I assumed I would make another fabric headboard, and sold my queensize one on VarageSale. But my husband expressed interest in something heavy and wood and solid - something "viking."
I didn't know what a viking headboard would look like - but it's fun for me to take my husband's input because he rarely expresses household opinions. So I started searching and discovered two things:
1. A lot queen headboards. Beautiful old full size options. Some cute twins. Very few King size in the online resale or thrift stores.
2. If you do find a wood king headboard online, it's ugly and very expensive.
My hubby needed to go to chicago for passport renewals so I took the liberty of looking there. And I found one that fit the bill. Close to where Sylvain would be, solid wood, good price, good name brand (Horchow) and available. I didn't think it would happen but Sylvain strapped it to the van roof and made it through a blizzard for me. (How very nice of him... I don't think he had tender thoughts of his love gift to me while driving though)
I mixed paint though and thought I had a gray. Gray is neutral, it's okay if it's dark right? Thus I told myself when the colors mixed were not the aforementioned pale.
Well, in addition to dark, the shade turned out more of a drab sage green.
And I can tell you a few things that occasionally pop up in my cooking, house decore, and friendships.
1. As I mixed in green to avoid the pink hue to the gray, I told myself "Go slow, add a bit at a time, stir and check" - and then I was exasperated at myself so for spite I dumped the whole green can in at once. Because when I'm crunched for time I feel less patient with the pressure of doing things properly. In friendships it might be, "trend gently, you don't wear their shoes" and then I just throw that wholesomeness out the window and embrace "just dump - I'm so tired of walking gently through life, this is my friend, surely I can just flop my heavy weight down and let them bare the load of my initial impulse and we'll sort out what is good and true together and let the rest slide"
by the way - not helpful for either paint mixing or friendships.
in cooking its actually not helpful either. Pancakes might more or less be pancakes every time but there is a big difference between the loving intentional - measured - blends and the banged together ingredients.
2. "Well," I patronizingly explained to myself, "That was too much so now you must wait another day, go get a sample paint of pink, and balance out again."
But of course that annoyed me too. So instead I stayed up late into the night painting. And in the dim light told myself that it was gray. And then when the afternoon sun reviled that it was nothing like my original vision I kept painting anyway.I'm stubborn and creative. So when I bump into an issue - like the wrong shade of paint, I change my vision and embrace a new one. This happens with friends and food too - I might have been going for encouraging and it turns into a sorting session. Or I might have been going for a pretty meat dish and it becomes a soup base.
The lamps I am very pleased with. I had a $20 gift card from the overstock store where we got our mattress. So I used it towards these lamps, which ended up being $10 each since I had a gift card. Just enough bling and function and size, with still a calm simple grown up look.
I picked up this end table for $7 at Salvation Army. It's 70s and I thought I'd paint it, but if my wall is a color I don't need to paint the furniture. If I had my white or pale gray wall maybe I would have. So, maybe in the future there will be a blog post titled "finally doing what I should have done the first time" because sometimes something stuck in my mind just wont rest until it has been crossed out. Below is my free yellow couch that I quiet like. My husbands favorite chess set. My bronze trash can that works as a second table as well as holding soiled diapers, and my black throw pillows that I've had since I was in college. I really do like this nook of our bedroom. If a boy comes up at night to sleep with mommy and daddy they get the couch. Or a sick kid can have the couch. It's useful to have in the bedroom. And much cuter than the blank space it was when we bought the home (see below)
Because the room felt a bit masculine I wanted to try wallpaper, but without the price of wallpaper. So I bought a $3 bird stencil. But I'm not good at clean lines with a stencil. So I used it as a guideline and sort of free-handed a wall of birds and branches. I don't know if I love it but at least I got to try it out. And I don't mind it. And it was something I wanted to do.
I had a dresser that we shared that I bought for $30 years ago that we shared. But my goal for this bedroom was a grown-up space. So, I sold it for $160 and bought these two for $160 instead. That way we both had our own dresser. I'm very happy with these two $80 dressers. (Actually it was a bedroom set for $220 but I sold the headboard for $60 so it brought these down to $80 each. They're nicely made and I decided not to paint them either. I'm getting more and more into wood. As long as its not too beat up. But every room needs one painted piece. That ought to be my desk.)
I'm happy with my dressers, happy enough with my wall, happy with how inviting my bathtub looks. I'd like to style the dressers better eventually but for now, it's a grown up space.
The trick to having a stencil or something painted on the wall is to outline it. Usually I'm a big fan of sharpies but this time I used a pencil.
This is the before photo again - how the room looked when we bought the house
this is how it looked with my handmade headboard - which I loved the scale and it fit perfectly. Scale makes me very happy.
This is the bedroom now - somewhat more solid and grown-up. I can't say that everything is exactly what I would choose, but I'm very satisfied with how it turned out for what I had to work with. It's a calm, inviting, adult area with a big bed that is viking enough? A few minor finished to come, but, good enough for now.
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