The New House-Master Bedroom

We've made it to my favourite room in the house...the Master Bedroom...because anyone who knows me knows I take my sleep very seriously. I'm that person that gets excited to get into bed. Clean sheets, a little spray of lavender and I am over the moon. Chad could sleep in a pile of dirty rags so he finds it hilarious how much I enjoy the getting ready for bed process. He calls my "process" P.B.M or Pre-bed-maintenance because I've been known to draw it out a little bit. Anyhow...starting out, this bedroom wasn't the worst room in the house. It fits a king sized bed nicely, has a large closet (but no walk-in) and a Master bathroom. The paint and carpet-not my jam-so goodbye beige. I also have horrible allergies so wall-to-wall carpet is just out of the question even though this was the newest and least disgusting of the upstairs carpet. Most if this is the result of what a little bit of paint and new decor can do.

Here are a few of the "DURING" photos. The first step was removing the popcorn ceiling. We didn't have to put any plastic down because we knew we'd be taking out the carpet so it became a drop-cloth. We also took off the fake wood plastic closet doors at they didn't sit properly on their tracks and were also just super ugly. I had grand ideas of leaving it an open closet but realized very quickly you need a very minimal black and white wardrobe to pull that off.

Once the popcorn was off, we painted the ceiling and removed the carpets. You can get a better sense of the wall colour in this photo. Actually less of a beige and more of a poop-y colour. Not exactly a colour that screams retreat to me!

In the picture above you can see the new flooring is in and the cutting in was started for painting. I went back to my old standby of grey once again. My inspiration for the bedroom was found from this room via Chris Loves Julia. The wall colour is Benjamin Moore’s Chelsea Gray and I love it. It reads a whole bunch of different colours in different lights-from green to grey. I think it makes the room cozy and plays nicely with the white floors for a bit of a Scandinavian vibe.

Looking into the room from the hallway. The curtains are these from Ikea- I used 4 panels to give enough coverage and fullness. Most of the furniture and accessories are the same ones used in our old bedroom or from elsewhere in the house. The tables we were previously using as bedside tables are now down in the living room, so I repurposed some other side and hall tables we had.

I had several pieces of art that had pink in them and wanted to tie pink and mint into the grey and white colour scheme. The little pink chair was a consignment store find and the pink pillows are also from Ikea. 

I'd love to get some cozy rugs for either side of the bed or a large one for the room but I'll have to wait and save up for that. I'm also loving that it's one less thing to vacuum. 

We also added some wall lamps from Ikea to free up space on our bedside tables. I bet you can guess that we made a few trips there to buy stuff for this bedroom. I wanted to try something different with hanging the art above the bed so I hung then lined up from the bottom. 

Here's Billy enjoying a freshly made bed. You can also see our final Ikea purchase(s)-curtain panels to use as closet doors. We did this in the office/bedroom in the last house and I love the way it works. It's cheaper then buying new closet doors and has the flexibility to allow you to let you slide all the panels to the side. Great if you find yourself really digging in your closet like me.

There is a small area before the master bathroom that I'm assuming is supposed to be a vanity/dressing area but to me it is just wasted space. I don't know about you but I'm not about to sit down to powder my nose. Eventually we'll expand the bathroom to include this area into one bigger bathroom.

How would you like to see the world's ugliest bathroom? All I could do in here was paint and add a matching shower curtain. I mean, there isn't much to do with a flesh coloured bathroom!

Surprise! It gets uglier. Is that not the worst tile you've ever seen? It's brown and it looks like it's melting ON PURPOSE. Someone actually chose this bathroom and thought it didn't look too bad. The only good thing about this room is that the brown tile does hide dirt and hair.

Since I can't leave you with an image that burns your eyes out here is one last one of my little sanctuary. 

Switching It Up: The Story of Dropping the Mattress into the Dining Room

A few weekends ago I thought it would be a good time to take a chance on an idea Chad's Mom suggested when she visited a long time ago, which was to turn the office on the main floor into a proper master bedroom.

The main issue potential buyers seemed to have with our house was that the bedrooms and closets were too small. Unless we wanted to add an addition, the rooms and closets weren't going to be getting any bigger. Although the footprint of the office is not much bigger than the master bedroom upstairs, the closet in the office is significantly larger. 

Time for a quick switcheroo!

The office before: I stupidly forgot to save the old real estate pictures we had. We have a new agent who took new photos which obviously happened after we made the switch. The only photos I have are ones that don't show the full room. What you don't see in these before photos is a large wrap around desk and several computer monitors. For me the highlight of the room is the great solid wood built-ins. This is also the only room in the whole house I haven't repainted because I liked the colour (it's hard to like dusty rose).

