Master Bedroom Reveal

You've seen bits and pieces of our master bedroom through our nightstand and headboard posts, and we're finally ready to show you the full reveal!

 

So here it is, our long awaited master bedroom reveal! We chose to keep a light and bright colour palette, similar to the rest of the room's we've made over in our home so far and also keeping in line with our master ensuite.

 

The walls were painted a light grey blue and we stuck with a white, blue, green and grey colour palette. We actually painted the walls after getting some chairs for the bedroom and used the fabric as a jumping off point for colours. We then found the curtains at Ikea on clearance and liked how they grounded the space with a darker teal colour in the same colour family.  Our only mistake, was that this made it very hard to find a fabric for the headboard that incorporated all of these colours. We finally came across this fabric from Tonic Living:

 

Via

 

So that fabric, fortunately for us, had all of the colours in our room in it...and matched pretty perfectly, so it was a no brainer. We used it to upholster our headboard and create a few pillows with the left over fabric.  All we have left at this point is to hang the photos sitting on our nightstands, and maybe to put something above the headboard on the wall. I have a few ideas in mind, but we'll see what we end up with.

 

Before we show you the reveal, lets look back as to how this room looked when we first moved into this house:

 

 

Very red, very yellow and very much not our style. So we pretty much started over. The laminate floors were ripped out and replaced with dark bamboo, the walls were painted, window coverings replaced, light fixtures changed, all door hardware replaced...it was a complete overhaul.

 

So here it is, the master bedroom reveal!

  

You might remember our post on when we re-did this dresser, but if not you can refresh your memory here. The dresser is from Ikea and it was not originally white, so we painted it ourselves in Benjamin Moore "Simply White". All of the trim, doors and baseboards in our house have also been done in "Simply White".

 

We added in a rug from Costco, which we had planned to move to our family room, once the new floors are installed. However, Clover loves the rug and so do we, so if we replace it, the new one will need to be just as cozy! The curtains are from Ikea, and although they look quite blue in the photos, they are actually much more of a teal colour.

Our nightstands were made over with a fresh colour and new knobs. We blogged about that transformation here.

 

 

We get a great deal of light in this room (and the light colours certainly help, but I love how the room always feels light, bright and relaxing.

 

Our vanity chair was also made over in the same colour as our nightstands, you can read about that here, and we love how these pieces nicely fill up this corner of the room. Plus it's a great space for me to use when getting ready if the bathroom's occupied.

 

 

We chose 2 slipper chairs for the space by the window (both from HomeSense) and they became a starting point for the colour palette for this room.

 

 

 

Another few shots of the gorgeous natural light this room gets (and how BLUE they make the curtains appear!).

 

 

Overall, we absolutely love this space. The bedroom, ensuite and closet colours all work perfectly together and we definitely gravitate towards light bright colours. We feel relaxed and happy when coming into this room, and that's most important to us.

 

Many of the projects in this room were purchased second hand and we re-did them ourselves, as well as many of the major aspects:

- Painting the entire space

- Designing the space (as well as the master ensuite which you can read about here and closet which you can read about here)

- Installing the floors

- Painting the dresser

- Creating the headboard

- Painting the vanity table

- Painting and upholstering the vanity chair

- Painting the small table between the side chairs

- Hemming the curtains

 

We truly feel our hardwork has paid off and the change is exactly what we were hoping for:

 

We only have a few things left to do: hang the photos beside the bed, finish up with what we want to do to the wall behind the bed and that's about it!

 

 

We've compiled a source list of everything in our master bedroom. If there is an item we have not listed and you would like to know where we got it please post a comment and we will reply!

 

Dresser- Ikea

Headboard- DIY Project

Headboard Fabric- Tonic Living

Nightstands- HomeSense

Vintage style Telephone- Sears

Picture Frames on Nightstands- Wal-Mart

Lights on Nightstands- HomeSense

Slipper Chairs- HomeSense

Side Table- Second Hand

Picture Frame on side table- Gift from Shannon at Burlap and Lace :)

Small Hydrangea Plant on side table and on nightstand- HomeSense

Vanity Table- Second Hand DIY Project

Vanity Chair- Second Hand DIY Project

Mirror above Vanity Table- Second Hand DIY Project

Plant on Vanity- HomeSense

Light on Vanity- HomeSense

Jewelry box- HomeSense

Bench- HomeSense

Tray on bench- HomeSense

Rug- Costco

Fireplace- Canadian Tire

Vase on Fireplace- HomeSense

Judy- HomeSense

Plant Pot- Ikea

Wooden Box- HomeSense

Bedding- HomeSense

Throw- HomeSense

Pillows- HomeSense

Ceiling Fixture- HomeSense

Mirror above dresser- Sears

Lamp on Dresser- HomeSense

Vase and flower on Dresser- HomeSense

Love sign- gift from our friend Lauren at our wedding :)

