A New Bedroom in an Old House

Before I get to the decorating part of today's story.....

I would like to share what I experienced last night.

Every evening, around 8:30 or 9:00, I pour myself a glass of red wine.

I do this because .....

my doctor told me too!!!!!

I'm not fibbing, he really did!!!!!

Now this kind of medical advice is right up my alley!!!!!

Soooooo.....

Last night, I was opening up a new bottle of wine.

My brother David doesn't bother to take off the metal seal that covers the cork, before he inserts the corkscrew.

Sooooo....

that's how I now do it too.

Sooooo.....

Last night, I inserted the corkscrew and screwed it into the top of the bottle.

It went in really  easily.

But I couldn't get any purchase on the cork to pull it out.

It refused to budge.....

So, I tried to peal off the metal seal, to see what was up with this cork.

I couldn't get the metal off!!!!!

So I got out a paring knife, to try to cut into the metal, to start a place where I could start pealing it.

I couldn't make a dent in the metal.....

Sooooo....

then I tried to cut around the seal to maybe get a cut going in the  place where it was indented in the top.

Nope.

By this point I was about to drive the damn thing to the liquor store and demand my money back, or at least help in opening the bottle,

Then I took a deep breath and I......

twisted off the top.

yep, that's right,

it was a twist off.

I feel soooooo stoopid.

I didn't know good wines came like that now.

I learn something new every day, 

whether I want to or not.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

OK.....

I'm going to try something new, let me know if you like it or not......

I usually only show completed projects.

I wait until they are all done, and then I show the steps I took to get to the finished look.

However!!!!!

I noticed that I get a big kick out of seeing the stages as they progress on other blogs.

Sooooooo......

today, I am going to show what my buddy and bidness partner, Kris and I have been up to in her bedroom.

(wait....that didn't sound right.....oops.....)

Today I am going to show what my buddy and bidness partner, Kris and I have been designing in her bedroom!!!!!

Here's a shot of where we've gotten to so far....

Now come with me as I show you our journey up to this point.

When I first met Kris, she had only been living in her home for 1 or 2 years.

She and her husband had bought if from a man who had lived in it for some time, and not kept it up.

This house was built in the late 1880's and needed a lot of TLC.

Kris hired me to do the living room, and then we attacked the house one room at a time over the next decade or so.

Soooo.....

now, I'm retired, and don't get paid for design no more, no more.

BUT, Kris is still getting me to decorate her home, 'cuz she's my buddy and bidness partner.

Sooooo

I get her to drive me to and from the airport, and other stuff like that.....

and she gets me to do her house.

One of the things I love about Kris, is she doesn't worry about a room not being great before she redesigns it.

She will live with it in a state of less than fabulousness, while she saves her money.

Then, when she's amassed a pile of moolah, she attacks full speed ahead and decorates balls to the wall.

Sooooo...

This year we are working on her master bedroom and her guest room.

This is the way the room looked when we started on it.

She was in the  process of changing her sheets when I took these pictures, so ignore that the bed's not made.

This was the view into the room from the hall doorway.

Next is the view from the bed towards the closet wall.

And lastly is the view towards the door into the hallway.

Kris was a really good sport, letting me take these before shots, when the bed wasn't made.

I don't want you to think that this is normal.

One of the big problems in the room was not enough storage for both Kris and her husband Keith.

Soooo....

I got them to kick the kids out of the house, and now they use the closets in both kids rooms too!!!!!

Isn't it wonderful when kids get old enough to leave?????

SO MUCH MORE ROOM!!!!!

When Kris and I started on this project, the first thing we did was choose wallpaper and fabric.

I wasn't allowed to do any flowers, 'cuz Kris's husband is a guy.

Guys are no fun at all.

So we found this Arts & Crafts style paper from Morris & Co through Zoffany.

Now what's important when doing a paper that is this visually busy, is to be sure that you break it up with a lot of mirrors and prints and plates and stuff that will cut into all the pattern.

Otherwise it will be overwhelming.

I put together a scheme that worked off the paper.

So, now it was time to do the construction on the room.

In tackling this space, the first thing Kris did was remedy the closet situation.

She stole some space from the closet in the guest room, and added another door to the closet in the master bedroom.

This way she was able to double their closet space.

I had her move the bed to in front of the windows, making the room feel twice as big as before.

I also had the hall door hinged the other way, so it could open against the closet wall, opening up the wall opposite the bed for a nice chest of drawers.

I found a handsome gunmetal bed on ebay that wouldn't block the window like a wooden headboard would.

Kris stored it in her basement until this year, when I made her drag the damn thing up to her bedroom and set it up, already.

I love the detail of the headboard.

I'm going to paint words on the flat part of the metal.

If you sleep on a queen mattress and want to use an antique double bed, 

all you need to do is have the side rails made a little longer.

The way the mattress overhangs the sides isn't that noticeable, only 3".

We used an iron worker to lengthen the rails.

We need to choose bedding for the bed.

That's the fun stuff to do, and instant gratification.

I was going to show the draperies we just put up,

but my shoulders are getting sore from sitting so long at my computer.

So I will continue this story on Tuesday or Wednesday.

See ya Latah, Gatah