master bedroom | This Old Colonial Home

June 9, 2015
by This Old Colonial Home 2 Comments

Master Bedroom Reveal

I am so happy to report that our master bedroom is finally done!It has taken more than a year to get this room all pieced together. Gasp! Certain things just tend to hold up the process: time, money, jobs, weekends away, a baby on the way … but that’s alright. This is what real life looks like (at least for us). Who are these people anyway who can knock out a room in a weekend?!

It all started in March of last year when Jamie painted our room Cliffside Gray by Benjamin Moore and I tackled my first stencil wall. (See all the details here.) Stencil wall project in progress The furniture remained a hodgepodge of pieces that didn’t go together. I had bought a yellow nightstand at a garage sale for $5 that I loved. The original thought was to add another yellow nightstand on the other side of the bed, but as usual I eventually changed my mind. So the room remained in a state of mismatchedness. (Is that even a real word?!)The plan now is to put this pretty little piece in the nursery.

Over this past winter, the furniture started to come together a little bit better. We bought dressers from Ikea and started adding some decor.I then splurged on this accent chair from Marshalls. We had the space for it, and it was just too cute to pass up! We also added curtains with some industrial pipe rods (see it here). It’s amazing how curtains can make a room look so much more complete! At this point I wasn’t feeling our headboard anymore. I just didn’t like the color of the wood with the new dressers. So onto Craigslist it went and the search began for a tufted one. After a few months, I found the perfect headboard on Wayfair for a crazy, awesome price! (This is not a sponsored post, but I’m telling you, you should sign up for those daily deal emails. They will literally pay off!)And after just a few days of ordering it, our headboard finally sold too. It was meant to be!

The ceiling fan in our room also got a nice little update. (You can read more about that here.)

So now we’re down to the final pieces of the puzzle: the nightstands.

My ever-so-handy husband built us two nightstands using these free plans from ana-white.com. Here are a few shots of his work in progress:I was then tasked with finding drawer pulls, lamps, and decor. Again, each item took a little bit of searching, but it finally all came together.My favorite part is the artwork. Instead of buying some generic saying in the store (sorry, but I’m over the ‘Love you to the moon and back’ signs), I used Canva to create something that has more meaning to us as a couple. “When I’m with you feels like I’m home” is a lyric from the Duncan Sheik song ‘Home,’ which is the first song we danced to as husband and wife!

So as you can see, this room went through a lot of different phases. Here’s where we originally started when we first bought the house.And this is how it looks now!I truly love our master bedroom! I find it to be such a calming and relaxing space, and a true reflection of us. Is it time for bed yet?!

May 18, 2015
by This Old Colonial Home 4 Comments

Upcoming Transformations

Maybe you noticed, maybe you didn’t. But the posts have been slacking as of late. (I apologize.) That’s not to say we aren’t still busily working on the house — we are. Well, Jamie is. I’ve had to take a backseat approach … because in just a few short months we are expecting our first child!I guess you could say we are undergoing our biggest home transformation yet! We are so overjoyed!

So as you can imagine that has been keeping us plenty busy. And Jamie being the good husband and future daddy that he is, is making sure I stay away from projects that involve a lot of physical labor (no pun intended). He is working so hard to get some of our outstanding projects crossed off the list. He is currently in the midst of building two nightstands for the master bedroom.Isn’t this great?! He’s still working on sanding and staining them. I’m working on finding knobs and new lamps. Decorating is pretty much what I’m left with 😛 We also just ordered a new headboard. I can’t wait until it’s all put together and I can show you the reveal. In the meantime, be sure to follow me on Instagram at @oldcolonialhome for sneak peeks along the way!

We will also, obviously, need to start working on the nursery. What was the guest room will be transformed this summer into a room for our little one. I can’t wait to get going on that!

And because we don’t have enough on our plate, we will also soon be undergoing a bathroom renovation!Yes, I’ve been saying that for months, but we can thank town bureaucracy for holding up the permit approval. And of course now the timing kind of stinks since a certain someone needs to get up a few times a night to use said bathroom, but it’ll be worth it in the end! I hope to show you a fantastic before and after once it’s done.

So we certainly have a lot to do, but also a lot to look forward to … in more ways than one!

Luca, however, isn’t quite sure yet 😉

February 2, 2015
by This Old Colonial Home 2 Comments

Fun with Curtains

I’m happy to report that we’re making some progress in the master bedroom! If you follow me on Instagram (@oldcolonialhome) then you know that I recently scored this awesome accent chair at Marshalls.I was supposed to be shopping for a mirror at the time, but when I came across this lovely piece with its nailhead trim, I knew I couldn’t pass it up (especially when I had passed up on one similar last summer).

I did eventually find a big, round mirror that I was looking for to fill up the huge wall above my dresser. This rustic, wooden beauty is a HomeGoods find.But the main thing I want to share with you is our new curtains.I love how they turned out, but man what a process it ended up being!

One of the issues we had was that each of the 3 windows in our room either butts up against the roof line or a wall or both.This makes curtain rod placement tricky, especially since I usually like to go high and wide. That wasn’t going to be an option here. I considered doing roman shades, but I didn’t like the idea of a third of our windows always being covered, blocking natural light.

So I came up with the idea of using one panel on each window and hanging it using a rod made with black steel pipes. But instead of having two ends, we just have one.Making the rod was super easy and cost less than $20 each. Here’s what I used:3/4″ Floor Flange

3/4″ x 2″ Nipple

3/4″ 90 degree Elbow

3/4″ x 24″ Threaded Pipe

3/4″ Cap

After wiping down the pipes, I assembled the pieces in that order.

Another issue we encountered was the length from the top of the window to the floor. Since the windows are at the roof line, they’re lower than normal. So the standard curtain sizes wouldn’t work — 63″ was too short and 84″ was too long. But you know what’s the perfect length at 72″? Shower curtains! Did you even notice?!They were another HomeGoods happy find, and only cost $14.99 each!

So I had my curtain rod and I had my curtains, but there was one other issue — attaching the two. The pipe obviously wouldn’t fit through the holes in the shower curtain, and most standard shower curtain hooks wouldn’t fit over the pipe, and regular curtain hooks only come 7 to 10 in a pack and shower curtains have 12 slits. Oy! I was getting ready to throw in the towel. But finally I found something and ended up getting these affordable curtain rings from Ikea.Who knew such a small project would turn into such a big headache? But at least the end result turned out great and that’s all that matters!We still have a few things left to do in here (like paint the ’80s ceiling fan, build nightstands, and replace the lamps), but our bedroom is finally starting to feel a lot more cozy!

January 19, 2015
by This Old Colonial Home Leave a comment

New Year, New Projects

So far the new year is off to a slow start in our house. I keep reading about other bloggers’ projects and re-organization tactics. And while inspired (and somewhat jealous), I’m having a hard time getting myself motivated after the holidays. We only just took down all of our Christmas decorations a week and a half ago!

But that doesn’t mean we don’t have some plans lined up.

One of my goals for the new year is to finally finish decorating the master bedroom.Our furniture is all mix matched, but not in a good way. We don’t have window treatments other than blinds and there’s still nothing hung on the walls yet. It’s time.

So far we have managed to get two new dressers.I think just about everyone has these Hemnes pieces from Ikea, but they’re so affordable and look great! I think they have definitely helped improve the room.

On the to-do list is replacing the headboard. Even though I like our current one, I think with the new dressers and the wood floors and trim in the room it’s too many different stain colors. I’m hoping to switch it up with a tufted headboard. I think having fabric will help break up all the wood. I love this one!

From Amazon

We also hope to eventually make two nightstands. I love our yellow one, but I think we plan to move that into another room. Once we have the nightstands, then I can add new lamps and artwork. I’m also working on styling the long dresser and the big blank wall behind it.

The other major goal for the new year is having our upstairs bathroom completely renovated. We’re talking a gut job!But why you may be asking. Because it’s an incredibly small bathroom that has had (original 1937) plumbing issues, surface mold, and peeling paint in the tub. So we figured let’s start fresh — give it a new layout, take a little space from a bedroom closet and hopefully incorporate a pocket door to give us more elbow room and to make it more functional. This is a job for the professionals. We’ve already got our contractor and will hopefully see work begin in the next few weeks. Think classic subway tile and black and white floors. Something like this perhaps.

From Houzz

We are super excited about this! Aside from having our hardwood floors redone and our driveway widened, this is the first major renovation we’re undertaking. I can’t wait to share the progress and end results with all of you!

Here’s to improvements in the new year!

October 28, 2014
by This Old Colonial Home 8 Comments

New to Me Nightstand

In my last post I admitted I was addicted to discounts. But I have another confession: My name is Kelly and I’m addicted to garage sales. Phew! I’m so glad I got that off my chest. (As if it was really a secret.)

I have been lucking out lately and I’m so giddy about a recent find that I just had to share!

Here she is.Isn’t she a cutie?! And it was only $5! Whaaat?!

We have been in need of replacing the nightstands in the master bedroom ever since we painted and I stenciled an awesome accent wall. (Read about it here.) So I was very excited when I came across this piece.

It needed a good, deep cleaning (I think I used half a roll of paper towels), but then it was good as new again!

It’s a nice solid piece made of real wood and it already has that distressed look I love! I’m not sure if that’s intentional or not, but at least I don’t have to do anything more to it. Wahoo!I think the yellow goes well with the pillows on our bed and helps brighten up the room. Even though it doesn’t have drawers, I like the uniqueness of the tiered shelves.I even love the little crescent moon cutouts on the side. It truly is a “night” stand. Haha!Now we just have to find something for my husband’s side of the bed (and replace the lamps).We — and I mean he — may end up building a nightstand, but that doesn’t mean I’ll stop looking around. The hunt is half the fun! Don’t you agree?!