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Saturday, June 6, 2009

Sunday Favorites -- Early Master Bedroom Changes!

Happy Sunday, and thanks again to Chari of Happy To Design for her Sunday Favorites blog party; we all love recycling, don't we? I'm recycling a post from February 7, 2009, about our master bedroom here at That Old House.

This is part of the earliest stages of That Old House's renovation.

This post was the first time I had ever participated in a blog party, in this case, Metamorphosis Monday.
Cindy of Applestone Cottage gave me the courage to do so ... I think she created a monster! Thank you, Cindy, for your encouragement then, and now!



Click here for more blasts from the pasts!

(I will be among the missing today into Monday, as
my daughter Alida and I are taking a down-memory-lane
trip to the beach house; it's been almost two years since anyone
has stayed overnight out there, and we want to do it before Alida returns to California.)

Now... the old post:

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When you buy an old house, you usually buy a whole load of ... shall we say "unique" decorating? Take our Master Bedroom ("Please!" as Henny Youngman used to say).

Below, "before" . . .

The stripey wallpaper in this bedroom made me dizzy, and since we'd chosen this room to be the master, that was not A Good Thing. I felt as if I were going to tip over when I looked at it. It was really the oddest effect.
The vertigo-inducing stripes had to go.

Built-ins are lovely, but this one (above) was an exception. It was built across a door into a walk-in closet. To get to the closet, you had to go out into the hallway. Go figure.

When this new part of the house was built more than a hundred years ago, that closet probably had a different function. It is 7' x 12' so it's large enough that it could have been a sewing room, a nursery, even a box room.

(Don't you think houses should still have box rooms?
How lovely to have a room piled with boxes, for which you needn't apologize!)


Work in progress. The painters have stripped off the wallpaper, bless their hearts, and I no longer get dizzy when I enter the room. However, removing the paper reveals some fairly funky areas of old plaster:

Again, painters to the rescue. They work on the walls -- a lot -- and then cover them in a tinted-to-match oil-based primer, and then, it's more work, and more plaster repair.

Gapping moldings are caulked, and the old, odd built-in cupboard is removed. We find out we can't use the old door as it won't fit properly in the opening, so there is (still) no door on our closet. It is an old house, so we are not surprised.

Interesting effect, no?
Ah, the light at the end of the tunnel (below). Benjamin Moore's Palladian Blue (HC-144) covers walls, which have been restored but not made perfect; we don't want our walls looking new! Like us, they wear their years with pride. (Or so I tell myself.)
This room is directly above the dining room that's been featured in previous blog posts; same triple windows, same bay.
Oh my, those windows are dirty! Oops.
Look instead at the lovely blue walls and crisp white woodwork.

And there we have it, the metamorphosis of the master bedroom at That Old House, Part One. I have to start sewing for this room, too. I bought a wonderful Greef/Schumacher cotton and can't wait to make the curtains, and I think perhaps a dust ruffle for the bed.

For home dec fabrics, I heartily recommend www.fabricguru.com for their amazing selection, cheap shipping, and really really good prices. I love a bargain! I paid less than $4.00 a yard for the Greef cotton, a teeny fraction of its original price, and it is first quality.

Speaking of bargains, I found a rice carved mahogany 4-poster on Craigslist. Very cheap. I need a step stool to climb into it. I do love to recycle!
-- Cass

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17 comments:

  1. There's always a lot of work to restore an old house, but so worth the effort. The detail and uniqueness of them is marvelous. Love the color you chose, and the bed sounds fabulous. Hugs, Marty

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  2. Cass I am so glad you did a Re-do on this post as I missed seeing it the first time and I just am loving it...BRAVO!! job well done my friend...May you have a great weeekend...Hugs and smiles Gl♥ria

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  3. The finished walls/floors/woodwork - - - AMAZING. Now I want to see the FURNITURE in there too!!!

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  4. My first glance at that wallpaper made my eyes hurt and I thought it was my monitor for a moment, until I read it made you dizzy! Isn't amazing the "remuddles" that people do?
    Love the color and the gorgeous white trim.