In order to make this change my poor Dad and Chad had to figure out the logistics of getting our king-size bed back downstairs. If you remember from my moving in blog post here, we managed to do this:

Oh hello ugly carpeted stairs! This time we decided the best way to move it was to simply drop it over from our open hallway (balcony, gangway whatever you call it). There was debate over lowering it slowly with ropes or straps but in the end it was just a "one, two, three, let go" kinda operation. Thankfully nothing was harmed.

Chad and I trapped upstairs the last time we moved the mattress

After some re-arranging and hauling all the office things into the basement, here is the new office space, now our master bedroom:

I was worried that the bed wouldn't fit into the nook in the built-ins but I think it ended up framing the bed quite well. I also quickly whipped up some new artwork for the far wall that went with the lighter, tranquil, more relaxing theme I was going for in this room. I'll write up another post about that because it was a great, cheap way to fill up a wall using coordinating room colours. 

I'm not going to show you the new basement office because it's boring but I will show you our old master now staged as a third bedroom. 

Old Master Bedroom Before:

I will admit that my beloved king-sized bed did not really fit in the room but I think we made the best use of space by placing wall mounted reading lights.

New Third Bedroom After:

This room now has a double bed it in and there is definitely more room to breathe. I've put back in the old side tables and even managed to put my old lamps back in. Since I didn't just have another double bed lying around I rigged one up using storage bins and an air mattress. I also borrowed bedding and pillows from my mom (not throw pillows because Lord knows I have enough of those for two more bedrooms). Here's a picture of the bed underneath:

I had to restrain myself from adding too many layers and colours. Since this is for staging purposes I know a lot of people want things to look simple and clean. 

I'm actually enjoying having the master on the main floor and wonder if I should have done it while I still lived there full-time. What do you think? Do you prefer a main floor master or having all the bedrooms on the same floor? 

Also, just in case you're interested, here is our new listing. Feel free to pass it along to someone looking for a cozy cottage with a main floor master.

E-Decor

I just wrapped up a project with an e-decor client that I could not wait to share with you. In fact, I loved it so much I came up with two options instead of one! 

I feel like the dilemma this client was having is one that I hear from a lot of people. She had moved into a space that her partner had already been living in and he had a lot of stuff that was not exactly to her taste. She had slowly been redoing each room to reflect both of them but needed some help with the master bedroom as it had an awkward layout and needed all new furniture.

While the furniture in the bedroom was all practical and functional (sounds like so many guys I know) it was not exactly the mood she was going for. After we chatted and I saw a picture of her almost-done living room, I completely agreed. She had lots of dark wood bedroom furniture that did not reflect the fun, modern style she had created in the living room. The bedroom already had three new pieces- the cool campaign style bedside tables, a full length wood mirror and a neutral upholstered headboard. There was also a this cute print that had to stay - obviously! These were the jumping off points for the room. I also needed to find a way to cover up an off-center window on the only wall the bed could go on.

We talked about a calm and neutral bedroom space that would still have an element of fun and pattern all while tying in the burgundy bedside tables. I love the combination of icy blue and wine so I sourced this light blue rug that fit perfectly. Then I stumbled on this gorgeous tribal rug and just had to do second, maybe not so relaxing but definitely stunning, design. 

The two options:

All the furniture in the moodboards will not necessarily be in the room but I added in all the pieces to get a sense of them all together. There are several options in terms of layout depending on their end decision regarding one or two dressers. 

I recommended she cover the off-center window with wall-to-wall curtains which makes a great textured backdrop for the bed.  In two of the options she gets a great little sitting area, which even though we all know ends up as a place to throw clothes, it is nice to have a place to sit and read or relax. Having a small stool is also a great options as it allows you to move it around the room to use as a footstool or a seat at your vanity table. Either way, I'm loving the colour scheme in both rooms. I usually don't gravitate towards reds but I think I may just reconsider now! 

What do you think? Do you have a favourite layout or design? I can't wait to see what they choose and how the room turns out.

Do you have a space that needs a little, or a lot of, help? E-decor is a great option if you don't live in the Montreal/Ottawa area or if you have a limited budget and don't mind doing part of the work yourself. After an initial consultation by phone, Skype or email I send you a moodboard, a floorplan and a full source list. Then you go off and easily create the space you've always wanted. Just in case I missed the mark, you also get two free revisions. Check out my services page or send me an email for more information.

