The Pillow Fabrics: These were some awesome fabrics we found in this little shop ("The Cotton Patch") in the boonies in some town in south MS. I say little, but really, this place was a cluster of buildings and sheds, out in the middle of some rural area, and each building was packed so tight (both of fabric and people, it was obvious that this place was profitable!) it was hard to move around. SO much better than the terrible selection at Hancock's and the other places in Jackson.
The Prints: It was a pain finding something that wouldn't clash too horribly with the rather obviously American-Colonial antique style, while also admitting that this house is being used in the modern day. Michael's failed to have any sort of non-modern botanical prints, so I thought these worked out. The birds are ridiculously cute, anyway.
The somewhat finished corner of the room. That's all of Will's old toys and stuffed animals on top of the armoire (and imagine that in a terribly finished rusty red, and there you have the before picture). The armoire is "Shark Loop" by Valspar, which turned out a bit too crisp and fresh-looking, so I wiped a Fruitwood stain over it to give it a bit of a patina. Please don't notice, but it isn't entirely done... either with paint or stain... The lamp is granddaddy's. I used some Valspar spraypaint (Lowe's is like right across the highway, yay convenience) to bring it back to life - it used to be goldish and very ugly. It still needs a new shade, and we're trying to find a barrel shade of the right type, which will be covered in the owl print. The painting is a watercolor that Will did at some point of a snake. Don't ask me why he picked a snake, god knows we never had any. Bedding is all new, courtesy of Belk's and BB&B. In case you're wondering, this is the third floor of a house with a gambrel (?) roof, so that wall is slanted, as is the wall opposite. This room still lacks another new fabric (looking for a taupe-ish linen!) for curtains and a bed skirt so we can hide all that crap under the bed. Yes, that's a record player under there. How can you throw those out if they still work?!
And now we get into the unfinished bits. The door to the left is the central stairwell, my back is to the front wall. Middle door is closet, right is bathroom. The whole wall is real, stained, very dark wood, with NO WAY TO BREAK IT UP other than putting things in front of it.
The desk used to be a secretary desk from my Dad's medical office, part of the bunch of furniture he inherited from the old fellow he bought his practice from way back in the day. At some point, he'd painted this an eggshell blue - EGGSHELL! It looked nasty and filthy, like it had collected a lifetime of body filth in its eggshell finish. Which it had. Not to mention how at that point in time, I really wanted these little wood cutouts of a heart and a goose on the front panel there. Which I then drew on in pen. Hey, I was very young. Well, I've gotten complaints that the color didn't change much, and it really didn't, but I stripped the paint off the top, stained, poly'd, and put some semi-gloss blue all over the rest (it's actually two-tone, but I don't think I made it contrast enough. /sigh.) At least it looks fresh now. The new knobs are frosted glass globes from Hobby Lobby.
The stool used to be a rusty maroon, even darker than the dresser, and VERY distressed with age, and the seat was matching dirty vinyl. After taking the whole thing apart (the legs have to come off to get to the seat fabric, wtf?) and spray painting, it now looks like this! Oh, and there's some extra, as-of-yet-uncovered pillows. And my lappitytop. Say hi!
The REALLY unfinished portion of the room. This is the front wall, again on a slant. The plywood used to sit on top of the other (dismantled) twin bed, because it was a rope-type bed and would sag. This may actually get put in the attic proper here soon. There's also parts of the ping pong table in here, and then the old, saggy typewriter desk that I would really like to say bye-bye to. And then the other random clutter that hasn't been figured out yet. In the corner there on the left is a Kermit the Frog wall hanging from the 80s, done in shaggy yarn, by my un-crafty mother herself. Way to go. Yeah, can't figure out what to do with that one either. And that's what the existing curtains look like. Very, very, very boring.
Whee, workspace! The ridiculously cute owls fabric (you should have heard me squeal in the fabric store, omg) and one of the pillows I slipcovered over. This is a rather dirty thing. My mother informed me that she actually made the pillow. Didn't know that. It's still ....really dirty. Can't tell now!
And up on the list for things to happen later: a built-in bookshelf system, to house all the extra booky things that don't quite fit in anywhere else. Like ALL the kids' books that I can't bear to toss out. This will go on the wall between the armoire and the front wall.
Pardon my lack of awesomness in the monologue. It's morning, I'm sleepy, and technically avoiding going to class/studying. So naughty.
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