Project Rewind: DIY Weekend Project: Master Bedroom (Part 1)

I've decided to transfer previous DIY posts from our family blog over to this blog to keep them all together. So for those of you who have been a reader of our blog for awhile, these projects will be old news to you. Stick with me while I get these transfered, and then the first new project post will be about Luke's and Mia's rooms (which are almost completed-YAY!)!

Originally posted August 6, 2009:

This weekend, Ross and I decided to repaint our bedroom. We had wanted to get this project done before Luke was born, but you know how these things go sometimes. We had repainted our bathroom before he was born, so this was the finishing painting touch to redoing our bed/bath. All the walls started out a Sherwin Williams color called Latte. The bathroom is now Palm Breeze by Behr and the bedroom is Spring Hill by Behr also. (I couldn't get these colors to link right, so you can go to behr.com and search them if you want to see what they look like.)

I have seen decorators on many HGTV shows paint wide horizontal stripes as an accent wall, and I've loved the look of it. I decided to give this a try on the back wall of our bedroom! The pictures below are of the striping process. On part 2 of this post (maybe I'll get around to posting it this weekend), I'll show a completed picture (with furniture and window treatments). I really love the way it came out and it was a fairly easy process. I also have pictures posted below of some candlesticks I painted to go on our dresser. Again, an easy process with a big result.

Striping Process:


The back wall after being painted Spring Hill. As you can see, the level is leaning against the wall--this is the only way to get straight stripes!


The wall after being taped. The height of the wall measured 105" so I decided I wanted 5 stripes so each stripe ended up being 21" each. I then painted Palm Breeze (the color of the bathroom) on the top, middle, and bottom stripes.

The end result! I love it! As you can see, Palm Breeze, Spring Hill, PB, SH, and PB (well you can't see that one!).

Upclose of the middle stripe.

Candlestick Project:

I have three candlesticks, large, medium, small. This is a picture of the medium size one. These candlesticks actually started out dark red and gold, but I previously had spray painted them brown. You can see all the intricate carving and detail of the piece.

Here's an upclose picture of the top of the candlestick.



Now, here is the end result! I love the way it came out. All I did was take the paint color of the walls (Spring Hill) and a foam brush and lightly brushed it over the whole piece. The green paint really brings out all the details, while the grooves are still brown. A little bit of paint gives this piece a whole new look.



Upclose of the top.

The finished product! Now, they have 3 vanilla pillar candles sitting on top of them and they look great! This was just the look I was going for.

The Birth of a New Blog: Man Cave vs. Mom Cave

Ross and I were watching tv the other night and we saw a Home Goods commercial where a lady converted her husband's "man cave" into a "mom cave" using all the great stuff she found out shopping! Her husband comes home with a bunch of buddies, and much to his surprise his room is gone and she is lounging in a chaise, reading a magazine. Looking quite puzzled, he says something like, "Man cave?" And she sort of sheepishly replies, "Mom cave?!" I thought it was great, and, as Ross says, "my wheels started spinning!" Every momma needs a place to retreat, but seldom do we take time or find a place to be by ourselves and pursue other interests that excite us.

One day I hope to have a mom cave (MC) of my own, aka, a room in my house where I can go and do all my projects; somewhere to set up my sewing machine, organize my craft stuff, set up a gift wrapping station, etc. As you can tell I've been thinking about this for awhile! My MC would be a place to relax and unwind and to have fun doing all the little things that interest me outside of being a wife, raising two kids, and teaching ballet! But until that room exists, I'll continue to have my dining room overrun with project stuff!

So after all of that daydreaming about the perfect MC, the idea for this blog popped into my head! I have been wanting to go private with our family blog for awhile now, but still wanted to be able to post and have people view DIY ideas, projects, recipes, and other various interests. So this blogspot is the perfect place.

For the time being, this will be my dreamed about MC. Projects will be continue to be done in my overcrowded dining room or anywhere else I can find a spot, until one day you'll be reading posts from my own MC itself! What a great day that will be!

I hope you'll enjoy this little place of my own, and maybe you'll get inspired to create a mom cave too!