Decorating on a Dime Winner – Atlanta Home Improvement Magazine 2012

January 16th was a very good day for me. My Guest room makeover was selected as a winner in the professional category by the Atlanta Home Improvement Magazine.

THE PLAN

It all started when Kali Mallard, editor AHIM posted on Hometalk about the contest. The minute I read the post, I told R, I wanted to do this contest. With just Just 4 days for the deadline, I quickly sketched the concept and design on a piece of paper.  My mind was racing with ideas but I had to remain calm and be organized to achieve this task. Armed with the my concept sheet I went shopping at Lowes and bought all my initial supplies based on my rough sketch. I spent a couple of hours and picked colors that would coordinate the existing wall color.

THE DESIGN

I wanted the room to have a calm and soothing effect with a bit of eclecticism and still have a boutique hotel feel. I had the dresser that I had picked on craiglist and for a long time I couldn’t figure what to do with it. After the colors for the room was finalized, I decided to paint it a dark deep blue grey and distress it. I kept the dresser drawers as is to create that contrast I needed.

The 1×4 frame that I used to frame the headboard was painted the same color and distressed to tie up the elements in the room. To see how I constructed and built the headboad, click HERE

First coat of the paint.

This is how the room looked, before I began the transformation…

I chose a calm grey to go with the blue accent wall. I taped up the room and started painting. My six year old helped a bit and was totally loving the activities that were going on in the room.

The room taped up with painters tape.

I marked the center of the room so I can place the headboard right at the center.

The bed lights had to go in next after the painting was next. I am not a pro at electrical, I can change a bulb so I got help on this one from a friend. The bed lights were on sale and matched the linen on the headboard perfectly!

Getting the lights on the wall.

Next, was to tackle the frame for the headboard, I painted it the same color as the dresser and distressed it.

In my drive way painting away!

After a bit of distressing

Nailed the frame to the headboard

DAY 2:

The bedlights were in place and the paint had dried up. I peeled the painters tape and had to tackle the stencil on the wall. I downloaded the free stencil from Lowes, printed  and laminated it  at FedEx. I cut the stencil and begain stenciling on the wall, this was my first time and I was pretty nervous and made sure I didn’t miss an inch anywhere.  I taped the wall to place the stencil perfectly in place within the squares.

Free stencil download form Lowes.com

Stencil cut out

After the stenciling, headboard in place and bed lights lit!

Art on the wall

After the stenciling was done, I had to work on the art and decide the minor details of what was going where. The octagonal side table is a thrift store pick, I simply love the bones and the pattern so I decided to keep it as is. I picked up a 3 feet white canvas board from Micheal’s and choose 2 colors for the art. Yellow and blue. I painted the entire canvas yellow, then I squeezed some blue paint and drew a rough line with a broad brush. Then I took a plastic fork and made vertical lines in different lengths on the canvas. Ta da!

Day 3

I shopped all day and it was so much fun.The occasional chair, throw Pillows and area rug I picked at TJ Max. Bed linen and bed skirt from Target.

Day 4

I spent the day putting the room together, window curtains, bed linen etc spruced and spruced again to make the place look perfect and ready for some great pictures.

 

This was so much fun, I cannot wait to get my hands on anther makeover!!!