Then & Now: Bed Side

After that brief interruption of discussing shelter media, and an attack of the organization monster, we're back to a little bedroom lovin'. No, not that kind.

So I've shown you two projects from the boudoir already: the farmhouse bed, and the rope shelves. Because we completed this redo back in September, I'm going to limit the in-depth info to those two projects, but I just wanted to do a quick before and after of each half of the room to wrap up the redo with a nice fancy ribbon. With scissor-edge curled ends, of course.

Big picture stuff first. Just an FYI, here is a severely not-to-scale mock up of the fh bedroom floor plan:



Before of the bed side of the room:

Cool grey walls, loooooow bed, and stock ikea night stands. Passable, but a little too...dorm room.

After of the bed side of the room:

Deep, dark newburg green walls. Recently built bed newly stained, and farmhouse bedside tables. Mmm mmm good.

A few details about that half of the room. (Yes those are my stuffed animals. Yes, I can't sleep without them. Yes, when Mike first started sleeping over I pretended like I just happened to still have them and they were totally like no bid deal. I told him he could toss them on the floor to get them out of the way and pretended like I was too cool for school. I SO wasn't.)

ANYWAYS, those bedside tables. I mentioned them in the first bedroom post, and after I built them I painted them all white back in February 2011. Here they are pre-detroying painting:

They were never great. I wasn't so hip to the furniture painting scene then (I am indebted to sites like Perfectly Imperfect and Centsational Girl for bringing me up to speed) and I never sealed them after the latex paint. Stuff was always sticking to the top. As in, I'd lay a magazine (I'm a magazine FIEND) down when I went to bed and the next morning when I picked it up, the back cover left a thin coat on the nightstand. Four months after painting. Not bueno. I also made the mistake of painting all surfaces of the nightstand and drawer which equaled STICKY CITY USA. I practically had to prop my foot against the nightstand for leverage when pulling out the drawer. Here is the best before pic I have of them painted (I curse my non-pic taking pre-blogging self!):

Needless to say, I was ready to banish those suckers for scrap. However, in a stroke of goodwill, I decided to give re-finishing a go. I sanded the bejesus out of every surface and probably went through a job pack of 40 grit sanding pads. And if you remember my mantra, SANDING IS BORING. YOU CANNOT EVEN LISTEN TO PODCASTS WHILE SANDING BECAUSE IT IS TOO LOUD, you'd understand how much I disliked doing it.

It was not a fun process, but once I got going I gained steam and would not let those hunks of wood defeat me. After sanding as much as possible, I decided to stain the tops with the Minwax English Chestnut and spray painted the remainder with Krylon Dover White spray paint. Thankfully, I knew better than to paint the bottoms of the drawers. They did not come out perfectly. They are not flawless. But hey, the room is dark and they are covered on two sides by walls and one side by mattress. For all my intents and purposes they look amazing. Cognitive dissonance is a beautiful thing.

 The light above my nightstand is a spray painted find from Mike's grandfather's office in their old house that was torn down recently. (Side note, those Christmas lights are there only for Christmas. When it's the season, I like it to be the season EVERYWHERE I look.)

The mirror on the right is also a find from that old house. I spray painted it Krylon Sun Yellow and, inspired by this Martha Stewart Living article, I E-6000 glued some jute rope to the inside border (Same rope from the rope shelves!). I was a little worried (and so was Mike) about the yellow being too cray-cray in there, but it's grown on me.

So, we still need something va-va-voom above the bed (future project perhaps??), but so far we are smitten with this half of the bedroom.



Have you ever dismissed a refinish only to end up tackling the project and ending up victorious??

Homey Media

We all get tips, tricks and inspiration for our home projects from lots of places. And imagine this, some of those places are not blogs! I know, blasphemy. Today, I'm going to divulge who's in my multimedia circle of trust, those podcasts, shows and magainzes that I use to fill my commutes and lazy hours. I can only imagine your intrigue.

