I think the fastest way to start something you’re planning might just be to tell the Internet you’re going to do it. In the last couple weeks I’ve repainted a room, rearranged furniture, found new furniture at thrift shops and yard sales, spray painted photo frames and accessories, and gotten estimates on flooring. And it’s all because of the Internet. Or something like that.
I decided to start in my bedroom, for a couple of reasons. First, the room itself has the fewest things I wanted to change, and second, I wholeheartedly believe just as important as starting a project in your home is that you have a place to get the hell away from it. For me, in my small house, it’s going to be my bedroom. Truth be told I could go crazy on that room, adding closet doors to the closet “area” to make it a walk-in, recover the ceiling (who ever was the person that thought popcorn ceilings were cool was friggin’ high in the 70’s, I’ll tell you that much), move a doorway, and change the flooring. BUT, this is still the same $17 project I set out to do a couple weeks ago, and so we paint!
Well, I painted, and the walls that have been white for seven years—please don’t ask me why—now have color. It’s a neutral color, but still color. I had a throw pillow on the bed that I’ve always loved and I matched it and that was that.
Here’s a photo, just for fun, but sorry the entire room is just not ready to photograph yet:
Second, I needed to replace some art. I moved my long yet lean, huge, solid oak dresser out from the wall and it now sits at the foot of the bed. I know that sounds weird, but man is this a space saver, and one day I’ll share a photo of that, too. When my back forgives me. But anyway, now that the dresser is in the middle of the room, it can no longer hold it’s attached bureau mirror, which is fine by me as I tend to kind of dislike them anyway. Too matchy matchy. Anyway, so out the mirror goes which means I have walls to cover.
I had these two smaller frames on the wall that held pieces of a print that I chopped up one day in my early twenties when I decided I liked it’s Parisian theme, but not that much:
Now those two frames hold photos I’ve taken. This picture is a little blurry and hastily taken, but it gives the general idea and shows the colors that I’m incorporating into the room:
Would you believe, of all the photos I’ve taken, I have none of them on the walls in my home? There’s something wrong with that, isn’t there? So that’s another goal of mine with this project. Your own stuff should be in your home. Duh.
Here are the actual photos, for your viewing amusement:
And finally, because I now have at least one wall that needs a pretty good piece of statement SOMETHING to occupy it, I will leave you with a little glimpse of what I came up with. To some it may be obvious what I did, to others it may not. I will tell you this much, the entire project cost under $7 and will be fun with what I’m planning for that wall, and that makes my budget-weary self really pleased.
After all of this, you might be starting to pick up on the color in the room, or the accent color as the case may be. It all started after staring at a blanket my sister made for me a few years ago. I’ll share photos of it next time, but when she gave it to me I remember her saying “these are all colors that remind me of you perfectly” and I thought, wow, that is what the bedroom should do for me, too.
In the next week, though, I am afraid I won’t be around much. I get to get away a little bit, and I am so thankful! And, coincidentally, those colors that are “perfectly me” will be all around!
Thanks for playing along.
