Okay okay okay okay I admit, this took FAR TOO LONG. But that's all in the past. Let's focus on this present moment (beautiful moment) where I give to you the fruits of my labor, at long last, THE JP NOOKS BEDROOM! Let's start things off with an "After" shall we?
Yay! Pretty! But you may be saying, "Okay HausWitch but its been so damn long I don't even remember what it looked like before!" Okay! Here you go:
before!
More? Sure!
So there you have it. A year and $400 later. They up-ed the budget majorly for this room so that was a lot of fun. But you know what wasn't? The big, poorly patched, seam in the wall above the bed where a sky light used to be.
Yikes! I really really wanted to do something to cover this up since that wall is such a big focal point when you walk in the room. Of course its also a large, slanted wall so my options were pretty limited. So, we agreed that they should paint and get a new dresser for Jackie (outside the budget) since hers was barely functional anymore and then I'd get started. Time went by... busy schedule... summer... all of the things... In the meantime I thought about this seam. I thought and thought and thought about this seam. I agonized over this seam. I got a little scared of it. I started resenting it. I got angry at it and wanted nothing to do with it anymore. Things got dark... Eventually I settled on a solution. A canopy!! I brought the canopy idea to JAZ and Jackie said, "like a princess canopy?" I was all set to go back to drawing board since princesses don't typically have such a good rep amongst people with graduate degrees in gender studies, but instead I said, "Yeah, like a woodsy, witchy, princess canopy." and she was super into it and so DONE. Except not really because this wall is about 144 square feet and fabric is expensive. To cover such a big space and stay within the budget I ended up buying one sheer, gauzy, glittery white panel of fabric for $20 (I think it was 4 yards or so) to go in the middle and a set of the IKEA Vivan sheer white curtain panels (set of two for $10!!!) to put on either side. Then I went to the hardware store and bought 24 feet of skinny wood planks to mount the fabric to at the top and bottom so it could be hung. Hanging it was a bear but I think it came out pretty nice:
After that, the rest was a cinch. Jackie and Liz painted the room a pretty shade of light grey, bought the Malm dresser to replace Jackie's old one, and I went shopping. My shopping list was: new bedding, new lamps and baskets for the nightstands, new rug, blackout curtains so Jackie can use this room as a darkroom, something to throw clothes on that isn't the bed or floor, and anything else that might cozy it up. Liz's favorite photograph of Jackie's was the main inspiration for the room. So I bought a new frame for it and re-hung it above her dresser.
The new bedding was from West Elm and we were able to get it during some sort of bedding promotion so it was $100. Perf. I figured that the nightstand lamps would be the next biggest focal points so I took my time picking those out. Ultimately, I kept going back to these from Target even though they were a little more than I wanted to spend. But they were just so "witch-who-just-got-out-of-her-small-boat-who's-now-walking-through-the-forest-with-a-lantern" that they were perfect. AMIRIGHT? I wish I could've gotten a couple of those fancy old-timey lightbulbs for them but it just wasn't in the budget.
Those baskets were from Home Goods and despite my obsession with dip-dying I did not have to do anything to these baskets. They came that way and I think they're lovely. I did however totally dip-dye the pillow on the bed. This is one of my favorite things actually because it was a total "hail Mary". I was down to the wire on time and still neeeeeeded a new throw pillow for the bed. I wanted a bolster and I wanted something with purple to tie in the rug. But I just didn't find anything that I liked. At the last minute, at the end of a long day, I stumbled into Home Goods thinking, "maybe there will just be something natural and plain that I can do something to with dye..." and miraculously, exactly that appeared and it was on clearance for $12.99 and I already had the dye so the rest is history:
I topped it all off with some DIY mercury glass that I made with $6 worth of glass from Goodwill and this tutorial
(so easy, so cheap, you should srsly do it), one of those great IKEA IVAR ladder-like things, and a new desk for Jackie's enlarger and darkroom supplies.
Oh man that was a lot. But it was a year's worth of HausWitch-ing and I felt a lot of feelings about this room. Here's how the budget broke down:
- $20 Sparkle fabric (4 yards)
- $10 Curtain panels (canopy)
- $12 Canopy hardware
- $50 Nightstand Lamps
- $100 West Elm Bedding
- $18 Laiva desk
- $10 Photo Frame (Michaels)
- $20 White sheers (for windows)
- $20 Blackout Curtains
- $20 Curtain Hardware
- $15 Ladder clothes rack
- $3 Curtain tie-backs (from the Dollar Store, wha what?!)
- $20 Rug
- $30 Baskets
- $13 Pillow
- $20 Throw blanket
- $6 Glassware
- $15 Krylon Looking Glass spray paint
Total: $402.00
So there you have it. The moon is in Sagittarius and you should do what the witches say and "Wish on the New Moon" on Wednesday.
xoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxo
