Bedroom Renovation: Making Progress

It's been awhile since I've mentioned the renovation at Nate's place. But don't worry, we've kept at it. After completing the floor and walls in the living room, we've piled furniture into the living area to work on the most exciting part of the endeavor: the bedroom.

We have very few "before" photos of the bedroom - which just illustrates how eager we were to spruce it up. It was similar to the living room with dirty carpet and equally filthy "white" walls.

First on our plan of attack: remove the carpet. Fortunately, this one was installed fairly recently and the carpet pad was not glued down. (We're all about the small victories - and I don't think I have the patience to ever peel off another disintegrating pad.)

The guy who lived in the house before was not exactly handy - I'm even going to go so far as to call him an idiot. There's an ever-growing list of minor headaches from the previous homeowner: he left the top of the doorway bare because he ran of trim in the bedroom, and now we need to buy new trim for the room because we can't find the same pattern. He didn't cover the windows when he sprayed the ceiling with that god-awful "popcorn" texture. Hell, even the closet doors were hung upside down. Ugh.

The shining glory of the entire room is near the ceiling. Nope, it's not the ceiling fan circa 1980; it's the stenciled menagerie of woodland creatures.

The floor had a surprise of its own: there were two areas that had low-quality filler boards. These had to be replaced so they'd look uniform once the polyurethane was applied.

But all of the filler boards weren't parallel to the original floorboards; there was one portion that ran perpendicular to the rest.

Nate was able to fill in the holes with the aged wood from the "secret room" we discovered in the bathroom.

Once that was complete, it was finally time to paint. I had the paint color picked out months in advance.

A deep, rich navy. There was skepticism from everyone I showed the paint sample to - including Nate. But what did they know?

The stenciled critters were the first to go. (I've never seen Nate happier than he was at that moment.)

For those interested, the color was Ralph Lauren's Black Watch Navy that we had color-matched at Home Depot. (If you'd like the color formula, let me know.)

Isn't it perfect? I'm so happy with how rich the walls look - and how they recede into the background: a must in such a small room. (It's also the perfect backdrop for upcoming nautical touches.)

Nate did an incredible job with the floor. This is where he filled in the perpendicular hole. He spent hours chiseling the floor and creating those mini slats to make sure they fit as seamlessly as possible.

This photo is exactly why I love polyurethane. The glossy coat brings out the richness of the wood's age.

In the next few weeks, we'll install the trim and start decorating. We even have a new mattress coming!