Picture Frame on Dresser- Indigo

Curtains- Ikea (clearance)

Curtain Rods- Lowes

Knobs on dresser and nightstands- Home Depot

 

Paint Colours:

Walls: "Reflecting Pool"- ICI/Duluxe Paints

Trim/baseboards: "Simply White"- Benjamin Moore

Dresser and vanity table: "Simply White"- Benjamin Moore

Nightstands/Vanity Chair: "Polar Jade"- Benjamin Moore

 

 

We hope you all enjoy this space as much as we do! Now off to relax :)

 

Melissa and Ian

 

 

Linking up to:

 

Better After

Liz Marie Blog 

Dream Closet- Installation

Our closet system was definitely an excellent investment and fairly easy to install. In my previous closet post, I mentioned that we had chosen the Martha Stewart Closet System for our master bedroom walk in closet. The price was reasonable, but the best part for us was the option of inputting your own measurements into the online design board and allowing the closet to be somewhat custom designed to your liking.

We placed our order for the system and it took about 3 weeks to arrive. When we received the shipment, it came in about 25 boxes- each box contained specific pieces of a certain type, so the pieces were not grouped together, according to how they should be installed.

We chose to assemble the first section (the back wall) in a spare room, and then move the built section into the closet, so we had more space to work with.

The back section was fairly easy to install. The instructions are included and you can also print them from the Martha Stewart website if needed.

We designed the back wall to look like this when finished:

 

After a few hours, the first section had been assembled:

 

 

 

At this point, its just the basic frame, without drawers or shelves, but you get the idea. We then moved the frame into the closet.

 

The closet is designed so that the entire frame hangs from brackets that have been securely screwed into the wall. Once we secured the brackets on the wall, it was just a matter of lifting up the system and placing it onto the brackets. You can see here, how the system basically hangs from those metal brackets.

 

 

 

We then installed the drawers and shelves:

The shelves are adjustable and when designing the closet, we indicated how many shelves we wanted. You can choose more or less, depending on your preferences and can always change around the configuration once its installed.

The drawers can also be modified. We decided on 5 drawers for our system (one additional one that you cannot see in this photo, we added later), however the drawers can also be removed and shelves can be put in their place. The drawers came with metal knobs, but to tie them into the rest of the room (and because I think they're pretty!) I changed them to be the same crystal knobs on our dresser.

The drawers are one of the most costly parts of the system, so if you are trying to keep costs down, I would suggest limiting the amount of drawers you include.

We then put together the left side of the closet in the spare room, which we designed to look like this:

We installed the brackets, moved it into the closet and installed the hanging bars and shelves:

 

The left and right sides of the closet were designed to be mirror images of each other, so after installing the right side, it looked like this:

 

 

So after a few days work, and once our clothes were organized, folded and put back into the closet (my favorite part!) we ended up with the final product:

 

 

Its hard to get a picture of the full view since the closet isn't that large overall, but the system helps to create a perfectly organized closet for us and we are able to fit everything (plus have some extra space) in the closet.

 

To be honest, the closet still looks exactly like this. We don't seem to have any trouble keeping it organized and clean, since there really is space for everything and we think it looks great too.

 

The brackets were the one thing I worried about, but once your clothes are on the shelves, you aren't able to see them at all, so its really not a concern. The drawers slide and open nicely and we are overall very happy with it.

 

We did have a few set-backs and had to rig a few things up ourselves- such as adding a top to the system (which we did by simply buying some melamine pieces, cutting them to size and attaching them to the top of the system), but overall, it was fairly easy to install.

 

So there you have it, dream closet finished! We just designed and ordered the system for another bedroom in our house, so once we have that installed I'll blog about that and let you know if the system went as smoothly the second time around. This time, its not a walk in closet so I'll be able to give you the perspective of designing the system for a standard closet.

 

Have any of you installed this type of closet or something similar? How did it work out for you?

 

Melissa and Ian

 

**The opinions on this system are entirely our own. We were not paid or endorsed to promote the Martha Stewart Closet System.**

 

 

 

Dream Closet- Martha Stewart Closet System

You read what we did to our small closet, but the small closet was peanuts compared to what we did to the walk-in closet. I'll be blogging about its progress in a few separate posts as there is a LOT to write about for this closet!

In our bedroom, we have 2 closets- the walk-in and the small hanging closet. You can read about what we did to our hanging closet here. However, the hanging closet was actually done after we finished the walk-in. The walk in was a major project for us, one that took about 8 months of planning, saving and designing.

When we moved into this house, the walk-in closet had wire hanging shelves that we weren't crazy about. They hadn't been planned out very well, and we found that things fell through them, and it didn't help us to keep the closet as organized as we would have liked. So we started to plan our new closet design.

