Master Bedroom Retreat!

I am so happy to say the master bedroom is finally finished! I have so many photos and ideas to share with you! I will try to share as many prices and stores as I can remember too!

Those of you who are following the re-decorating of our home know that I had already decorated the master bedroom, but it was thrown together in a matter of weeks and not done in the style we now love. It looked nice, but it definitely was not what we wanted.

This is what the room was decorated like before. We were just so excited to be homeowners that we decorated really fast and didn't really have a plan. We wallpapered, used the bed and night stands we already had, and threw some bedding and pillows together! (You can read about removing wallpaper here.)

And...drum roll please!...........

This is what is looks like now! What a HUGE transformation right!? The room has this wonderful fresh, bright, and airy feel everytime you walk in! I love it sooooo much!

Here is a before and after from the day we moved in to now.

The color we painted the room with is Behr's Porpoise Grey.

We originally bought this platform bed 4 years ago from The Room Store. If you remember from the photo above, it was a very dark espresso color. I painted it white and distressed the edges for a more beachy/cottage look. I fell in love with it when we orignally bought it, but over the years had started to not love the dark color. This was such a great way to give it new life and fall in love with it all over again!

I did the same thing to the night stands. This saved us a TON of money! A gallon of paint costs $20 where as a new bed and night stands can cost thousands! You can read about the transformation of the night stands here.

I styled my husbands night stand with a sand timer (representing the subtle beach theme) and a W (for our last name Wisdom) mod podged with a copy of our wedding certificate. I was so excited to incorporate things that had meaning to us in our master bedroom. This W is just a $2 cardboard 3-D letter from Hobby Lobby and I then made a copy of our wedding certificate, layed the W on top and traced around it. You have to play with where you want the cert. centered on your letter to make sure to get the words in that you want. Then I layed the cert. on top of the W and painted mod podge all over and waited for it to dry!

I styled my night stand with a clear glass vase of faux flowers (I always do this in every room), and a weathered sign that says 'Barefoot at the Beach'. The sign was only $7 at Home Goods.

I like symmetry in a bedroom so I used the same nightstands, lamps, and picture frames on each side of the bed. The lamps are a dark wood base with a burlap shade. Only $29.99 each at Home Goods. The picture frames were $15 at Marhsalls and in them I put black and white photos of beachy vacations my husband and I have taken together. I also placed a small grey basket under each night stand to bring in color and texture. $12 at Marshalls.

Here is our new dresser! Ok I feel really sad because I bought this dresser on craigslist for only $60 and it was in bad shape and I DIDN'T TAKE BEFORE PHOTOS! I was too excited to get started on re-finishing it that I totally forgot! I really wish I could share it with you because it is such a HUGE transformation! It was a light wood color with old rusted gold hardware, dinged, scratched, you name it! I removed the old hardware, sanded it down and painted it this beautiful MINT color! After the paint was dry I rubbed it with black stain to give it a warn look and sanded the edges. I added new hardware from Target (they sell hardware in packs for only $19.99)! It is so beautiful now and I love knowing that I recycled something! Plus I am obsessed with this MINT color!

I styled the dresser with a vase of faux flowers (yes, another one), a photo of my little family ($5 Marshalls), some old books I had laying around, 2 candle holders ($7 Ross) and a wooden ball ($7 Kirkland Home). You can see how I played with layering and height. I like to make sure everything varies in height and groups together well. I started with about 20 random items around the house and played with them until I got this! **The wooden ball was marked $15 at Kirkland home, but it had  a few wood peices that were broken off, I asked the cashier if they would do a discount and they said yes!! Plus is was on sale so I got it for $7!! Don't be afraid to ask for a discount people! It works everytime!! Plus no one will ever see the broken spots because of the way I placed it!

I also added this cute metal starfish to add to my beachy theme. It was on the clearance isle at Hobby Lobby for $3!!!

Above the dresser I wanted to use mirrors. I already had these 2 and while I didn't know if the style was right for the room, I didn't really want to spend the money on new ones! So I tried them and they worked! I love the juxtapostion of the beachy/cottage feel and the clean glamour look of the mirrors. And besides, it's my bedroom so I can do with it what I want! No design rules here!

Above the bathroom door we have had this sign up for 3 years and I still love it so we left it there! "Always Kiss Me Goodnight" Such a great saying and we stay true to it every night!

This is the new ceiling fan my hubby installed for me! It is from Lowe's and part of the Hunter collection. It was only $139! The blades are crackled on one side and dark wood on the other. I liked the dark wood side. It helps to tie in with the dark wood lamp bases. This fan also blows around some crazy air flow! And here in Texas we need it!

This is a rug we found at Garden Ridge, 8x10 for only $99! YES PEOPLE I SAID $99!! They are starting to carry some really great modern patterns for less!

On the wall opposite the bed, we put up paneling. This one is called Mt. Vernon Weathered Pine. It has a white/grey wash look to it and adds to our beach theme! We topped it off with some white trim. The boards are 8X4 and $15 each. It is such an easy, inexpensive way to add character to a plain wall.

Above the paneling I wanted to hang some art. I found 3 20x20 'kids' canvases on clearance at Garden Ridge for $4.99. I went to the library to pull an Atlas and find maps of the cities where my husband and I met, got engaged, and got married. I took photos of the maps and printed them at Staples. You can get large 3'X4' engineer prints for only $3! I cut them to size and glued them down to the canvases. From there I used white rope to draw a heart around each city and hot glued it on top. Now we have a map of Pullman, WA where we met, Cozumel, Mexico where we got engaged, and Oregon City, OR where we got married. I love them! Such a great way to add art with meaning.

Here is the overall look. I may add an accent chair in the future if I stumble across one, but for now it looks great!

On the bed I wanted those MR. and MRS. pillows that Ballard Designs sells, but they are $60 each! So, I bought these burlap pillows for $19 each, printed the words MR. and MRS. on cardstock, cut the letters out and used the stencil to paint the letters on the pillows! They turned out great and for a fraction of the cost! The king duvet cover is from Home Goods for $30.00! And I am not a big fan of king size pillows so I just sewed a straight stitch along each pillow case to make them standard size! The stripe shams were $30 at Home Goods.

Above the bed I took 2 old ugly framed peices of leaf art, .25 each on clearance at Garden Ridge! CRAZY right!?!? I painted the frames black and had the lyrics to our wedding song printed at a local print shop (like Office Max) for $2 each onto brown 12x12 scrapbook paper. I glued them inside each frame and voila! If you're wondering what the song is, it's "Memories of Us" by Keith Urban!

This curtain rod is a distressed white rod from Lowes. $40. And the curtains are premade white panels from IKEA $19.99/pair. I cut the tops off and sewed in a stripe seersucker, then sewed the tops back on. I did this to add length, color, and texture. They look custom made now and match the room prefectly. The white curtains really help to complete the airy, fresh feeling in the room!

Overall, I had so much fun decorating this room and it turned out beautifully! I love being in this room! I bargain shopped for everything and we did all of the labor ourselves saving hundreds of dollars! I hope you like it too and are inspired by one of my projects in the room!

Now it's onto the master bath!