guest room...questions & answers

What a wonderful bunch of girls you all are! THANK YOU for the bottom of my heart for your sweet comments on my guest room update. I am always so busy painting furniture for clients, I rarely have time to show you snippets inside my home. Maybe I should start making time, it was so much fun!

I received so many emails regarding things I used in the room, so thought I would answer them in a blog post in case others were wondering the same things! So here it goes...your questions answered...part 1.

How did it happen that Cabbages & Roses became involved your guest room makeover?

I received an email one day telling me they had seen the post Andrea, from the blog Faded Plains, and I did about working together to make over my guest room. They wanted to collaborate with us, and each would get to do a space in our homes using Cabbages & Roses fabric. I was so excited they would even consider lil 'ol me! It was a very positive experience, and I would work with them again in a second!

How did you add the fabric to your headboard?

This is what my headboard looked like before:

(photo taken from the web, I forgot to take a "before"...oops!)

The headboard is from the Crate & Barrel Outlet store. I am lucky enough to live about 1 1/2 hours from Crate & Barrel headquarters in Naperville, IL. Their warehouse where everything gets shipped from is there, as well as an outlet store for damaged goods and overstock items. I was there one day and they had this headboard for only $59!! Score! I am a girl that *LOVES* a deal, so I threw myself on top of it before anyone else could snag it. (Seriously, I did. It was a Saturday and the place was packed! A girls gotta do what she needs to, you know!) It was marked down from some crazy price (I think about $1100) because it had a little black mark on the fabric. I knew it would be slipcovered someday anyway so that didn't stop me. I am a girl that always looks for potential, not necessarily the perfect piece.

I slipcovered it in the C&R Hatley fabric in Cerise, which is a wonderful faded red color. It is incredible in person!

Where did you get your duvet?

Pottery Barn. It is called the 'Hadley Ruched Duvet'. It was my one big splurge for this room. I am a thrifty girl, so it killed me to spend $179 on a duvet, but I love it so much. It was worth every cent!

Where did you get your bedskirt?

Target. It is from the Simply Shabby Chic line, and is called Snow White.

What color did you use on your dresser?
Where did you find the knobs you used on your dresser?

I used one of my favorite furniture grays...Silver Chain by Benjamin Moore. Pearl finish is my favorite sheen. I distressed it to show the white primer peeking through the gray.

The knobs are from Anthropologie. They are called the 'Gemstone' knob in clear.

Where did you find your gray curtain rod?

Well, I can never seem to find a curtain rod "off the shelf" that I like. Huge finials on the ends make me crazy, and I just wanted something more natural...vintage...simple. So I wandered over to the trim isle at Home Depot. It is actually just an unfinished wood 1 1/4" diameter closet rod, which cost about $10. I cut it to my length and finished it with white and gray paint I thinned with water. You can still see the wood grain through, so it looks a lot like my wood wall in the room.

The brackets are from Home Depot, too. They are in the curtain rod isle, and come in unfinished wood for $7.97. I just gave them the same paint treatment as the rod.

I will be back tomorrow to answer your questions about the wood wall! It was overwhelming to get messages from so many of you wanting to do the same treatment to a wall in your home! And to think I was hesitating on doing it! Poor Andrea was on the receiving end of about 10 phone calls where I was freaking out wondering if it would look "weird". Once is started to go up, I wanted to do it in every room in my house. I love it, and it was soooo easy!

Ok, girls. I am off to paint more furniture today! I have another  show in 18 days!

guest bedroom project & a little help from a friend...

This week, I am embarking on a guest-bedroom makeover adventure!

It is going to be interesting, and I can't wait to share the final details...I believe this is the first around-the-house project I will be featuring here on my blog.

I am usually so busy working on client pieces, there is no "me time" left in my days. I just don't have the opportunity to share the things I would really like to with you.

But, its a New Year, so time for new things! And I vowed this year I am going to finish some projects I have wanted to do...and share them with you through my blog. I bet you had no idea I am was a DIY junkie, did you?? There is a little pattern in my life..I buy a house, totally redo it...sell it and start all over again. That seems to be my M.O. But it feels like a secret side of me, because I have never let that part of my show here on my blog.

When I started making plans for this room, I found I had so many ideas swimming around in my head, I just could not decide what to do! Thankfully, my friend Andrea has come to the rescue!

You may know Andrea as in the girl behind the incredible farmhouse and fabulous blog Faded Plains. Well, she and I have discovered over the last year that we MUST be long lost twin sisters, because it is amazing how we love so many of the same things and want such similar things in our life! This is what I love about blogland...how it can bring people together that never would have crossed paths otherwise.

Anyway, about the bedroom. Andrea and I are going to be collaborating and blogging about our project. I just have not quite decided yet if I should show the progress as we go, or do a big reveal and then show you what we did. Hmmm...any opinions out there on that subject??

We have one rather unique feature for the room, so lets hope it turns out as we hope! These are a few photos that have inspired us...I won't tell you which element from each photo got us all excited, but if you have been reading my blog for a while, you may be able to guess.

*smile*

(all photos from Country Living, except #3 is unknown)

I can't wait to get started...how crazy are we, anyway? Putting our heads together and coming up with a fresh, new space...even though 422 miles separate us, and she has never seen the space other than through photos! But she has amazing skills at making a room simple and beautiful...plus she's super fun, so any excuse I can come up with to call her and yak on for 3-hours like I usually do...I'm going to do it!  I am gonna love this crazy process!

It should be an adventure! Let the fun begin!

I am off to Chicago bright and early Monday morning...I'm on the hunt for new bed linens!

Woohoo!