I want and tell him to do what he needs to do. I heard him say to son#1 yesterday that he had to rethink the headboard. Inside my head, I said, mount it to the plaster wall, resting it on the window sill, blocking the airflow and be done with it. Oh yes, there is a little frustration there. Ouch.
hand towels

I want to put some words on the wall. I haven't felt inspired yet. What is your favorite quote? I love words. The perfect thing to put on our wall is coming to me, I just know it.

Well, that's the update as of today. I think.






Saturday, May 3, 2014

I'm back!

Not in the creepy 'Shining' way, but in the good, "Hey, I've missed posting and now that I have a few minutes I'm going to do just that" way.

So, some really sad news... Our dog passed last weekend. She came to us when she was 7, from a family with a young son who developed dog allergies. She was sweet, silly, stubborn, curious and fun. Ahhhh, look at that face. We loved her very much. It's been quite a blow. The worst is when out of total habit, you are expecting to see her and then remembering that won't be happening. WAAAAHHHH. Do I regret all the time before last Friday just because this part sucks? No. We loved her and loving her is wonderful. Missing her sucks. That's really all I have to say about that. It's been a weepy week and I'm exhausted of and by the weeping.

Some good news. We bought a new mattress and box springs and it is arriving any minute! It's been 21 years since we bought our last set. 21! The old set is hard as a rock and one wire pokes, just a little bit, out the side. Not enough to actually be noticeable, but enough that it will scratch you good if you're not careful. The new bed is a king size and we are excited! Looking forward to the extra room. Of course, going from queen to king means all new bedding. I now know more about bedding than I ever cared to know. Seriously!

So, because we rarely ever do anything simply, a new mattress set has become a complete refresh. It all started with choosing King over Queen. If it were another Queen, it would have been so easy to keep the old stuff! Ah, hindsight. But, we chose King and needed new bedding. New bedding against old walls... so, we decided to paint. Which is a very good decision, because it's been years since we painted and the room needed it. For inspiration, I found these decorative pillows.
 
They are simple, cheerful and modern, which is my current decorating style. It's been a week of shopping, not my favorite thing, and painting, not my favorite thing. We decided to split the effort. Hubby painted and I shopped. It took two tries to get the paint right. I know. We originally chose pale gray, but it was so cold that neither of us liked it. So next we went with a taupe-y stone color. It's awesome. It's a version of the color of the inside of the dark gray shape on the left side of the floral pillow. Love it. It's a perfect neutral that will compliment this palette and whatever strikes my fancy later.

I find sheet shopping a challenge. It's not that I'm particularly picky (I say just a tad defensively) it's that I don't really want solid sheets. That and I've been burned before by the lure of high thread count, only to discover that the sheets are so thin they wrinkle like mad and don't last. I am certain I want cotton. I don't want 1000+ thread count, but do want more than 200. I like patterned sheets and the pattern matters. So that's my dilemma. Oh, and I absolutely refuse to pay over $100 for sheets. Okay, so I'm picky. In my pickiness I have been everywhere once and some places twice looking for what I want. So far I have sheets in solid colors I don't love, a down comforter that I do like, a duvet cover that while it is beautiful, is going back and a soft fleecy throw that I'm still considering.

The duvet cover that is going back is primarily white. I just feel so uncomfortable about that. I don't think I'm pristine enough for a white duvet. I mean you couldn't touch it is you had one little bit of cheeto on your person. And the fact is my husband is a cheeto addict.

The last duvet cover, I made from two top sheets. You see, I don't really like sleeping with a top sheet. Between my need to be able to put my foot or feet out and my husband's sheet stealing ways, the top sheet never stayed put. So the last time we needed sheets, I purchased two sets, used the tops to make the duvet cover and had four cases and two fitted sheets. It was AWESOME. Of course, because it was awesome, I want to do that again. But not with a solid sheet! Dang it!

So the search continues.Once the bed arrives, we are going back out into the fray, to find and purchase the perfect sheets! Oh yes, we are.

When it's finished, I'll post some pics.

Until then, if you are a pet owner, give your pet some extra attention today in honor of Daisy. She was such a sweet soul and she is missed.