But truly, I hope this is a 'I'll show you mine if you show me yours' type deal. As much as I love my old standbys, I'd love to add some new ones to the lineup, so share away! (Future Link Party idea??)

Podcasts

For listening to with a male counterpart: Ace on the House

I actually only regularly listen to one home improvement podcast, and that's Ace on the House. Available through iTunes like any other self-respecting podcast. New episodes every Saturday. It's hosted by Adam Carolla and his childhood buddy Ray Oldhafer and they take e-mail and phone questions about home improvement projects.



Now, if you listen to the Adam Carolla Show podcast (which I also highly recommend, it's definitely rated R, though) you know what an outspoken, sometimes harsh yet absolutely likable and always hilarious guy the Ace Man is. If you don't listen to the Adam Carolla Show, Ace was a carpenter (the real kind, not the weekend kind) before he made his living in comedy and espouses useful advice for anyone's questions. Ray still works as a contractor and their banter is entertaining because Ray is not afraid of giving Adam some $*%@, and he's hilarious in his own right. If you're not offended by curse words or questionably tasteful analogies, this podcast is the bomb. They talk about everything from fixing a squeaky subfloor to filling a yolked-out screw hole to hanging towel racks that won't pull through the drywall. My husband and I listen to it together when traveling in the car or while making eggs on Saturday mornings. Great stuff.

TV Shows

For your fix of Canadian dudes who still highlight their hair: Property Brothers

Or, ProBros as Mike and I call it. This HGTV show features 2 brothers, one a contractor and one a realtor (how convenient!) who help couples find the house of their dreams. The only catch? They can't afford the house of their dreams. Womp womp. But that's where the magic happens, the realtor ProBro shows couples some subpar homes and the contractor ProBro explains (and demonstrates via computer graphics) how the house can be transformed into their dream home all within their budget. The couple picks a house and then the demolition begins.

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It gets really addicting to see how these once derelict homes turn out to be incredible places I'd love to live. Sometimes the couples are *ahem* difficult so it sates that love-to-hate drive. The brothers are entertaining and it shows you the potential in everything. Worth a watch. We've definitely spent more than one afternoon watching episode after episode after episode.

For good tips and tricks from old timers with Boston accents: Ask this Old House

The small project version of This Old House, this show is a PBS classic. If it ever goes off the air I will be DEVASTATED. Rich, Rodge, Tom, and the host Kevin visit people's houses to help them with home conundrums. They tackle stuff like banging baseboard heaters, burping sinks and uneven asphalt. These guys fix things the right way, to the code and to the book. No shortcuts here. It's great information, though, and I find they show me a lot of products you never knew existed like under cabinet LEDs or  screws whose heads break off when torqued the right amount. The best part of the show, though, is 'What is it?' Oh, that segment slays me every time. One of the guys brings in a product and the rest offer their comical guess at what it is. Trust me, it's worth watching the show for just that.

Magazines

For feeling like an inadequate homemaker: Martha Stewart Living

Ok, it doesn't really make me feel inadequate, it just makes me feel like I wish I had 10 more hours in the day and 10 million more dollars so I could outfit my named estate with personalized projects and extensive collections of things such as taxidermy and watermelon pot holders. I love the Martha Stewart aesthetic and this magazine has fabulous ideas and recipes.  I find myself ripping out multiple pages from each issue and even the articles I can't relate to (taxidermy collection? really?) are beautifully shot. I'm sure you've seen this magazine, because, who hasn't? But, if you are a subscriber, and own an iPad, I highly recommend the iPad version. It is interactive and intuitive. I've totally come to love reading magazines on my iPad because of well-done versions like this. The only problem is you can't rip pages out of the digital version, but I've started to use screenshots...not as satisfying, but you can't have your cake and eat it too, I suppose.

So, good stuff, eh? (I just found out via my father-in-law and ancestry.com that I am Canadian 3 generations back and it has severely up-ticked my use of 'eh' because, well, I'm Canadian! No wonder I love the ProBros!) Ok, I've shown you mine, show me yours!