Have you ever been afraid to start a project because you didn’t know EXACTLY what you wanted the outcome to be ?  Have no fear, you are not alone…

When moving into our house, the guest room was the catch all of misfit furniture.

Again,  not bad,  but it is not my typical color scheme.  There is not a speck of blue in the entire room.  That is a problem. (I like blue)

I saw  this picture on Pinterest one day and fell in love with the color scheme!   I had found my point of inspiration.

The room was just “heavy”.   It needed to be lightened. Let me tell you,  there is a HUGE difference between a light cream, and white.  The original room was a contractors white (off-white) , and the picture below shows an ultra white.  It made a big difference in the room right away! Same with the curtains,  I took down the off-white and put in  pure white curtains.  Again, huge difference.

Oh, that is much better…  I found a navy blanket for $30.00 at Ross, and used some of my white sheets and old bed skirt.  Next  I painted the end tables coral.  But it was still missing something…

I thought that maybe the wooden bed frame, was throwing me off.  I removed the bed frame and turned  it into a headboard!
(There will be a tutorial for this, someday.)

Again,  I liked where it was going,  but it was STILL off…  What was it ?

Of course, how silly of me, I needed a blue wall…  if I am ever missing anything,  I just assume it  needs more blue, and I assumed correctly.

I liked the blue wall,  but  I was torn about the stained headboard. I took a gamble and painted the headboard white.   I took a sigh of relief when I realized the white  was just what it needed.  Phew.

Ta-da,  I had achieved a guest room that I was excited to have guests in.

There were MANY undocumented changes along the way i.e. pillows, night stands, wall art, curtains, etc.  My main point being, that if you are hesitant to pull the trigger on a project, don’t be!  You are allowed to change your mind!  I have decided that all projects are a process, and if you give up at the first hiccup you won’t ever like your final product.  Believe me I very RARELY get it right the first time,  but  guess what,  all the extra practice has helped me developed a whole bunch of random skills along the way.

So be brave and pop open that paint can.

When Andrew and I first got married we did what most newly weds did for furniture, we looked all over Craigslist for something affordable.  We found a set of all black furniture,  that was mildly contemporary.  It was a full set and an awesome price,  I want to say $175?
We were very happy with our little set for the first few years of marriage. After a while I realized I hated the black!  So what’s a girl to do ?
Time for a trip to Home Depot.

Guess what it’s LAMINATE, and YES you can paint it.

First step:  Scuff it up using sandpaper.  You do NOT need to take off the entire finish,  just make it so it is not glossy!

Step two:  Use a decent primer. I used this.  I have no complaints.

Step three:  Top coat.

With this particular project I did more than just painting. ..
I wanted to change the look of the bed completely,  I was going to change it from contemporary, to a clean cottage look.

I  first measured the openings and cut out bead board  to fit the openings.

I used liquid nails to set the newly cut bead boards panels in place.

 

After  all of the edges had dried I was able to add a final coat of paint to hide the caulk lines.

ga(‘create’, ‘UA-42131831-1’, ‘sewingandsanding.blogspot.com’);
ga(‘send’, ‘pageview’);