Happy Colors (Part 2)

So as soon as I got home from the hospital in April after my big surgery, I did several things: (1) made an appointment for the piano to be tuned (no idea why this was so important since it hadn't been done in several years, but I really wanted it done), (2) threw out those old green dishes in preparation for new ones (which I didn't buy for 7 months), and (3) decided we were going to do some redecorating in the house. It's not our house; we rent it from the church so when we moved in 4 years ago, we pretty much left it as is. Think all neutral walls, old cabinets, old brown ceiling fans, old wooden doors, etc. We're very happy here, but it didn't exactly fit my style.

(and as always I feel I should apologize in advance for the out of focus and bad white balance in the pictures, but I'm not re-doing or editing them)

So here's our bedroom before. Boring with a capital B. I had a reason for going all neutral when we moved in. The room is about half the size of our previous bedroom, and the patterns in our bedding made me feel claustrophobic in the small room. I thought using a neutral palette would make the room would feel larger.

But when I came home from the hospital, I decided I needed happy, happy colors. We took down the bedframe, bought an old door, painted it and hung it on our wall as a headboard. Removing the footboard gave us an extra foot or two at the end of the bed.

I bought all white bedding and white curtains, then bought fabric in bright colors to make pillows.

And we've added this pillow since I took the pictures. My mom sewed the pillow and made that cute fabric flower.

She's also responsible for these cute fabric flowers on the lampshade.

We used our pictures from Angela Crutcher as decorations for the room.

I ordered a few prints off Etsy and framed them (print 1 and print 2). I really wanted to paint the frames, but never got around to it.

Covered a piece of board in fabric then framed it and glued a monogrammed L on it. Excuse the cords. It's still a work in progress and that is on Brian's "to do" list.

Bought white curtains then added fabric to the top.

Next up is Rory's room. I bought this cute owl bedding from Target; Brian's mom found this antique bed for her and we bought it at a going-out-of-business sale for $34. I'd like to repaint her room, but I'm pretty sure that's not happening anytime soon.

Added new bright ribbons to her name.

And then the bathroom. Becky came up with this color scheme of the blue. I wanted a white/black shower curtain.

And then we added this adorable set of prints for a pop of red, which I absolutely love.

In the kitchen, we repainted this old shelf I've had since early on in our marriage. My poor dad painted this two previous colors (with who knows how many coats of paint) before Brian put him out of his misery and told him I still hadn't decided on a color. I ended up spray painting it, and my mom made the cute wreath.

And then we updated the arrangement over the piano. Obviously, this is a bit of a fall theme so I'll have to make some changes as the seasons evolve.

I put my poor mom to work on all those visits she made this summer/fall to help take care of me. I found lots of inspiration on pinterest and she was always willing to help me out. Brian replaced ceiling fans (although we still have one more to go), repainted lots of doors to make them all white, and ended up spending countless hours on that headboard. He bought the oldest door ever and stripped and sanded it during the hottest part of the summer. I am so not kidding when I say he probably spent 3 full days working on just getting it ready to paint. 

I'm not completely satisfied with the house, but I am much happier with the bright colors. I wish I were craftier because I have lots of other projects in mind.