Sixteen years ago this past weekend, Joel and I moved into this house. This was going to be a starter home, living here possibly five years, and then moving onto something bigger. That didn't happen! But that's okay. I love our house. There are many things I find annoying about this house. Like not having a two car garage. Super small closets. But, if those are my only list of faults, I guess the house is pretty good, right?
When we moved in, this house needed major updates in every single room. We weren't into the 1980s decor. Wallpaper covered in flowers. Drapes that swagged. And carpet in the kitchen. We lived in our lower basement, watched Trading Spaces that we taped on our VCR, and updated a room at time before our wedding weekend in November of that same year. We wanted to invite our out of town guests over to see the new house in all its updated glory. And we did! Even our realtor couldn't believe it was the same house. Our blood, sweat, and tears are in this house. And the sweat just keeps coming.
I am a girl who is always looking to make updates. Adding a little something here and there. We've updated the kitchen three times since we moved in with the current color being navy. We've updated my bathroom three times with new tile in the shower, granite counter tops, and black and white stripe paint on the walls. We've updated Joel's bathroom once taking down the mauve tile and replacing it with gray paint, new tile in the shower, and granite counter tops as well. I've changed out bedding in all the bedrooms at least once and changed the paint color in McKinley's room when we found out we were having a baby. The living room got a new coat of paint years ago and it's next on the list of refresh! Lots of changes coming there! And lastly, and most recently, our bedroom!
This is what our bedroom looked like when we finally moved from the basement. Super boring! A quilt I had in my bedroom in my apartment. Furniture that my parents gave me when I first moved to Kansas City 21 years ago. The bed was new, a gift from my aunt, and maybe a picture or two on the wall. That was it. Plus, we didn't want too much going on for when we moved five years down the road.
So when that didn't happen, I went hog wild! My mom made us a quilt as a wedding gift and it replaced the quilt originally had. We had Roman shades made by Ethan Allen and I painted the walls the ever chic harvest gold that every Pottery Barn featured in the early 2000s. Throughout the years, I changed out the bedding and added curtains, but never changed the walls. I meant to paint them gray, but life happened, so things stayed the same. It was definitely time for a change!
I still had the idea of painting the room gray and I looked at so many different shades, comparing them to the curtains we had hanging in the room and the color of the walls in Joel's bathroom. I finally chose Benjamin Moore's Shaker Gray. I purchased new bedding almost a year ago, all white for a stark contrast from the walls, and I asked my dad if it was okay with him if I painted the furniture black. It was theirs, after all, and I didn't want to make changes if they didn't approve. He said go for it, so I did! With the wall color mixed, white trim paint purchased, I was set! And I started out with gusto. One week in, the walls were cutout and painted and the trim work was next. I was slowly losing steam. By the first weekend, the trim around the doors and window, the window panes themselves, and the baseboards had all been painted. Every muscle in my body hurt and I was pretty sure that I couldn't do another squat if my life depended on it. But, next up was the furniture. Man, I was tired!
I debated on how to go about painting the furniture. Originally, I was going to sand down the varnish and get to the wood. Mom purchased some paint for a table for the booth and it was the perfect black. But then I chatted with a friend who had recently painted a dresser in her office with chalk paint and it sounded like a dream. You didn't have to sand anything. You just painted. Full disclosure here, I used chalk paint last summer on a different table for the booth and hated it. It was gloopy and didn't go on very well. At the same time, it was cheap paint that I picked up for a quick turn around, so that might have been part of the problem. She had used Amy Howard Home paint and loved the result. Looked like I was going to go down the same road. And, it turns out another friend loves her paint so I was truly on the right road! I love it too! I didn't use the "brushes" that everyone uses with chalk paint. I used a regular bristle brush and painted. I applied a wax I found at Michael's and it worked just fine. Don't buy into all the tools they say you need. You just spend more money than you need!
I purchased new curtains for the windows and new pulls and knobs for the furniture. I tried spray painting our doorknobs for the closets and other doors in the room, but it just left paint on our hands, so I went with new knobs there too. I thought about getting a tufted headboard, thought about painting the existing bed black, or using a black iron bed of my parents, but decided to just keep the existing bed. It's nice to have something not black or gray in the room. And with the pillows, it just kind of fades away. It all truly came together and simply love it. Want to see it? Well, scroll down!
Little things that need to be done at this point are faceplates being added for the light switch and outlets. Joel needs to turn off the electricity for that and plans to do it while we're on the road to VA. I'm going to add a small family wall gallery to the large wall next to the chest of drawers. They are framed and ready to go, but I need to space them out and decide exactly how I want them. I'll share that later. And I want to put a photo, from a series that my dad shot during the 60s, on the wall leading out of the room. But all in all, it's done. It's calming, and in my personal opinion, so chic! A big update from it's previous state. Sometimes, your decor needs to change with you and that's exactly what happened here.
I wanted the room completed before summer and I achieved my goal. Now, it's time to plan the living room update, which won't take place until after McKinley goes back to school. In the meantime, I'm going to spruce up my front porch with pretty flowers and a new front door rug and get my patio up and running. Summer is meant for outdoor play and I can take refuge at night in my peaceful grownup bedroom!
XO,
Andrea
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