Bedroom Redo: The Furniture

When I decided to redo the room, all I really wanted to do was provide additional sleeping spots for our growing family. I knew that would require a full size bed, but the room would be so cramped, it wouldn't be much use for anything else but sleeping. Since the room is only used for sleeping when all the kids are in town, maybe once a month, it seemed like a waste of space. I felt like a Murphy bed was the only way to go. Once I found one, I started thinking of the possibilities for the room. Then the sofa table I got at the garage sale got me thinking...I could use this room for sewing, as well as a playroom for the kids when the baby wasn't sleeping. 

The first step in the process was emptying out the room for the bed. This is kinda how it went down...

twin bed -> To Meg's house for Helena. I then needed to paint it.

ugly shelves-> to B's house for his room.

chair with a fold out bed from Meg's house ->to my house for Helena to sleep on. We already had one in our family room so now both older kids could sleep there.

rocking chair from family room->to Meg's for the nursery. Amazingly, the upholstery matched the baby room.

armoire from Meg's nursery->to our new bedroom for books.

rocking chair from B's house-> for my living room, because since I gave mine to Meg, I need a rocking chair. I'm reupholstering it now.

large tv in family room -> to living room. Since the kids would be sleeping in the family room, we needed a place for the adults to sit when the kids went to bed.

new, smaller tv-> into the family room, so I have something to watch when the kids aren't here. I like sitting back there because I can see my backyard thru all the windows.

buffet from dining room->into living room because the tv needed something under it.

table from living room->because now the dining room needed something for a blank wall, it was moved in there.

side chair in living room->to Meg's house for Eddie's office. Now that I had a rocker in there, we had to get rid of something.

chalkboard I found at a yard sale->in the living room cause I had a blank corner and it's stinkin' cute.

medicine cabinet->from the bathroom were are redoing (I promise it will happen, we just have to believe) for sewing storage.

The baby bed and the small dresser that is used for a changing table were the only things that stayed, as far as furniture goes. I did keep the rug, art work and curtains.

I (meaning Kenny) painted the room and I had a ball fixing it up. 

As I said before, I didn't like the finish on the bed. The above picture is my painting setup to paint the bed and the table. Pretty snazzy, huh? I filled the holes, primed and then painted. This required the purchase of a spray painter, which required the purchase of a new air compressor. Oh, well. Can I just say that there are no words to describe how much work this turned out to be? It was sunny and about 90 degrees. The white was so blinding that I couldn't see what I was doing. Sanding, priming, painting and painting. All. Day. Long. To add to the fun, the wind whipped up and blew my "structure" down. Luckily, I was out resting my tired self when it happened or this story would have ended much differently. My neighbor had to come over to help with the disaster relief.

I really like the look of chalk paint and had read that it's durable, just the thing for a room that will have lots of kids in it. It's kinda really expensive, though, and I'd rather spend my money on other things (like air compressors and spray painters) so I found some recipes online. The concoction I came up with included regular paint and unsanded grout. It worked great. Once it dried, I distressed it a little, and then waxed it with the cheapest wax I could find. 

I love, love, love the way it turned out. The bed is big and a whole lotta white, so I found a mirror at Old Home Supply and had Kenny screw it to the front. Soooooo happy!

Next was the cute stool that I got at a yard sale. The paint was yucky, but surely it would be easy to get off. After using all the stripper I bought for the job and then borrowing more stripper from the neighbor, all I had left was a goopy mess of old paint, and probably lead poisoning.

Sand paper was the next level of attack. The paint laughed. Then...the big guns. I bought a sand blaster. Yep, I did. Lucky we had already bought a new compressor! 50 lbs. of "sanding medium" later the stool was...still covered in paint splotches. Good thing my husband had even bigger guns. He got out his wire brush on a drill thingy. He attacked it.  Most of the paint is off now and then we decided that perhaps we liked the slightly paint chippy look. I wouldn't call it a win for the stool, just a draw.

We took the medicine cabinet out of the bathroom we want to redo (and now have to) to make some storage for my thread and stuff.

There was a can of blue spray paint in the garage that I thought would look good on the inside, but I ran out before I finished. Color candidate #2 was the apple green, so I repainted the thing and hung it on the wall.

The last thing I painted was the table and chairs. I had to prime these, too, because of the red paint on the table and the rust on the chairs. Once painted, I needed to cover the seats. I wanted fabric that was cute, but not babyish. It also needed to be gender neutral. I found some with cute pennants and laminated it. I stuck it on the seats with spray on adhesive. That was probably the easiest part.

That's it. I'll post pics of the finished room later.