Master Bedroom Before and After

I told a little fib last week. Remember when I said I didn't want to show the master bedroom off because it wasn't decorated yet? Well that was only partially true. The other reason was because I didn't like the paint colour at all. It was too dark, and with the cherry dresser and bed frame, it looked like a man cave.

So I repainted it of course. With my trusty assistant Tom, I got that room repainted and decorated - and I didn't even need a long weekend to do it this time.

Let's get right to it, shall we? This is the new master bedroom:

Do you remember what it looked like before? I'm embarrassed to even repost these pictures. The room was yellow, with a faux plaster finish on the top half of the wall (and a dirty, brown glaze on that).

Not a fun place to hang out in. Just go in and close your eyes, you don't want to see.

We painted it Benjamin Moore Arctic Seal the first time. Truly a gorgeous colour, but not right for this room.  Our new colour is Stormy Monday, also by Benjamin Moore. Have I professed my love for Benjamin Moore paints yet? I was always hesitant to buy their paint because they are more expensive than Home Depot or Canadian Tire, but you can't argue with the quality. After using BM in the living room and kitchen I switched back to Behr for other rooms. And that's when I really noticed the difference. We always do two coats just to be safe, but I've heard of people only needing one. Just look how thick this paint is:

Here is the colour difference:

And on the wall:

Much better. We got it all painted, put everything back in place, and then accessorized in white, grey, and orange. Tom is the one who decided on orange. It's a nice change from the usual yellow or green that you see so often with grey. We were in Homesense, about to walk down the pillow aisle, and I told Tom I didn't know what colours to use with the grey. He suggested orange, and then I found these no more than two minutes later.

Orange, white, and grey. Meant.To.Be. The covers are removable and the pillows are filled with feathers, so they're nice and squishy.

We bought some photos of dandelion "fluff" at Ikea specifically for the room. The frames are a bit off white so I'm going to spray paint them later, but they work for now.

When we were in Pennsylvania last summer I bought an elephant carving so it made it's way into the room too. I added my elephant poop ornament - yep, it's made from real elephant droppings - and he looks so happy to be hanging out with the big kids. Plus he adds a nice bit of colour on the other side of the room.

The other fun accessory was a wooden carving we bought in the Dominican Republic. We rode horses up a huge hill, then hiked down the other side (in rubber boots) to get to El Limon waterfall. There was a woman selling wooden carvings beside the waterfall, and I couldn't turn down a carving of a dog. He's guarding Tom's side of the bed though.

We also raised the curtain rod up higher to give the room more visual height, and swapped out the navy blue curtains for grey silk ones that we already had. I have no idea why that mirror looks so short - it's taller than I am. Maybe we do have higher ceilings.  :-)

I love how warm and cozy the room feels now. It's kind of like a hotel room I think, but in the best possible way. Those globe lights are from Ikea, and the orange candles are my favourite cinnamon pecan swirl.

I have new bedding - sheets, pillows, and duvet - that I've been saving until it was finished. I can't wait to sleep in there. It's true, we've been sleeping in the spare room until I could get some daylight pictures of this room. The dogs are pretty confused. I have the doorway blocked off and Chloe keeps walking up to the gate and staring longingly at the bed. Poor thing. Crazy blogger rules!

All that's left is to paint the doors - they're a terrible off-white - and buy a new light fixture. And find something to hang on the wall facing the bed.

I'm thinking a hand painted sign. 

"You are my sunshine"? 

"Don't worry, be happy"? 

"Be quiet and go to sleep, Barb"?

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I'm linking up here this week!

It's March!

Happy first day of March! Winter hit us late this year - we've only had about a month of snow and cold, cold temperatures, but I can't wait for spring. I'm looking forward to spending more time outside with the dogs, landscaping the front yard, and not wearing a coat!

What are you most looking forward to this spring?

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Cerusing Nightstands (Hunh?)

It's time once again for another Pinterest Challenge - winter edition this time.  The Pinterest Challenge is a get-off-your-butt-and-make-that-thing-you-pinned declaration started by Sherry from Young House Love and Katie from Bower Power.  This edition is also co-hosted by Megan from The Remodeled Life and Michelle from Decor & the Dog.

