Welcome to Our Peaceful Place

Hello! So glad you could join us today. Isn't the scene refreshing?

Let's remember just where we came from:

Um. Yah. Confession time. One day, while in the middle of the dreaded sanding job, I decided to snap some before pictures of every room in my house that I wanted to change. And being the crazy impatient being that I am, I didn't even bother to clean any of them. My idea was that way the before and after would look even more dramatic. I think I need to go take some better shots! And yes, Girly-Lou is in love with paper. Every little thing she receives, every handout, every picture is a treasure and needs to be on the wall. Not so fun for me, but there you have it.

Anyway. Back to the room.

It's done! DONE!!! I've known what I wanted to do with this room for 14 months now. Really ever since we moved in. But I waited for two reasons. First, being pregnant with my third child, I didn't know if the girl room would be this larger room, or the smaller one. Second, funds were a bit low for decorating. But the first reason sounds better, so we'll stick with that.

Then 9 months ago, 'Lil was born. I knew which room to work on! Hubby got a pretty decent raise, and I started compiling.

Speaking of which, let's do a thorough breakdown (thorough because I get frustrated when people to breakdowns and leave stuff out!)

Paint: Not much to talk about the actual process. I did use the green frog tape instead of the blue, and it is a LOT better at keeping out leaks. There are 4 different colors in the room, all by Behr.

• White is New Day Dew, 1 gal ($22) + 1 qt ($15)
• Light pink is Shy Little Piglet, 1 qt ($11)
• Dark Pink is Snow White Song, 1 qt ($11)
• Green is kind of Friendly Frog, 1 gal ($23) *The real color was WAY too bright. So I grabbed my 1 qt paint cup, measured out about 1 TBSP of new day dew to every 4 oz friendly frog. That made the color much more reasonable!
• Tape, brushes, etc, $15

Paint total: $97 (paint is WAY more money that I always think!)

Quilts:

• Fabric $85
• Batting, $20
• Thread, $10

Quilt total: $115

I used THIS tutorial for the pattern, THIS tutorial and THAT to make bias tape, THIS tutorial for the actual binding. I also machine quilted for the very first time. If you want any tips for first time quilters, I found THIS site to be the most helpful. They won't win any awards, but I love how the quilts turned out! I don't know if you noticed, but Girly-Lou's has more pink, and 'Lil's has more green. And I even quilted their names in while doing the machine quilting.

Pillows:

• forms: from old pillows already had, free
• white fabric: 50 cents worth of thrift store pillow cases
• other fabric, from quilts

Total: $.50


Dresser:

• Actual piece, Free
• Paint (counted above)
• Knobs $20

Dresser total: $20
You might remember this one from months ago when I blogged about it.

Names etc.

• Letters: $4.50, painted white
• flowers and butterflies, scraps from quilt

Total: $4.50

I really wanted to do wood letters in this room. But have you ever priced those things? CRAZY! Then, one day I was wondering around our Michael's. They had these foam letters on clearance for only 50 cents each! SOLD! They were crazy colors, but 4 coats of paint (grumble grumble) later, I was happy with them. Attaching them to the wall was an adventure. I wanted to do a cute hanging something or other, but everything I tried just looked really lame. Finally, in desperation, I stuck a finishing nail in the back of the foam, and then nailed it in. Loved it!

This corner:

Before:
Now:

• Paint included above
• Fabric shapes, extra from quilts
• Clock, actually a wedding present

Total: Free

That tree. Wow. What a process. I first saw THIS months ago, and fell in love. It would have been a fairly easy process, but I didn't have an overhead projector. So instead, it literally took me 5 1/2 hours to get the silly thing on the wall. It only took a couple of hours to actually paint it!
The birds are from here and here, just dipped in liquid starch and stuck up on the wall.

This corner:

• Mirror, another wedding present, painted white with circles starched on top.
• Flower pegs: $2 from a thrift store, painted white

Total: $2

Window:

• Curtains, came with the house (but in another room) Free
• Ties: left over from quilts

Total: free

Closet:

Before:


Now:

• Remove nasty old doors, free
• Wing back chair: craigslist find $10
• Boxes above, scrounged from around the house, free

Total: $10


Rain gutter Book shelves:

• Rain gutters: $6.50
• Brackets: $10
• End caps $10

Total: $26.50
I used THIS tutorial, but I totally forgot to pick up the end caps. Joys of shopping with three little people! So that will come in a few more days. But I still love them!

Bunk bed:

• Um. I'm not sure. My Father in Law wanted to pay for everything, and we made 4 trips to the store to get everything, and every time we went he also decided we needed $60 worth of clamps, or knee pads, or whatever. I think for wood was $250-$275.

Total: Free (for me! Really around $300)
Off course this is a Knock Off Wood pattern. I didn't like the ladder, so I spent a lot of time looking at dimensions online, and made up my own. Actually making the bed went super fast. Sanding and painting on the other hand . . . . Well. It's done now!

Grand Total: $275.50 (or $575, depending on how you're counting.

I'm very happy with how it all turned out. There are still a few things I'd like to change. I'd like some different curtains, I'd love to make a magnet board for Girly-Lou to put all her papers on, the blinds need replacing. If I had money out my ears, I'd refinish the floors, get a new rug, and a really cute light fixture. But we're good for now.

And Buddy's happy because now I get to work on his room next!

Thrifty Decor Chick