A week or so ago, when my husband went to the Senior Olympics with my sons, I went to town with my bedroom. I'd gotten all psyched up by an old FrugalWoods post on refinishing furniture, and so I moved dressers out of the bedroom, repainted our walls, and then repainted my husband's ugly dresser.
How ugly was this dresser? Well, I don't' have a "before" picture of the actual dresser; suffice it to say that I googled "ugly dresser" and easily found its twin: here you see a picture of a dresser with the same ugly handles. (Our own ugly dresser had even darker wood.) Okay, so it was a Google-certified level of ugly.
So I sanded the dresser, painted it, and changed out the brass colonial drawer pulls for something sleek. Every guy wants to go away for a week and then return to discover his spouse has painted his dresser purple, right?
[Added benefit: my husband discovered he can hook hangers on the new handles, making getting dressed easier because he can hang his jacket up there while he gets other things ready to go. Yay!]
As for the rest of the room, the paint helped lighten it up a lot. There must be something yellow in the air (right, Rozy??) because I finally got sick of looking at faux-wood panelling and painted the walls a pale yellow. And the room is much, much, much brighter.
But it's not just paint. Removing lots of stuff helped just as much.
Before I painted, our walls had been covered with decisions we'd made 17 years ago. There were photos of kids at obscurely-remembered events; there were citations for something-or-other; there were commemorative baseball caps galore (and we don't ever wear baseball caps, so where the heck those came from, I DO NOT KNOW). I took them all off the wall and put them in a box for my guy to look through later. Returning them to the wall has to be an active choice from this point forward. So far, the only things that have made it back up are my husband's rack of sports medals, his tie rack, and two mirrors. Our walls are now wide open spaces of light.
But even more, I could finally get at the walls because we'd cleared out enough books that we could go from 15 feet of book shelves to 3 feet of bookshelves. And getting rid of shelves meant so much more other possibilities opened up. Below, I have the floor plan from before painting. Notice that every bit of wall is taken. The sight lines for the room aren't great, either. When we sat in bed, we couldn't see the door, and our view out the large window to the west of the room gave us only the northern sky (no moon sightings from bed).
Below, here's the new layout. There is lots of wall space exposed, and by skootching the bed toward one end of the room, we opened more floor space. Strategic placement of my bed and dresser there at the west end of the room preserve a bit of space for me where no one else dumps their stuff, so I still have my own little clean section of the bedroom.
And then, just because I'm so happy I splurged and paid Sara $20 for this, here once again is my new headboard, bathed in light. Ahhh.
How ugly was this dresser? Well, I don't' have a "before" picture of the actual dresser; suffice it to say that I googled "ugly dresser" and easily found its twin: here you see a picture of a dresser with the same ugly handles. (Our own ugly dresser had even darker wood.) Okay, so it was a Google-certified level of ugly.
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| Google "ugly dresser" to get a twin of my husband's. |
So I sanded the dresser, painted it, and changed out the brass colonial drawer pulls for something sleek. Every guy wants to go away for a week and then return to discover his spouse has painted his dresser purple, right?
[Added benefit: my husband discovered he can hook hangers on the new handles, making getting dressed easier because he can hang his jacket up there while he gets other things ready to go. Yay!]
As for the rest of the room, the paint helped lighten it up a lot. There must be something yellow in the air (right, Rozy??) because I finally got sick of looking at faux-wood panelling and painted the walls a pale yellow. And the room is much, much, much brighter.
But it's not just paint. Removing lots of stuff helped just as much.
Before I painted, our walls had been covered with decisions we'd made 17 years ago. There were photos of kids at obscurely-remembered events; there were citations for something-or-other; there were commemorative baseball caps galore (and we don't ever wear baseball caps, so where the heck those came from, I DO NOT KNOW). I took them all off the wall and put them in a box for my guy to look through later. Returning them to the wall has to be an active choice from this point forward. So far, the only things that have made it back up are my husband's rack of sports medals, his tie rack, and two mirrors. Our walls are now wide open spaces of light.
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| My husband's medal collection, with the old dark and hideous faux-wood paneling behind it. |
But even more, I could finally get at the walls because we'd cleared out enough books that we could go from 15 feet of book shelves to 3 feet of bookshelves. And getting rid of shelves meant so much more other possibilities opened up. Below, I have the floor plan from before painting. Notice that every bit of wall is taken. The sight lines for the room aren't great, either. When we sat in bed, we couldn't see the door, and our view out the large window to the west of the room gave us only the northern sky (no moon sightings from bed).
 |
| Old room layout, before ditching shelves and painting |
Below, here's the new layout. There is lots of wall space exposed, and by skootching the bed toward one end of the room, we opened more floor space. Strategic placement of my bed and dresser there at the west end of the room preserve a bit of space for me where no one else dumps their stuff, so I still have my own little clean section of the bedroom.
 |
| New room layout, with actual visible wall space. |
And check out the sight lines from my side of the bed. I can see the person standing at the door (purple arrow). I can see the southern sky out the western window (sunsets! moon! yay!), and because of one of the mirrors, I can still get light from the little windows to the north, reflected on the southern wall. Glorious.
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| Sight lines from my side of the bed. I can see the door! I can see trees out the windows! |
Here's the view from where I'm sitting right now: trees, blue sky. Lovely.
And the walls: man, it's nice having light-colored walls; they just open up the whole space. I am in love. This is a view from the door, looking past the newly-purple dresser, before I bought the headboard at a yard sale. See how bright the room is? See how there are no baseball caps on the wall? Lovely again.
And then, just because I'm so happy I splurged and paid Sara $20 for this, here once again is my new headboard, bathed in light. Ahhh.
Nice work!
ReplyDeleteFabulous choices! Of course I love the yellow, and the purple dresser is great. Isn't it amazing how a few changes make a huge difference? Enjoy your new room with the delightful views.
ReplyDeleteThe yellow walls are lovely as are the treetop views. My husband has the same, I mean identical, dresser from his childhood, must've been popular in the day.
ReplyDeleteThe same dresser? Oh, that's too funny. But you figure there have to be copies of it out there if it comes up under a google search, right?
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