:: Old House - New Look ::

:: Oh my goodness, it's been a long time since I've done and OHNL edition on my blog! Not that I don't have changes that are blog worthy, I've just been plain 'ol lazy! ::

:: So here goes...a brief re-cap on how I revamped our Master Suite on a very minimal budget! ::

:: First it starts with the paint. I had purchased the RL "Slate" paint back when it was on a super deal in the winter at Home Depot. I originally purchased it for our bedroom, but ended up being inspired to do our powder room in it too ::

:: I had based the paint colours on some Restoration Hardware bedding I Had picked up back in November as a gift to myself for my birthday. Ever since then, it's been in our linen closet just waiting to be used! ::

:: So I had the feature wall colour as the slate gray, then I was looking for a creamy beige for the walls. So when I had stopped in at our local paint store to look at their mis-tints and I found two pails of white paint and they were further reduced to 1/2 the price, I couldn't resist the two of them for $4! ::


:: But when it got down to testing the paint, it turned out to be a bit too pink-white, not cream-white, or beige-white. So I rummaged {literally at 11 pm} through our shed and found a full pail of Bar-Harbour Beige which was the original colour we painted our suite when we first got married. That pail of paint is 8 years old! But heck, what could I loose...I paid $4 for the two pails of paint so if I wrecked it, I didn't loose much! ::

:: So here is what I did: I washed out a huge bucket Mr. L found at the side of the house and dumped both the pails of white paint into it. Then I started adding a little bit of the Bar-Harbour Beige to it, and testing a swatch of it each time ::

:: Here are the colours...the colour the paint originally was is on the far right, I ended up going with the colour on the far left - this is not the best way to tint your paint, but like I said I was on a budget {which was really no budget aka: spend as little as possible} so it worked for me ::


:: Here are the before pictures of our room, sorry they are so dark and the colour so crappy, I decided to do this job late in the evening last week ::

:: Our room is not big at all, frankly it's quite small for a Master Suite...it's 12x14 and has an open hotel style en suite as well ::

:: This is what you see from the entrance to our suite {the pictures on the wall on the left are on the wall just outside out door, to the right are the stairs to the main level} ::



:: Turn to the right when you enter our suite and you'll see Mr. L's bedside table ::



:: Look slightly to the left when you enter the suite and you'll see our dresser w/ Mr. L's stuff on top and to the opposite side of the bed you'll find my side table along with my jewelry box and misc. items ::

:: Our bed is a queen and we purchased our bedroom set from Costco, yup, you guessed it 8 years ago {August 23 - I have a stupid memory for these things} ::

:: Our drapes are hand-me-downs from my Marm...they are shantung silk drapes, she had them specifically made for her living room, 6 years {or so} ago. Her seamstress spilled something on them and decided to wash them. She washed the beautiful finish off of them and it changed the colour slightly, so I gladly took the hand-me-down! We actually use them at night too, even though we have blinds -- our room faces East, so in the morning the sun light is quite bright, so the lovely drapes keep out the extra light, it's a wonderful thing! ::

:: If you are standing at the end of the bed your view will be right into our en suite. See, I had to kneel on the bed to get the shot of the en suite. The door to the right of the sink is our walk in closet and on the opposing side is the shower stall and toilet {which has a sliding door on it}. Then if you're still standing at the end of the bed and look to the left you'll see this little table with mirror. This is my little area, as we don't have much room in our en suite to get ready at the same time, I made this little area for me...it's directly behind our bedroom door but it works just fine for me {see the dresser in the mirror?} ::


:: So there is a little tour of the Master Suite, so you kind get a good layout of the room ::

:: In addition to the bedding being inspiration, I had all of these items put away in hopes to use them in our room. A few months ago I had spied all of these things in our crawl space and made mental note of what I wanted it to look like ::

{Starting top left to right}
:: Love birds - these were from my Grandma & Grandpa as a gift when we got engaged, I never really had a place for them and they weren't really my style, but I loved them because of the meaning...My Grandpa bought them for my Grandma when they went to Capilano Suspension Bridge for one of the their anniversaries, sweet eh?!? ::
:: Then there is the fabric of one of the new pillow cases against the new wall colour as a test ::
:: A plastic mirror from my neighbour {same one I got the newspapers for our powder room art}::
:: An old Italian frame from a garage sale {years ago @ my grandparents place} with a beautiful horse photo in it ;) ::
:: Then I have a piece of black coral that my Papa brought back from Hawaii years ago - this is an item that if my house were burning down, I would bring with me...I cherish it ::
:: A picture handed down from friends ::
:: My make-up table, which I've had forever..really, it was my change table when I was a baby :: :: Another shot of the birds ::
:: And finally a picture of misc. other things that I had gathered to make work for our suite ::

:: I'll let the pictures speak for themselves...Here's the new improved Master Suite ::

