A Two Parter!

Well I warned you......the crafting world was right! The Martha Stewart Crafts line is pretty dang fantastic! I don't know what I love more: the stencils or the color selection of paints! My favorite is Wet Cement. Such a pretty gray. Anywho, I am diverging from the main point of this post.....our new master bedroom drapes! OK scratch that too.....this is a two parter, peeps!

Uhhhhh the new drapes had to accompany all the other "new" stuff in the room......yes, I, once AGAIN, decided that the bedroom needed tweaking (Part One). To be fair, from the day we moved in I had less than two weeks to unpack before Miles joined the family. In my weakened condition (ie. rotund condition), I simply pointed and furniture was placed in position.

We make some seriously BIG kids!

It wasn't until almost a full year later that I realized the room felt cramped. The Hubs found me standing in the middle of the room staring at the bed one night. The conversation went something like this....

Hubs: "Uh hun.....what's up?"
Me: "Huh? What? Oh sorry. Can we talk?"
Hubs: "Um ya......should I be worried?"

I really am super lucky to have a partner in this life that supports my wackiness. Once I divulged all of my "dislikes" in there, I went on to explain all of the changes I wanted. One of which was taking the bed off of the long wall and moving in front of (EEEEEEEEKKKKKK) the windows!

I don't know how or why, but it has been embedded in my mind that you can't place a bed in front of a window. Maybe subconsciously I think it will block the light.....or I heard somewhere that is was a decor faux pas.....who knows. Do other people think that too? Am I alone? Where did this train of thought come from??

What I do know, is the second that bed was moved, the entire room opened up. It felt MUCH bigger. And both of us loved it!

Now that the windows were such a focal point to the room, I realized we needed them to make more of a statement. In my haste to get something up when the baby came home, I placed the curtain rod directly above the window frame trim. The old drape panels (BOO HISS....GROSS) were 84 inches in length. Add this mistake to the list! At 84 inches, they did not pool on the floor and really shortened the look of the windows.

The old rods were brushed nickel.....again add to the list (this list is growing daily.......gerrrr). I needed more contrast against the color of the walls which is a warm, golden yellow. So the drapes and hardware were removed, the holes patched and painted, the hardware was spray painted black and placed back up. This time though, the hardware was installed just below the ceiling line. By taking the draperies to the ceiling, the entire room felt bigger visually by drawing the eye up wards. LOVE LOVE LOVE.

For the drapes (Part Two), I searched online for something that tickled my fancy and I kept returning to the West Elm drapes. I loved the graphic prints that were done in the softer, muted grays.

To achieve a similar look, I purchased 4 white cotton twin bed flat sheets at $5 a piece. The sheets are the perfect length to achieve a light pooled effect at the floor line (me likey). Martha got in on the action and I used the large trellis print pattern to block print along the edge of the inside hem of each sheet.

Hardware to the ceiling line. Yippee!

See the imperfections?

I wanted these to look home made and a little older. Almost a vintage vibe. So I used the Wet Cement gray with a large spouncer to create areas of more paint and areas of less along the pattern. It created a really great worn look to the print and I love it.

 The room feels bigger and taller. We LOVE color and pattern and there is just enough contrast in the bedding and trunk to make us both happy. All in all, this has made us fall in love with this room again. So the lesson here is not to be afraid to make some changes if something is nagging you!

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