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  5. Glad you chose to repost this, Cass. I love Master redos! Great color for that room... ;-)

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  6. The perfect blue for "That Old House"... beautiful...

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  7. Hello Cass...

    My friend, I know that I've said it before, but I must say it again...I just love your old home!!! Every time I come to your blog, I just stare at your header photo...your home is my "dream home", Darlin'!!! I just love everything about it...the style and lines of it...Ohhh, and that beautiful yellow exterior!!!

    I have certainly enjoyed each and every post of your home's refurbishing! It's so interesting to see the "before, during, and after" process! What a fabulous master bedroom!!! Ohhh my, I certainly can see how you would get vertigo looking at that striped wallpaper...I think it was the wavy border of flowers with the stripes that was the problem! Hehe! Ohhh sooo much work, but the end results are certainly worth it all!!! That blue wall color is simply divine...I love how it looks with the fresh white trim...it does look so pretty and crisp!!! Ohhh...and those bay windows are sooo sweet...and those beautiful wood floors!!! I'm with Keetha...now I want to see that beautiful 4 poster bed and the curtains that you talked about sewing!!! What a fabulous room!!!

    Well my friend, thank you so much for joining in with Sunday Favorites once again...I just loved this post that you chose to reshare with all of us!

    Hope that you and your daughter are having a fabulous time at your beach house!!!

    Warmest wishes,
    Chari
    PS...When you get home and after you have caught your breath, I would love for you to explain the reasoning or benefits of using an oil primer on those plaster walls! We have a little house that we are thinking about remodeling with plaster walls that need some work! Thank you, Darlin'!

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  8. I love this transformation, but would really love to see it all done with decorations, any pics of that?? Hope so! Thanks for resharing, Sue

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  9. What a transformation!

    I love the wall color, and I'm glad you didn't refinish them to perfection.

    Thanks for sharing - I missed this the first time.

    Lisa

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  10. What a fabulous transformation! I can’t wait to see it with all your furniture and fabrics in the room. I love the colour you have chosen; blue is my favourite. Restoring an old house is on my wish list but we haven’t quite got there yet, we always seem to end up in a more modern home; maybe one day.

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  11. You guys steal all the good stuff off of Craig's list before I can get to it...from another country...never mind you can have it.
    I can't wait to see the finished room.

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  12. Cass

    Love the color here--very dreamy...and Southhold! So pretty out there! You'll have to wave at me as you pass by!
    :0)
    Tara

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  13. That is amazing! It looks beautiful...I may have to steal that color for my bedroom. It's the only room in our old house that still needs to be painted. And I agree with Keetha, I want to see it with all of your stuff in there too!

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  14. Cass, your bedroom is just beautiful. The color is so calming. The white trim is great. The room is so pretty, I didn't notice the windows. Glad you now have an entrance in your room to your closet! Thanks for sharing.

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  15. Evening, Dear Cass! I do remember this post! I love how it all turned out! The wall color is so beautiful and those windows! Oh, I just love your house.

    Now about the little Cavaliers - I love seeing yours. How wonderful that you rescue them and tend to these little darlings! I could never get another dog as long as I have Chloe Dawn, it would kill her. She is so spoiled and I know she'd be so jealous. Before we got her we did think about getting one of these little precious things, but read somewhere they didn't do well in high humidity areas. I don't know if that's true or not!
    They are just adorable!
    Thanks for popping in,
    Be a sweetie,
    Shelia :)

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  16. That wallpaper had me laughing. The house we moved into when I was 14 had a simlilarly busy pattern in the hallway - only it was black and brown on white. It hadn't been hung straight so we all felt like we were walking up hill!

    The colours now in your Master Bedroom look beautiful. Clean, clear and restful. And what a glorious floor.

    I hope you can move into it soon,

    Michelle and Zebbycat in Wellington, NZ

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  17. I am glad you shared this as I am a relatively new reader here.

    What a wonderful choice of color!

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