Canopy Bed

So I did find a photo I took of an update to our master bedroom after we changed paint colors:
I suspect I didn't post this photo because...it's terrible!  I must have had water spots on the lens of my camera. The photo is an odd angle. The purple pillow looks VERY bright and shiny. The paint is washed out by the flash on the camera. So I see why I didn't post it.  The others in the folder this is stored in aren't much better. 

So let's take a step back for a moment.  Once upon a time, I was a little girl in the 70's. And what I wanted more than anything else was a Holly Hobby canopy bed. My mom bought me a bedspread and decorated my room, but alas, no canopy bed.  

And in the days of internet wonderfullness, I even managed to find the actual print that was on my bed as a child.


I think this clearly explains my complete aversion to pink in my adult life. This is the fabric that my bed set was made from. I had red-orange shag carpet that matched her hair. My walls were pink and my furniture was painted green. And of course, there were matching drapes. 

I can't even contemplate how this fabric would have looked on a canopy bed...

Ok, let's fast forward to TODAY after my trip to Ikea to swap out my drapes:
<sigh> I love it. Although the quilt is washed out in this photo. The colors are soft. But in real life, they're not quite this muted.


And we have discovered that our old bed frame, which started it's life as a queen size bed frame, and was expanded to accommodate our king size mattress, didn't actually fit our king mattress. There was always a slight hump in the middle of the bed. It wasn't bad and really, after four years, we really didn't notice it. Until we put the mattress in this bed. And oh my goodness, we are in bed heaven!

You can also see in this photo the infamous 'wall that was purple'. It's the only wall in the bedroom that has the standard ceiling height. It was a deep, beautiful purple. And as I mentioned, we loved it. But we love the feel of this even better.


New drapes. Pardon the fact that I haven't hemmed them yet!

So eventually, I'll need new lamps. I found some at Hobby Lobby I really like, but I need to wait for them to go on sale. Until then, these work fine.

We moved my desk into the living room. The new bed is just big enough that it seemed like we suddenly had too much furniture in our bedroom. So here's a parting shot of Hazel, who's has claimed my desk as her new sleeping spot:

Quick Updates

I was working fast and furious last month on finish three term papers for school. Working full-time and going to school full-time can be a challenge, but I know it will be worth it when I finish (which will be no later than this August but could be sooner!!)

So there are several projects that have been on my list, but due to lack of time, I hadn't even started. One of them is our master bedroom. I know. We just re-did it three years ago when we bought the house. And for the most part, I still really like it. But you know how when you live in a room long enough, you come to realize things need to change? That's how I've been feeling for about the past six months. 

The last time I posted, our bedroom looked like this
Ahem. So it mostly looks nothing like this now. Apparently, when I did things like paint the closet wall to be a deep purple, change the paint color, and move the bedroom around, I didn't take any photo's of it. I'm not sure how that's possible...but apparently, it's true!

So let's talk about what is still the same - the rugs, curtains, bed, and furniture. Everything else has changed over the last few years.  

Let's start with the duvet on my bed. I bought a nice duvet from Ikea, that I still love.  It is SO warm and toasty in the winter and has a nice weight to it when you sleep. However. We almost never have a winter here in TX. And when we do, if it lasts a week, it's a really long winter. And it's not that we don't get cold weather (uh, ok, barely) but this is a really warm duvet. The photo above shows the cover I bought for it and I still love it. But the duvet has been packed away and is only brought out for when the temperatures are truly cold. In its place, I bought a lovely white quilt. It felt crisp and bright, wasn't overly hot, and I genuinely love it. Except for one thing. Why on earth did I buy white?!  I have a husband, kids, and DOGS. Keeping it clean and white requires washing it almost every day. What was I thinking?!!!  I was lulled by all the lovely and tranquil pictures in blog land. 

Moving on. The wall color.  I'm laughing. I hated this color when we moved in the house. In fact, we painted the entire house after we moved in. EXCEPT our bedroom. Yeah, I don't know why. Maybe we ran out of time? So after we bought the house (we rented it first) we finally painted it a beautiful color called French Silver by Behr.
I realized looking at this swatch that it almost has a lavender undertone to it, but it's still a gray. And I love it!! The paint color is definitely not being changed. In fact, we painted back the deep purple accent wall over the weekend. The great thing about paint is that when you're tired of it, you can just paint over it (after two coats of primer and then two coats of paint...) and so now our room is all one color.

Which, of course, has led me to want to change out the white quilt. I love it. I do. But the constant need to wash it is driving me crazy. So I was web surfing the other night and came across this:

OK, ignore the ugly way they staged it. Seriously, that room is not inspiring. However, in the catalog, it was much prettier. So I ordered it. It arrived today, and it's softer, with a few more neutral tones than you can see in this photo. But I think it's going to be perfect. It definitely goes with the wall color (and the area rugs next to our bed) and since I have now bought a total of four different bed covers since the initial cover for the duvet, and really, I just want to be done at this point

The other update we're making is the bed. A few years ago, we bought an iComfort bed from Seely and now I'm spoiled for life. No other bed is as comfortable. However, we have the same bed frame that we bought when we first got married 20 years ago. I did buy the wrought iron headboard from Ikea about 10 years ago, but it's actually for a queen size bed, which we had at the time, and it doesn't actually fit our now king size bed. It's not obvious that it's the wrong size because it's nice and tall. But late last year, our bedframe broke. It's now propped up on wooden blocks to keep it from crashing to the floor. And I could go out and buy another plain bed frame and keep using what we have...but we decided to go a different route.

The Builder's birthday was a week ago, and we stayed in an amazing room in a historical mansion in Galveston. The mansion was built in 1860 and survived the 1900 Galveston hurricane, the worst natural disaster in US history. It was amazing, and the owners have been restoring it since they bought it four years ago.  One thing we really fell in love with was the huge, four poster bed. Now it may have been a reproduction (although they had amazing antiques in the house) but we loved the size of the bed. The room was cozy and intimate. And we both agreed it was a feeling that was lacking in our bedroom. I had every intention of having The Builder make us a new bed, but it would be many months before that could happen because of a medical issue he's dealing with.

I know I say this every time I start a new project, but seriously, have you priced beds lately?! I don't know why I continue to be horrified.  I started with this beautiful bed from pottery barn, which had a similar feel to what we slept in:
I like it. But I don't love it. I particularly do not like the $1755 sale price (normally it's $2700. For real). And the spindle posters aren't quite what I'm looking for, they're too fussy. So that one wasn't even a consideration.

So this weekend I was cleaning out my email box and there was a sales add for Birch Lane. They're another division of Wayfair, and somehow I got on their mailing list. Usually I just hit delete, but I decided to take a look. They were having a 20% off sale with free shipping and I am always on the lookout for a good bargain.

So I when I came across this I looked a little closer.

Not only was this one on sale for about $500, but with free shipping and 20% off, this was definitely worth considering. The bed I really wanted to build, the posts were about $100 each. Add the rest of the materials, The Builder's time, and the delay in being able to build made buying this a no brainer. Even better, the free shipping actually has it here TODAY!

So of course, this will have to be assembled. Thankfully I have two teenage boys who will be able to help me put this together under The Builder's supervision (he can't lift more than 10 lbs. right now, and the website states this weighs about 210 lbs!) OK, I doubt it will be done today. In fact we probably won't get it put together until the weekend. But I am so excited!! The added bonus is that it appears to match our dresser, which we bought years ago, almost perfectly. Since I'm not replacing any furniture, this is an added bonus.

I see new curtains in my future as well...