Thursday, February 26, 2015

From Messy Storeroom to New Bedroom on a Budget

We would love to have a master bedroom suite opening into a private courtyard, and Bill figured out a way to make it happen without moving to another house: We would take our messy back room, which had turned into a jumble of junk when we refinished the floors in the front of the house, clear it out and fix it up, then have a wall built around the patio just outside its door. Why not?

We have been hard at work on the first phases of the project, clearing out (Bill) and painting the room and making curtains (me). First, take a look at the mess we had made by just ignoring this potentially nice room. As we had worked on other house projects, we kept shoving stuff in and just closing the door, resulting in this embarrassing jumble which we wouldn't normally show to anyone:

Doors leading to the patio.

Doors leading to the living room.

A little alcove stuffed full and some miscellaneous bookcases, ditto.

Note the white built-in bookcase to the left, if you can find it.
It will appear again in the "after" pictures below.

What's hiding behind this pile of stuff?
Why, it's a potentially nice little kiva fireplace!


 The following photo is not from our house!
Here is a photo I found on Pinterest.
I was inspired by the wall color and the long airy white curtains.
Using this photo as a reference, we picked out our paint* and found some white twin
bed sheets on sale at K-Mart.**

 We cleared and cleaned and painted and sewed.
We made a new music room/den for Bill in our old bedroom at the front of the house.
And then... we had a new bedroom!




Ready to see the results of all our hard work?

The kiva corner is a lot more welcoming! This is a wood-burning fireplace, very cozy.
I rehabbed an old lamp, painting the base and replacing the shade;
then painted the table and the picture frame.
The print is Guadalupe de la Frontera by Candace Mayer.
We bought it from Ms. Mayer at an art fair;
I love that you can always meet the artists here in Las Cruces.
This was the lamp, table, and picture frame "before"--coming from other parts of the house,
they were all the wrong shades of blue until repainted. 


The new duvet cover (also sewn from K-Mart sale sheets) is reversible to white,
but Petey doesn't suggest using that side.
New curtains cover the view to the road and the little alcove closet.
I still need to paint the white trim around the room, but I have to take some time off to rest!

I think that the built-in bookcase looks much happier now.
I have dragged around that Madonna print all my life since buying it
in Sausalito in the 1960s for $5.00

The little nicho holds a carved Saint Francis that we bought in Taos; 
he is surrounded by Red Rose Tea animals that I collected 
from boxes of tea when living in British Columbia. 
That big wooden rooster just barged in from somewhere. 
Bill calls this "Frankie and his pets."

The door to the patio has new curtains. The next part of the project (after washing the windows) will be getting an estimate on having a wall built around the patio to make an enclosed courtyard,
giving us more privacy and shutting out the sounds from the road.
There will be windows cut into the wall so we can still see our beloved mountains.



*****

I don't know about you, but I am always interested in the cost of projects. Not counting our new headboard ($200), we have spent about $145 on this project so far. 

*Paint: Behr's Premium Plus Ultra Eggshell Enamel in Gentle Sky and Semi-Gloss Enamel in Bleached Linen, @$30.00 per gallon (approximately) from Home Depot. I also used a little bit of Olympic Semi-Gloss in Planetarium (for the table and picture frame) that was left over from another project.

**The curtains were made from seven Cannon twin bed sheets from K-Mart @$5.99; the duvet cover was made from two Cannon queen size sheets @$7.99. This was the best budget-wise alternative I could find to buying more expensive sheets or fabric by the yard; the material in the sheets was quite nice with a slight sheen to it. 

The new lamp shade was $25.00.

So we went from this...


... to this...


... and from this...


... to this...




... with some elbow grease and a tiny budget, just the way I like to do things!


15 comments:

Jean (aka Auntie Bucksnort) said...

What a spectacular metamorphosis! I always wanted that room to be your bedroom! I love the colors, especially the walls.

Joyful said...

You've done a wonderful redecorating scheme on a small budget. Well done!

Sylvia K said...

This truly is terrific!! I love what you've done!! How fun!! I'm so glad you shared this -- inspiring to say the least!! Hope all else is going well in your world these days!!

Mary Hulser said...

It's amazing, Clair. When is the slumber party?

OmaLindasOldeBaggsandStuftShirts said...

I adore what you did in this space. To me, it is much more creative when you use your noggin to save money on a home dec project like this. You have done a magnificent job. Congrats. Oma Linda

charlotte g said...

Burn some pinon for me! Your eye for color is just excellent. I admire--and envy--your creativity in so many fields. I am writing from the spare bedroom that has become my junk room. I've been meaning to refurbish and am spurred by your results.

JC said...

I like what you've done with the place.

The big question though .. where did you put everything ? That's always my problem.

I saw that photo .. bedroom .. before and thought how nice it was.

You did it for quite a nice price too.

Quiet Paths said...

I am just blown away by what you've done with this. I've seen a few pics on FB but this is really a cool project. I love that little fireplace. Well done!

Mrs Shoes said...

Wow, this is fantastic! Have you used the fireplace at all ever? I LOVE DIY!
Can't wait to see how the patio absorption turns out.

I found your blog through 7MSN - if you have time, stop by & see me!
http://lifeatthe4shoes.blogspot.ca/

Sallie (FullTime-Life) said...

Brilliant Clair! Is it already open to the patio? I need to go back and re-read. We love our screen porch because we can open all our doors and feel like we're outside when we're in. (That's the kitchen/living area and the Florida room.... our bedroom is still not re-done and we have a store room almost as bad as your 'before' (not quite only because it isn't that big) that is going to be a new bathroom some day maybe.

clairz said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
clairz said...

To answer some of your questions: Yes, the fireplace works just fine (except for the other night when I didn't get the damper properly opened!). There are French (sort of) doors leading to the patio, which is now just fenced around with metal fencing. We are getting up our courage to get some estimates on having a wall built around the patio so that we can have our private courtyard.

Then, of course, the bathroom adjoining the bedroom will have to be dealt with. It needs all new fixtures--I'm afraid a simple cleaning up and painting won't really solve its problems. I'm collecting ideas on Pinterest...

Nan said...

I absolutely love this! Great idea, and great job!

Deb from WhatsInMyAttic said...

Hi, Claire! It's been a long time since I visited your blog (or any blog, for that matter!). I love that you showed the real "before" pics! Ha! We all have those areas that get the leftovers as we work on other parts of the house. Kudos to you for turning yours into such a lovely space! Nice job! Loved the tour.

clairz said...

JC, I'm sorry that your comment went astray. I just found it and published it. To answer your question: I kind of wondered where everything went, too. Some things were tossed, some recycled, some went to Goodwill, some out to the garage, and many things went to Bill's new music room/den where our old bedroom was. It's all much more organized there, thanks to the addition of some shelves and other storage pieces.

Now there are no more "nests" of disorganized things anywhere in the house. Well, a few things are waiting to be put away in the guest room...