After months of “dragging my heels” (a.k.a. I was doing lots of other things), I finally finished Nora’s new bedroom upstairs — after I found the bedding I liked for only $25 on Craigslist!
Nora has already taken a couple naps in the bed, and we’re working on sleeping the night up there — but let me tell you, it’s been a LOOOOOOOONG week and I’ve gotten little to no sleep.
We’ve already move EVERYTHING out of her old nursery so she has no option of sleeping down there (no looking back now!)
Even though there hasn’t been a ton of actual sleeping in the room, we’ve been playing up there (and the adjoining play room) for weeks now — so I’m thrilled that I can finally share the “after” pictures with you!
Here are a few pictures of some of the “details” — I’ll share the full-room before and after photos below.
This room really wasn’t a difficult project at all — I just didn’t want to commit to any specific color scheme until I found bedding I loved!
I just couldn’t stomach putting pink and purple princess bedding in this lovely white room — especially since Nora could care less what her room or her bedding looks like (and I’m totally capitalizing on this for as long as I can).
I searched and searched for bedding that I liked — and although I found a few things that were OK, they were so ridiculously expensive that I would never even consider purchasing them (again, because Nora could care less).
Finally, right before Christmas vacation, I hit the jackpot. A lady only a few miles away was selling a 1-year old, $200+ bedding set (she still had the receipt) for only $25! It was exactly what I was looking for — mostly reds and blues with a little hint of pink. No flowers, no butterflies, no princesses — just a fun stripe pattern that sort of looks like a quilt.
I went to pick it up the next morning, washed it all really well, and made the bed.
An added bonus to this bedding is that the navy “afghan” at the end of the bed (which just so happens to fit the color scheme perfectly) is a blanket Dave’s grandma knit for him when he was a boy. I was thrilled to be able to incorporate that in Nora’s room as well.
Oh, and if you’re wondering why we don’t have bed rails or anything to keep Nora from falling out of the bed, it’s because she’s actually been sleeping in a “big girl bed” since she was 10 months old… so she’s a pro
More About the Furniture:
Since my plan was always to keep this bed white (it’s an antique bed frame I’ve had for years), I was glad to find bedding with a little color. Doesn’t Nora look so small laying inside the bed frame? And don’t you just LOVE the frame!!!
We had a freebie armoire / dresser in an extra room that I wanted to paint red — along with a $10 side table I found on Craigslist last month and was planning to use for a night stand.
After two really quick coats of my favorite Awning Red paint (which just so happens to match the bedding perfectly), both pieces looked brand new — and I think they add a lot of color to the otherwise VERY neutral room.
Other than the bed, armoire, nightstand, and chair, we really didn’t feel the need for much additional furniture. We certainly don’t need it for storage — and we figured Nora would probably appreciate the extra room to play and run around.
I might try to look for a rug for the middle of the room — but I’m holding off on that for now, just because rugs are really expensive and this new carpet is SUPER soft and comfy. The rug would basically just be for visual purposes and I’m not sure it’s worth shelling out a few hundred bucks. We’ll see.
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Now for the Before and After pictures:
I hope the very first thing you notice is how NOT purple the room is. I honestly have nothing against purple — just when it’s in mass quantities in my house
Note: I’m purposely not showing the closet yet because I want to do a separate post about the fun stuff we have going on in her closet — as well as how we’re storing all her clothes, shoes, and accessories
Ahh… I’m loving the no purple!
Dave and I actually did a lot of thinking about what color to paint Nora’s new room. We knew we definitely wanted super neutral so we could swap it out for a boys room or a girls room depending on our future needs — but we were a bit hesitant to paint the entire room white, as we thought that might be TOO neutral (if there is such a thing!)
However, after realizing that it would take forever to cut in around the ceiling, all the random sloped walls, all the trim, the closet, etc. we opted to just do everything white. This decision was partially for convenience sake (a.k.a. I was feeling a little lazy) but also to make the room look and feel even bigger. It’s already a huge room, but with all the sloped walls and ceilings, it started looking really “chopped up” to us when the ceiling and the walls were different colors.
We love the look of white everything — and if you’re wondering, we went with “Frost” by Behr (after a mini internal debate on my part!)
Oh, and lest you think we could finish even one project without a glitch… check out this picture.
Only hours before the carpet installer was scheduled to arrive, my dad decided to come over and cut out a huge chunk of the flooring since there was a large “hump” in that area. We just figured it was due to being an old house — but the floor boards were actually totally messed up.
I’m glad we could fix the problem in time… but since I was literally sweeping up the crumbs as the carpet installer was walking upstairs, it did make for a mildly stressful afternoon!
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Cost Breakdown:
** The below figures do not include the cost of the actual room renovation (new carpet, new window, new door, new trim, etc.) — just the items in the room and the materials used to decorate the room.
White Paint and Primer = $250 — apparently covering purple with white is expensive
Bed Frame = $0 — from a friend several years ago
Mattress = $0 — from Dave’s parents (it’s quite new — they just upgraded their guest bedroom to a queen)
Bedding = $25 — The comforter, dust ruffle, pillow shams, and decorative pillows were all a set I purchased from Craigslist.
Sheets, blankets, and pillows = $45 (but I used a Target gift card)
Cordless Black-out Blinds = $45 (on sale at Home Depot)
Bench = $0 — we got this as a wedding gift, but it was from IKEA
Armoire / Dresser = $0 — from friends a couple years ago
Night stand = $10 on craigslist
Awning Red Paint = $0 — I already had this in the house
Poäng Chair = $0 — we already had this chair from IKEA and weren’t using it
Kids Rocking Chair = $0 — we already had it
Tent and other toys = $0 — all gifts or toys we already had
Shelf, picture frames, and other decorations = $0 — all things we already had in the house
So besides the paint for the walls, we only spent about $125 for all the furniture, bedding, decorations, and accessories! Not too bad.
Now if we could just get Nora to realize that it will be super fun to actually sleep in her new bed instead of just play in it
I’ll be back next week with the full closet tour + tips on how I organize all her clothes!
What do you think… do you like the white walls?