Bedroom Update

As promised after the last bedroom post, this update doesn't involve any pictures of me in pyjamas or tourist photos but it does involve something equally gross-bedbugs! Right after my post about the first bedroom reveal too! I think I got them from a hotel in Germany. You'd think it would have been from all my weird second-hand finds but nope, a five star hotel.

While I'd eventually wanted to replace our homemade headboard , I'd wanted to save up and either get a not-homemade one or use our newfound skills and make a better one. Now, I still don't know if we actually had bedbugs or not, I am crazy allergic to everything and it's not unusual for me to have hives over any little thing, but once I got it in my head that we could have them - the first thing to go was the headboard. I even had a guy come and do an inspection. He didn't see any evidence of bedbugs at that point but did say that they love to live in fabric headboard...see you headboard (don't worry we disposed of it properly so no one else would take it)! Once it was gone I tried living without a headboard but our bed was always rolling away from the wall and pillows were falling into that gap. I started scouring Craigslist and Kijiji for a non-fabric headboard. I found a 'vintage Ikea' (that makes me laugh) one for $30 that had a great natural texture and then added a few new items to update the room.

I thought I'd do a quick memorial for the old headboard and show you how I've incorporated several bedroom items in three separate set-ups.

Our first Montreal apartment and the room the headboard was built for. Since the room had such high ceilings we made the headboard quite tall to fit the space. Here is 'old velvety' again (below)  in our new house where it honestly felt a little cramped. I used the same bedding as in our apartment with some additional sheets.

While it was okay, it wasn't great. Because the ceilings are lower, we couldn't use our side table lamps and instead mounted the sconces that had previously been in the dining room. The headboard was so tall though that we had to mount the lights pretty high which wasn't ideal. It was still an improvement on the room when we first moved in as evidenced in the real estate listings.

Our new 'old' Ikea bed frame allows us to go without a box spring, which lowered the bed making it closer to the height of our mid-century modern side tables. The only other things I changed or added are new sheets, rattan blinds and I finally got around to hanging some art. TADA! Better fit and bedbug free...

So what do you think? Maybe the bedbugs where a good thing? No, they are still gross and thank god they are gone. Here are few of the sources or similar sources for our bedroom:

Paint Colour: Behr 'Restless Sea'

Headboard (similar): Pier 1

Duvet Cover (similar): West Elm

Moroccan Blanket (similar): Amber Interiors 

Sheet set: Target 

Sconces: Onefortythree

Sea urchin wall decor: Target 

Gold wall hangings (similar): Etsy

Side tables (similar): West Elm

Drapes: Ikea

Blinds: Home Depot

Chair: Ikea

Vintage botanical print (similar): Etsy

Floral artwork: Chapters Indigo or Rifle Paper Co.

The Convalescents and a Bedroom Reveal

I can't believe I'm putting a picture of me in pajamas nearly dying up here but I just did. That's my gift to you in order to explain my absence (well part of it). Thanks Chad for the lovely picture and top notch Photoshop skills. The other part of my absence was due to the fact that I lost the camera charger and was traveling here:

Hello Munich

Aren't you warm and snow free

(Just thought I'd keep it going with the awkward photos)

Oh Hello Montreal in March

Thankfully my sickness subsided in time for 'lucky old me' to travel to Munich for work. It felt like summer there at a balmy +10 (yes, everyone thought I was crazy) and then I came back to Montreal and it's been snowing non-stop. That was depressing. But enough of my excuses, I finally got a new charger and a new camera lens (don't get too excited I didn't use it for the photos I'm about to show you-one step at a time over here).

If you remember way back to my first house photos, here was the bedroom before in all it's salmon pink glory.

The first thing I did on the day we moved in was start painting.

 I knew this was probably going to be the only room in the whole house that wouldn't be a complete wreck while renovating and I wanted to try and make it at least somewhat pretty. It was my 'safe room' during renovations but it didn't emerge completely unscathed. It still somehow managed to get covered in a thick layer of construction dust no matter what I tried but at least it felt like a bit of a sanctuary. You got a peek of the room in my convalescent photo but here are a few more minus me in my pajamas.

Everything in the room was recycled from our last apartment. The sconces and dresser used to be in our old dining room and our king-sized bed and headboard managed to be squeezed in here. I went with a dark blue,almost a navy, on the walls. In such a small room I think it's better to embrace the coziness. Painting the first wall was a bit scary but I'm very happy with how it turned out. It's almost like a sleeping cabin or cocoon. In order to balance out all the blue I went with all-white bedding and curtains. I think the touches of yellow also keep it from being too flat. So that's our new and improved bedroom! I promise I'll be back with the rest of the house tour and that it won't include pajamas or awkward tourist photos.