We first needed to decide what kind of system we planned to install. A custom system was out of the budget (and didn't make sense for the size of this closet), we didn't feel we had the time or expertise to build a closet ourselves, and most of the systems we found did not allow us to input our own measurements. Eventually we came across the Martha Stewart Closet System. We found this system best suited our needs.

The system allowed us to choose from multiple options, to include the actual measurements of our closet and make changes and additions online. The first step we took was to obviously take everything out of the old closet and strip it down to nothing. We then measured the closet and took note of the kinds of storage we needed the most.

We began designing our closet online. We determined that each of us would have one side wall, and we would share the back wall, but wanted to keep the design balanced. So each of the side walls would look the same. Here's how the first side wall (wall A) began:

 

 

We could have added more hanging, more shelving, drawers, etc, but this seemed to be the best option for us. We planned to dedicate the entire back wall to shelving and drawers, so we wanted to include more hanging on the side walls.

 

Wall C, looked the same as Wall A:

 

 

Wall B (the back wall) was then designed as follows:

 

 

When we looked at the plan all together, we had enough shelving for everything we needed, enough hanging storage and drawers to hide things we didn't want visible.

 

Although this system was affordable, it still took us a while to save up for it. After about 8 months, we felt it was time to just go for it. We ordered the system and away we went. In total it took us about 4 days to put together (however, we only did a few hours at a time each day).  

 

We're actually working away on another bedroom in our house right now and once again used this system to design a closet for it...it literally took me about 10 minutes, so easy, and Ian's not too worried about installing it.

 

However, the installation of this closet, wasn't the easiest :S. Stay tuned for our next post about the progress of this closet!

 

Melissa and Ian

 

 

DIY Headboard

Hi Everyone,

So we've been posting about our staircase overhaul lately, and wanted to take a bit of a break from that to tell you about one of the many other projects we've been working on.

In the midst of the dust, paint and everything else going on around here, we had a headboard sitting around for months that we had been meaning to upholster. Honestly I think anyone who has been to our house in the last year and come upstairs, has seen that wooden headboard sitting in one of our spare rooms just waiting to be madeover.

The main reason why it took us so long, was because we were waiting for just the right fabric to come along. Designer rule #1, always pick your fabrics first and design your room around them. Well, we may have gone against that rule with this room. We found some chairs that we loved, used the fabric on those chairs to pick our paint colours and everything else for the room, however this made it difficult when we needed to pick a headboard fabric. We wanted this fabric to tie everything together- the paint colours, drapes, furniture, floors, etc. Yes, we know that was expecting a lot, but guess what?! We found it! One day we were checking out the Tonic Living site for some fabric for another project and came across this fabric: "Fleur, Summer":

 

This fabric perfectly combined the teals, whites, greys and brown in our floors together.

 

So we started with a plain wood headboard, which I thought I had taken a picture of to start, but apparently did not (oops!). We bought the headboard off Kijiji thinking we would paint it if the upholstering didn't work out, since we liked the shape of it.

 

Once we found the fabric, it was actually a lot easier to do that we thought.

 

Here is a list of supplies that you'll need:

 

- Old headboard OR piece of plywood cut to the shape and size you want

- Fabric (we bought 3 yards just in case, but only really used 2 and a bit)

- 2 inch thick foam (enough to cover your headboard plus a bit of extra)

- Batting (enough to cover your headboard)

- Hammer

- Spray glue

- Staple gun

- Marker or pen

- Utility knife and scissors

- Dust mask

- Iron

- Optional: Nailhead trim- we got ours from Lee Valley Tools here

- Mounting hardware

 

The first step you want to take, is to iron your fabric and set it aside. You want to make sure its wrinkle free when you place it on the headboard for attaching.

 

I would then suggest placing your foam on the floor and tracing out the shape of your headboard onto it. Then cut out your foam shape and trace the shape again, but move in 2 inches from the edge all the way around. So the shape you end up with, will give you a boarder of 2 inches all the way. This is really only necessary if you plan on adding the nailhead detail. If you're not adding that, then skip the second part of this step.

 

You then want to spray the foam with the glue (use a mask) and attach the foam to your headboard.

 

Place your batting on the floor and set the headboard on top (face down). You now want to stretch the batting all the way around and staple it tight. Make sure you pull it around to the back and staple into the back of the headboard all the way around. Cut any excess batting from the back of the headboard.

 

Next step is to carefully set your fabric on the floor face down (make sure its clean first!) and then set your headboard on top, again face down. Staple your fabric onto the headboard again pulling it tight as you go all the way around. Cut away any of the excess fabric and use a glue gun to glue any other excess fabric to the back of the headboard.

 

Lastly you will want to attach your nailhead trim (if doing so). Simply place the trim on the headboard and use the edge of your foam as your guide (you will feel it through the fabric and there will be a noticeable space where you edge your trim up against). The way it works, is that every 5th nail or so, they provide you with a tack you will actually have to hammer in, so you will not need to hammer in each and every nail.

