Bedroom Reveal (in which I find the need to reassure you that Ken likes the duvet cover)

Oooh, guys! I finished the bedroom enough to show the internet. And had the motivation to take photos for the split second that this room is clean. But I only have 4 minutes until these almond bars come out of the oven… whereupon I’ll have to taste test them and subsequently devour the whole pan before Ken gets home.

//shoot, the buzzer’s ringing//gotta go.

Okay, the came out squashy so I left them in for another 3. I guess that in addition to a bedroom reveal, you also get a play-by-play on my baking escapades. Didn’t see that one coming, huh?

Alright, fine. I’ll begin.

Here’s our bedroom! It is small and awesome. I’m standing in our tiny hallway looking in here:

I had sort of a hard time picking out a duvet cover. Just ask Kenny–poor guy has to put up with a lot. But he says he actually likes this one, so I think the search was worth it. This is Pottery Barn’s Bella Paisley Duvet (in a King, wootwoot!). I did want this one from Urban Outfitters for a while, but Ken wouldn’t go for it. I think he was ultimately right. Bah.

If you recall, the bed was a wedding gift from my dad/parents (dad built it) loosely based off of Ana White’s Farmhouse Bed.

My brother made the two matching nightstands as a wedding gift too. LOVE THEM BOTH.

The lamps we got for a steal from Bed Bath and Beyond last year…$18 for the SET. I threw them the money and ran.

Here’s our one (shared) bedroom closet. No peeking inside, nosiree. And that’s the shelf that my grandpa built when I graduated from high school and I restained this year.

Ooh, look, I’m getting all fancy with a closeup! Actually, that was on purpose. That ampersand? It used to be an orangey-gold shiny color until I painted it gray and distressed it a little. And hey! There’s our first piece of fall decor that I put out.

Whoa. Lot’s going on here–this is the angle from the closet. That’s the dresser we refinished, Ikea curtains, that rustic barn wood art I made, and doilies from our wedding. And a very attractive fan.

*Ahem. Ken has not yet seen the doily banner. If you could just affirm them a lot in the next hour before he gets home, that would definitely strengthen my case for leaving them there. Personally, I like the added texture it gives to the room, and it was sort of empty up there before I put that up.

Here’s my side of the bed. Kenny has seen and approved of this doily collage. I love it a lot. I never thought I’d be so grandma-like in my decorating though, but I surprise myself sometime (love you, grandma!). I definitely want to add to this as I find more hoops.

So there we go. I was going for a calm, uncluttered space, and I think for the most part this fits the bill.

What projects have you completed lately? Enough to show the internets??? Drop a comment with your blog and I’ll stop by (I LOVE SNOOPING IN ON PEOPLE’S LIVES). Oh, and anyone else doing sneaky decor projects behind their husband’s back? I think the rule is “It’s easier to ask forgiveness than permission.”

Man. We’ll see what he thinks.

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Bed Building and Quality Photography

I figured out how to get photos off my cell phone. This, my friends, is a momentous occasion. Usually that task seems so daunting I wouldn’t even dream of attempting it.

As previewed here, my handy father built us a bed as our wedding present. I should have taken more photos of the process, but since I live/work in another city, I only had a few opportunities on the weekends to stroke it in person and had to resort to ogling tiny pics my mother sent me via cell phone. These are those pictures.

Here’s the frame of the headboard:

and the footboard. I love how chunky it is. This bed is a beast.

Actually, that’s my hand in this photo…perhaps this is a pic I sent to Kenny? Anyway, awesome. My dad is super talented. I apologize that I can’t stop bragging about my family on this blog…they’re just that great.

Here it is in it’s naked state before Kenny and I finished it. Hopefully I can snap some photos of the finished bed soon…this time with a real camera.

Also, we’re less than 2 weeks out from the wedding. MEEEP. <–/excitementmixedwithyikes/

UPDATE/SPOILER ALERT: My mom and I really need to coordinated blogging. Check out her post on the bed here!

Wedding Present Preview

This weekend was filled with awesome things. Jam-packed, if you will–free Whitecaps tickets, s’mores, premarital counseling, bed-finishing, a bridal shower (for me), a bachelorette party (for Kel), s’mores, Geneva-church, Panera for lunch, lunch again with my fam, dinner with Kenny’s fam, and more s’mores.

I was so sad when this weekend was over.

But I’d like to give you a sneak peek of one of my favorite wedding gifts. It didn’t come off our registries… my father created it himself. 🙂

I (rashly) said we’d finish it if he’d build it, so that’s what Kenny and I have been spending a bunch of our weekends on for a while. BUT. It turned out SO COOL.

I don’t have pics yet of the finished project, but this is what we looked like as we were painting the bed.

(These are the sideboards, with a ledge and dowels–see far left board–to attach slats to hold up the mattress.)

 

The order of finishes went like this:

1 coat primer

2-3 coats paint

1 fairly intense glazing process

2 coats polycrylic

Everything took a while because we sanded between every coat and had to space things out over about 7 weekends. And whenever we’d come back, there would be a fresh layer of sawdust on our most recent coat because the bed resided in the workshop that gets used frequently.

Here’s the plan that I gave my father–Ana White’s Farmhouse Bed:

He looked at the plan, but didn’t actually use it. Our bed is oh-so-much better. I’ll post final pictures in the next few weeks. Or later… I sometimes fail at blogging. 🙂