Marvelous Master Bedroom Makeover

Farmhouse Bedroom   

Before & After

The Before...

After a year of living in our 1859 house in Minnesota and living with lighting coming in and out of the bedroom, we finally decided we could live without a west-facing window since there is ample amount of light coming in through the other 3 windows.  One window had to be blocked since there is no wall big enough for our bed without doing so.

There were a few issues with the room we needed to solve:

1.  No wall big enough for a bed without blocking a window or door.
2.  Not seeing directly under the bed when walking in.  We hide the 2 giant dog beds under there during the day.
3.  Personality!!! HELP!

To the left, you can see the view as you would walk up the stairs...Right under our bed!

This was the room before.  It has beautiful woodwork around the windows but I didn't really want to cover it up and didn't need curtains for privacy since we had blinds.

Before:  As you can see in this panoramic photo, the window behind the bed looked weird and the room just looked incomplete.  We had a beautiful bed to work with and wanted that to be our main focal point in the room and needed to have some color in the room but keep it light and airy!

 After asking a reader question on Remodelaholics Facebook page, I got some feedback and came up with a game plan.

We have a big Graduation party in less than a month so I didn't have time to repaint the whole room, so I left the soft butter color on the walls and white woodwork.

Our beautiful, reclaimed wood bed got moved from the left wall to the right wall in front of the window.  A nightstand on each side (I can't live without one and neither can Scott)  I replaced the grey flannel duvet with a white tapestry duvet.

I found curtain panels in the soft teal color I was looking for.  I hung them behind the bed to cover the window since our headboard is so high only about 1/4 of the window was visible.

The dresser got moved to the opposite wall.  This dresser will eventually get painted or replaced but no time to do that right now!

I moved my reclaimed wooden shelf, my husband built me from wood out of my Aunt Terri's old farm, over the dresser and placed some of my favorite things on it!  I used old bottles to hold my bracelets and some of my favorite canoeing hats.

I topped it off with an old window with a saying written on it with a dry erase marker.

I decided to do the other three windows different than the curtain behind the bed.  I felt it would get too heavy in the room with the dark curtains so I went with white sheers and hung them just above the woodwork with rot iron rods.  Simple and elegant and the beautiful woodwork can still be seen.

I had an old mirror we weren't using so I put it under my husbands cologne and a strip of burlap as a runner.

















A cute little light blue chair I had repainted and a basket with some extra blankets and pillows got placed at the foot of the bed.

I absolutely love how the room turned out and happy with how it looks with the teal curtain behind the bed.  It really brings out the colors in the headboard!

Want to see more of our 150 year old farmhouse? 

Check out our Farmhouse Kitchen Remodel

Farmhouse Kitchen Remodel

Farmhouse Kitchen Remodel

Back in May 2014, we moved into our house built in 1859.  Unfortunately, the kitchen was a 1950's eye sore and didn't match the rest of the beautiful house.  We decided the boring, flat cabinets and drop panel ceiling had to go!  Boy...did we find a hot mess hiding under it but the history of the house was revealed!

We did everything in the kitchen ourselves, with the exception of refinishing the floors.  They have survived this long...we didn't want to destroy them!

Including all new appliances we remodeled the kitchen for under $5,000!  

Before

A lot had to happen in this kitchen to make it functional again!  4 layers of ceiling had to come down...a drop ceiling, leftover ceiling tiles, oil cloth and the lath and plaster.  Whew!  

And here it is...Almost all finished...

We just couldn't wait to show it off!

After

The floors were buried under 5 layers of linoleum and inlaid hardwood floors were found!  

We torn down the upper cabinets and replaced them with open shelves.  The lower cabinets were used but we added wood to the fronts and replaced the hardware.  We also added the two smaller cabinets next to the stove.  Since they are different we decided to feature them in red.  

The color of kitchen was determined by the original color we found on some oilcloth from the original walls.  We fell in love with the color immediately!

We still have a few more projects to work to work on, so stay tuned for the railroad cart island, the pantry with a few unique twists and a surprise stairway to nowhere turned into something fun!

 

So...what happened to the floors?  Many moons ago, the floors that were hiding were covered up.  After 5 layers of linoleum and underlayment were taken up...this is what we found!   Beautiful inlaid hardwood floors that match one of the bedrooms on the main floor.  In the background you can see the other amazing inlaid patterns in the dining room and living room.    The only thing we didn't do in the kitchen was refinish the floors.  With the top nailed floors, we didn't want to take the chance of ruining them with sanding.  

It all paid off!

How could you ever cover up this amazing woodwork!

The picture below shows the one main stain on the floor.  I guess after 150 years, there is plenty of character in this floor.  We believe they had a linoleum "Rug" in this area and it must have gotten wet under it.  We found some odd, large patterned linoleum in this area when tearing up the floors.

 

Here is a sneak peek at our next project...the island made from a factory cart we found.  Scott is building a beautiful top for it.  Watch for the reveal, coming soon!

Quirky Farmhouse Pantry

Quirky Farmhouse Pantry

With our newly remodeled Farmhouse kitchen almost finished it is down to the little touches.  Among them was our little pantry, which I will admit...I was not in love with!  

Now...I am in LOVE!

Many years ago, the pantry was created by taking some of the porch to make a small 4x4 area.  Along the way, someone put linoleum over the plywood and lined it with cedar.  

This dark, dungeon of a space was just not working for us!  But...fear not...I had a vision.  Ok...inspiration from Pinterest!

First thing first...

Light!  

Before Photo of the Pantry...Dark!

Then I removed all the shelving and started painting the cedar with a primer and then white semigloss paint for easy washing.  And then...I put the shelves and everything back in.  

With 4 kids at home, this process had to be done quickly so no one starved to death!

Now...I would recommend this next step be done before the shelves get put back in but because of the risk of starvation, as mentioned above we did it after the shelves were back in...making it back breaking work.

We glued the pennies, down to the plywood and then grouted over them.  We used liquid nails in a squeezable tube form instead of caulk gun.  This was personal preference.  I found the caulk gun too messy.

We chose to mix the heads and tails of the pennies but you can do anything you want with them.

For the Screen door...I was so excited, I forgot to take pictures.  We had to made a custom sized door since it was only 23 inches wide, but you can buy a basic wooden screen door at most home improvement stores for about $20.00 and then add the fun details to it.

 

An old bent fork was added for the handle....

And Red Paint...

Now...the pantry is more like a work of art than a boring, hidden closet!

If you missed the Before and After pictures of our newly remodeled Farmhouse kitchen, 

check them out ...

Join the Party!

Hi everyone...

Its been so busy around our house I've taken a break from blogging but I'm still sharing my creative adventures on my Facebook page.

Please come like Through My Creative Mind on Facebook to see what I have been up to!  Also,  see the progress on our kitchen and 1859 house!

Through My Creative Mind Facebook page

Here are a few pics as a sneak peek of the new kitchen!