 

You're done! You'll want to mount your headboard to the wall using whichever method your prefer (brackets, etc), but make sure the hardware you use can support the weight of your headboard. We chose to use the OOK Hangman 200 lb. French Cleat Picture Hanger from Home Depot, which worked out really well for us.

 

We found this tutorial from The Marilyn Denis Show really helpful as well.

 

Here is our finished product:

 

 

 

The nailhead trim turned out a lot better than I expected it to:

 

 

 

We also chose to mount it slight up from the top of the bed, based on the height of the headboard itself:

 

 

We also wanted to make sure the top of the headboard was close to the same height as our bedside table lamps:

For us, this seemed to be a good height for the room and wasn't too far up from the top of the bed. Plus, its not noticable from the front, once the pillows are on the bed and everything is all made up.

We're really happy with how it turned out and think it really helps to finish off the bed in this space:

And a sneak peek of the headboard in our finished bedroom (which we'll also be posting about soon!)

 

Here's the cost breakdown:

 

Costs:

 

Solid wood headboard: $50.00 (purchased from Kijiji)

Fabric: $60 (3 yards purchased at $30/yard, but only 2 yards used)

Nailhead trim: $15 (4 bags at $5.00 each, only used 3)

Foam: $10.00

Batting: Had on hand (free!)

Mounting Hardware: $15.00

 

Total Cost: $150.00 (approx)

 

Definitely a cost savings in our books...since most of the headboards we've seen have been at least $200+. You could still cost costs by using a piece of plywood or wood on hand, going with a less expensive fabric and cutting out the nailhead detail if you choose.

 

Sources:

 

Headboard: Kijiji

Fabric: Tonic Living

Nailhead trim: Lee Valley Tools

Foam: Len's Mills Stores

Batting: my mom's closet :)

Mounting Hardware: Home Depot

 

 

Have any of you upholstered anything lately? Have you used nailhead trim? If so, we'd love to hear how it worked out for you! Its almost Friday everyone! Happy weekend :)

 

Melissa and Ian

Inspiration and a sneak peek....

I'm going give you all a sneak peek of our master bedroom- (which is seriously getting closer to completion...seriously) but, I wanted to address a few other things first :)

Firstly, um did you see who decided to feature our bathroom last Friday? One of our favorite blogs: Young House Love, whom we honestly adore and very much respect in the blogging land! They have been a very positive and huge source of inspiration to us (as another young couple crazy enough to renovate a home!) so we truly, truly, appreciate them showcasing our master ensuite on their blog.

So that distracted me a weeeee.....and we've been overwhelmed by the love and support from our fellow readers :) I was also very touched by the sweet comments some of you left under our "reality" post, so thank you SO much for that.

I always think it makes blogging much more fun when you have great support from amazing readers (like yourself) as well as other bloggers. People you can talk openly to, share with and be inspired by. Here are just a few of the ladies I admire...plus they've been doing some pretty amazing stuff lately...

Burlap and Lace

Shannon is my BBB (Best Blogging Buddy- Shannon, I may have just made that up?!) however, check out this table she recently re-did. No other words...except AWESOME:

Burlap and Lace

Our Hiding Place:

Not only does Lauren do home renos, decor, fashion, but shes also SUPER handy! Want to know how to save money and make your own laudry detergent? Well, Lauren solved that for you! Check out her post on that here.





I have to give a BIG kudos to my awesome brother for taking that photo of our bedroom for us. He actually works in photography, so it helps to have a talented brother to help a girl out (especially when her camera lens does not do fancy things!)

Hope are you are all having a great week! Have you been working on any new projects lately? Pinning anything!? :)

Our Hiding Place

Just Bella

Christine has the cutest little girl ever. Plus her name is Alice, and I completely adore that. Christine shares the coolest finds, plus she always looks stylish and I MAY love every single article of clothing she posts about.

Plus this salad she posted about made me SO hungry...

Just Bella

Kickittogether


Katy is just the sweetest. Recently we've become acquainted through the blogland over stripes. Yes stripes. Remember our stripe post? They painted the same stripes on their walls and we shared many an email discussing... "umm...did you want to pull your hair out when you realized this was taking FOREVER?" Ya. Love the stripes. LOVE THEM.


Anyho, Katy and Nick recently re-did their patio, and it looks fabulous:

Kickittogether

So there you have it! Just a few blogs I read daily and am inspired by. Also, a thank you to all of YOU! Our readers who have been with us since the beginning and those who have just found us! We've received the most wonderful emails and messages from you all lately and it means the world to us. Plus, it inspires us to keep working away on new projects to share :)

While Ian and I finish up a few projects around here this week, here's a sneak peak of the master bedroom to give you an idea of what we've been up to. This room still needs a bit of work, but its getting there!