the pink bedroom.

When I first saw the real estate listing for my house, and I read that it had five bedrooms, I honestly didn’t believe it. A house in my price range with five bedrooms? But it does, because the upstairs was converted into a bathroom and three very small bedrooms. The pink bedroom is one of them.

This bedroom was pink when I bought it, except it was pastel pink. The carpeted floor had some pet stains, and there was a huge hole in the wall that someone had (tried) unsuccessfully) to patch. I ripped up the carpet last year, and A picked the wall color last fall.

This was my inspiration photo.

[Source: BHG via Pinterest]

And here’s the end result.

The “ceiling beams” are just inexpensive 1x4s that I stained and screwed directly into the ceiling studs. The horizontal piece hides a PVC pipe that acts as curtain rod.

I painted the bed and dresser using a light gray paint I already had on hand. The dresser pulls are made from some leather belts I found on clearance at Target (inspiration here)– I painted them, used tin snips to cut the correct length, then drilled holes and attached them to the drawers with hex screws and nuts.

The bookshelves are made from gutters (inspiration here) – I like the idea of tucking a reading corner into that area, maybe adding some pillows or a bean bag chair in the future.

The floor underneath the carpet was composed of old (and very ugly) vinyl tiles. I considered laying laminate wood floors, but knowing that I would want to carry the same floor through most of the upstairs, I decided to save myself the headache of all those cuts and angles by installing peel-and-stick vinyl wood-look planks instead. They’re inexpensive, easy to install, and really look great. I painted the trim around the floor, window, and doors white, which really helped lighten up the space, and I added shoe molding around the perimeter (previously there was only baseboard). It really finished off the floor nicely and meant I didn’t have to be nearly so precise when installing the floor.

The last touch was this word art. It was inspired by (ok, copied from) the art in this post. Since this is clearly a girl’s room (given all the pink), I wanted to send a message that most of us girls need to hear over and over again.

There are still other finishing touches I would love to add, like more art for the walls, or maybe a bulletin board of some kind. The lamp is on loan and I’d like to find/make something a little more distinctive. And of course, there is a pillow for the bed – it was just downstairs when I took these pictures. But for now, I’ve moved on to other projects.

recent conclusions.

I’ve come to a couple conclusions recently. One – that if I wait until things are done before writing about them (whether they are rooms, projects, or ideas), I will never write about them.

Two, that I can either get things done or my house can be relatively clean and organized, but never both at the same time. At this moment, I have two twin mattresses, a queen size bed frame, and several boxes of vinyl plank flooring sitting in my living room, my dining room contains an almost-completely-painted headboard and footboard that I made while their partially-finished counterparts are sit in the basement workshop area, and all of the quarter round has been removed from all of the rooms on the first floor, which is uglier and rougher looking than the slightly chipped stuff that was there before. Tools are scattered through my house (including all three floors), the top of my bookcase is cluttered with things I brought in from the car but don’t have a place for yet, and don’t even get me started on dishes and laundry.

And can I just say that dishes and laundry are probably my two least favorite household chores? I don’t mind actually doing them, but it’s just that they are never-ending.

Did I mention that I’ve got out of town guests coming in next weekend? Thankfully, they’re friends who will gladly sleep on an air mattress on the floor (and have in the past), but I set goals for myself of getting certain things done before they arrive in less than a week and I’m not ready to concede defeat just yet.

So, things are kind of in upheaval over here while I work on getting the downstairs bedroom and the back upstairs bedroom completed. Or at least close enough to done for now. One of the other upstairs bedrooms is already there, so I’m hoping to check in later this week with photos of that. I’m also hoping to take the time to write out some of the other ideas floating around in my head – I miss writing.