:: See the drapes? Yup, those are the same drapes, don't look the same hey? No, that's because they are not the same colour. I went to our local Dollar store and purchased two boxes of black Tintex dye...proceeded to dye the original {already ruined} curtains in my washing machine. And then proceeded to see that they were the perfect colour but 4" too short now. Humph. So I took out the ample hem and tacked up the bottom inch and brand new gray silk drapes that now pool perfectly on the floor. One may think I planned all this! Ha Ha Ha! Total cost of that project was less than $3 - May have a few gray hairs from sweating over the fact that I shrunk the living day lights out of them, but all turned out just fine! ::

:: Mr. L has always loved cars, as do I. I don't really fancy the model cars and hot wheels {you should see our garage!} and yet I don't want to change that part of my husband. However trying to keep two small boys from getting the model cars who make it their mission in life to get Daddy's toys and dusting around all the memoirs on the dresser make it less than wonderful for me! ::

:: So I decided that I would use some black cubes that I've had in storage for three years and make a collage above the dresser, for his trinkets and things. I painted the front and exterior of the boxes the RL "Slate" and left the interior black, as we still have some hits of black in the room. See the things he holds dear are those two red cars, when he was little he went to Port Townsend WA and his parents {or grands} bought him those model cars. I framed his Papa's sun glasses from when he was a fighter pilot in the war in Brittan back a couple Father's days ago and they had yet to make it to the wall. These things are the things he holds dear, and so I wanted to display them for his pleasure and this area is just the perfect little spot ::

:: On his dresser he has his watch box and another car his Sister bought for him from Mexico and another red tractor {that one of the boys had while I took this photo} that he got from his parents when he was little ::

:: I was delighted when he teared up when I showed him this area devoted to his stuff...It meant a lot to him that he has his own place in the world of "us" ::



:: There is the neighbours old plastic gold mirror, with a new coat of RL "Slate" paint - flanked by the love birds on mirrored pillar candle holders I received as a gift from my SIL for my birthday three years ago ::



:: Details of our new bedding, ahhh, I love it! ::

:: Looking from the end of the bed to his side ::

:: Looking from the end of the bed to my side ::

:: View into the en suite - the collage of our vows, our kids foot prints and a photo from our wedding day is on the wall to the right just as you enter our en suite and closet {you can see it in the en suite mirror, just to give you perspective}. I painted the back of our en suite wall "Slate" too ::

:: Last, but definitely not least, is my little personalized area for me to get ready at. I had seen an idea of painted wall paper through Jones Design Co. {her blog, shop and ideas are to die for...just go and see for yourself} and I thought this would be the perfect piece of furniture to test out my skills on...heck if she could paint wall paper on a whole room, I could do it on one little piece of furniture! I stripped the wallpaper off the top of the table, primed it and painted it the RL "Slate" colour, then traced the pattern onto the table top and painted the cream wall colour in the pattern. It's far from perfect, but I LOVE it! ::

:: Edited to add ::
See that little silver cup? That is the cup that was gifted to me when I was born {don't know who it's from}; it's got my full maiden name {obviously} along with my birth date and a little clock with the time I was born along with my weight. There will be more on this later, but I'm a huge fan of using "special" items, that would normally be in a china cabinet or behind glass because they are "special". I love being able to see it and enjoy it each day!

:: I still want to make a chair cover for the Ikea dining chair that I use, but for now, it will have to do! I took the corner shelf that used to be on my side of the bed and put it above this corner to hang a little light from, so that I could free up some space on the table top. I also painted the formerly black {originally gold} mirror of my Grandma's RL "Slate" to keep it all coordinated ::

:: The little tray is from Dollar Tree {one of my all time favorite stores!} it was a dollar...and best of all, it's not going to tarnish ;) The jar my brushes are in is from a jar candle I won at a shower a couple months ago, I kept the glass once the candle was all gone as I loved the shape of the jar...and I'm glad I did! ::

:: So here is a break down of what I spent ::
:: Paint $13.00 Ralph Lauren "Slate" ::
:: Cream Wall Paint $4.00 ::
:: Restoration Hardware Bedding $150.00 ::
:: Tray for table $1.00 ::

:: Total Cost: $168.00 ::

:: Of course that's not including the time that I put into the room, but truly everything else was stuff I had in storage and had to just re-vamp a little ::

:: Also, this didn't happen over night, it took me a week worth of working on...but I did do it all by myself, every spot of it, as I did most of it while Mr. L was at work or working on his own projects. And boy oh boy, you should see our closet! Looks like we had a war in there! Well, hopefully I get that cleaned up tonight and we'll return back to normal around here! ::

:: I had so much fun seeing my vision come together on a budget...it's exactly what I wanted - Hope you enjoyed seeing it come to life! ::

:: Next on to the boys room! ::