2011 Room tour!

I’ve been looking forward to sharing my bedroom tour for a little while now. My attempt was to make it less teenager-like, since you may know I’m a very sophisticated and mature college student these days. Except I ended up painting my desk pink and put a kitty pillow on a bed, so that worked… well.

I really wanted to change things up from my last room(well, I rearranged and added this wall several months later) without breaking the bank. I’m only going to be living here for six more months, so I didn’t want to invest in a lot of pieces and I was happy to be able to redecorate within a reasonable budget.

So let’s go on a tour!

First is my bed. The quilt is from an antique mall near Yakima, WA. It’s the softest quilt in the world and for $35, it was quite the steal. I’m excited to use it in my homes for the rest of my life. The kitten pillow was made for me by friend Brenna and the pillowcase was stolen from my mom’s linen drawers.

That cross-stitch tray had me squealing in Goodwill and then I squealed some more when I saw it was a $1. I hot glued two paper clips to back so I had something to hang it with. I use some American Crafts glitter Thickers I had on hand to spell out “sweet dreams” above it.

I decided to pull my dresser out of the closet where it had previously lived to give the lovin’ it deserved. And, say hello, to Kara’s hair in mirror. Hello!

To those who don’t know, I painted my dresser my senior year of high school white and then hand drew on the lettering. The secrets drawer is underwear/bras, twirl is skirts, yaypants is pants, and lazy is all my lazy clothes and pajamas. Three of the knobs are from Anthropologie and one was a gift from my friend Rhi.

All the things on top of the dresser you probably recognize. The pastry deck thing was from Goodwill that I spray painted yellow, the white pedestal was a gift from my mom, the pink bowl was from Anthroplogie, and the glass earring holder was from the dollar store.

I display my necklaces with small nails straight into the wall. The mirror was also from Goodwill that I spray painted yellow.

Moving over to the wall is one my new favorite organizing things! I had this large plywood Tolkein quote wall thing(inspired by Mandi) that I wasn’t ready to part with, but sort of tired of seeing everyday. I decided to flip it around and organize my to-do lists by project on them.

This system has been working really well for me. I print off the papers(Pacifico font), and use artist tape to secure them. Having them right in front of me helps and I like the organization by project. That way I can pick a day to work one thing and stay focused.

I machine sewed the American Crafts glitter thickers to this piece of lace, put two tiny nails in the wood, and used binder clips to hold up the banner.

And now my very favorite corner!

I got bored with my old desk and decided to face-lift it with some bright pink. I used the shade Amber Rose by Valspar.  The Lowes guy recommended using the floor and deck paint to make it more durable.  I used two coats of primer and three coats of the pink. For the quart sized primer and paint it was $20. Which was more than the $15 I spent on the desk several years ago from a thrift store.

Another frugal favorite of my desk area is those shelves(right image). I had these subtle, wire wall shelves in my head that I couldn’t find anywhere. It dawned on me that I was looking for something a store supply store would have. Luckily, there is this great(and weird) store supply store in Nampa, Idaho called the Farm Store where they have things like 8 dollar overalls and a room full of disembodied mannequins.

I had to hunt these down in the backroom, but they were $1.50 each. My dad helped me screw them into the wall.

Resources: German cuckoo clock from a White Elephant gift exchange(I believe they got it when they were in Germany), sweater cat print from Paper Sparrow, God is Love bookmark thrifted, Pink girl print from Danny Brito,  Wuthering Heights copy gift, Chinese cat gifted by Danielle, two Kim Smith prints, and the large yarn painting was from the Brass Razoo.

That cup is the source of my new Russell Wright obsession. The color! The design! Ah! The mini book was created by me for my Life Story class.

Sigh. This whole little desk area makes me happy.

Resources: Agnes print by Ashley G, thrifted Fiddler on the Roof record, vintage doily, glass thing from Pattycakes Vintage, assorted old books, vintage embroidery, Rhi zines, Anthropologie plate, and Little Otsu planners.

That plastic baby makes me really uncomfortably happy. My mom bought them somewhere for a children’s Sunday School craft and I asked if I could have it. That mini book on top was made for me a few years ago by Mandi.

And, can we all just swoon over that aqua chair? I had been searching at every thrift store in the Valley for a reasonably priced desk chair and freaked out when I found this. Kip told me about the Youth Ranch outlet store on Orchard and Irving in Boise. If you’ve ever been to the “Bins” in Portland, this is the Youth Ranch equivalent of it. It’s gross and dirty and you dig through huge bins of crap to hopefully find a treasure or two. Each piece of clothing is $.50 and all the housewares and junk is pay by the pound. They have quite a bit of junky furniture outside, couches are like $5-10 and each chair is a $1. I found a few chairs I didn’t mind outside, but was wandering around inside to see what I could find when I saw this beauty. It was a school chair with the desk top still attached.

Currently I’m waiting for a commenter to freak out on me about removing the desk ledge. But, hear me out. Yes, it was absolutely fantastic as a school chair, but it’s not really practical. I won’t have a house big enough to use it just to look at it, so I asked my dad to remove it so I can use it for a chair. And, it rocks. So don’t hate.

And, alas, my window seat. I had used it to display a bunch of books, but got bored it so I modified it some.

The typewriter is another thrift store find. I loved the font, so that why I got it.

I also wanted to have my favorite mini-books, art journals, and scrapbook pages within grabbing distance. Ah, paper makes me happy.

And some peaks in my closet. (Link to another shot).

Glasses organization. A folded vintage hanky over glitter ribbon:

And my instant photo repository:

With a pretty Ashley G raindrop from Rhi too.

And, there you have it! Thanks for reading and listening to me brag about my thrift store deals.