I've participated a few times before - check out my photo bottles, yarn eggs, fold-up patio bar, and my favourite - the poop factory costume for the ever-patient Chloe.

This time I wanted to try something a little bigger, though since I can only do this DIY stuff on the weekends it couldn't be too big. How about a little nightstand makeover?

My go-to method of refinishing wood is to sand it down, wipe on dark stain, wipe on watered-down paint, and then wax and buff it to a shine. I love the results - every time it turns out a little different depending on the stain and paint colour I choose. If you'd like to see some of my past results go here, here, and here.

But colour me surprised when I found out there is a name for this method - it's called "cerusing". Except there is one additional step - you use a wire brush on the wood before staining and painting so that the paint gets right in the grooves. When you wipe off the excess paint, you get little spots of paint left behind. It's a great way to camouflage imperfections in the wood when you can't sand the heck out of it (like with wood veneer).

I first saw this on The Ridiculous Redhead and had to pin it. I love the results I've had so far, but paint in the grooves would add some extra depth that's been missing.

This is the nightstand that volunteered for the makeover. Plain, serviceable, nothing to write home about.

Someday we'll build ones that we love, but the to-do list is so long right now that it won't be any time soon. I'm not a fan of the orange stain and the top has some pretty bad water damage. But the body/frame is real wood, although with particle board/veneer on the top and thin plywood on the sides. Materials that make sanding an adventure.

Do you know that I sanded them in the bathroom? Well now you do. I didn't want to go out to the freezing cold garage - we have a kerosene heater there but it burns my eyes after only a few minutes - and I didn't want fine stain/lacquer dust all over the house, so I chose the bathroom. The tiny, tiny bathroom. Pretty brilliant, I think. It only took about 90 minutes to completely strip each nightstand, though every surface in the room ended up covered in dust. And I sanded them on two different nights so I ended up cleaning the bathroom from top to bottom twice in one week. It's the hard-knock life.

They look pretty good naked, don't they? Tom thought I should leave them like that. Does he not know me at all? There's experimenting to do, y'all!

I used a wire brush to scuff up the wood - in the direction of the grain - on every surface of the stand. The veneer looked pretty cool because the brush would take out little divots rather than make big scratches. Don't forget to lightly sand again to smooth down the edges of the grooves when you're done.

I used a cloth to apply a thin coat of stain - Jacobean by Minwax - and then once it was dry applied a coat of "whitewash paint" with a new cloth. The colour I used was a mistint from the Habitat for Humanity ReStore - sort of a taupe-y shade with almost a pink undertone.

This might be the point at which I admit that this was a cerusing failure. The paint didn't appear to be in any grooves, it just looked like it always does (which is fine, but not what I was going for). I thought it might be too light - kind of a barn-board colour - so I added another coat of stain, but with a foam brush this time, and I let it dry without wiping. Once that was dry, I wiped on another coat of whitewash and then scrubbed it down, trying to mimic a wood-grain effect. Much better. Still not ceruse but I liked it. Two coats of Minwax paste wax and some buffing later, you have the final product.

But wait! There's more. I didn't want to sand the inside of the nightstand - thin plywood, remember - but I also didn't want the old orange to show. So we built a door for the front of each that swings to the side and is attached with exposed trunk-style hinges. We swapped out the silver knobs for black handles as well. Lee Valley Tools has the most amazing selection of hinges and handles - everything from basic knobs to fancy shapes and hammered metal.

To make sure the door stays closed, Tom inserted a crosspiece below the drawer and screwed in a flathead screw flush to the wood at one end. He then countersunk a magnet in the back of the door that lined up with the screw and keeps the door closed when you want it to be. I applied a thin coat of wood putty over the magnet and the screw to make them less visible.

I'm thinking the door might eventually get a freezer paper stencil, but for now I'm pretty pleased with the results. The grey tone is more our style and it makes the nightstand look a little less factory-produced.

How about a little before-and-after?

I'm going to call this a win and keep practicing my cerusing skills.

Now head on over to the host sites and see what everyone else was up to this week!

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I'm also linking up here this week!