My Bedroom: A Bucket List

So before I started this blog, I read somewhere that to be successful, you have to blog every day.  And I totally did for three days.  And then something happened.

That something was Band Camp.

Yes, you heard that right.  I am a total dork.  So much so that now I'm a semi-grownup dork, I'm teaching younger dorks how to be better at their dorkishness.

AKA, I'm getting paid to teach high school kids how to march and play drums at the same time.  Because I do that (play drums).  Being a drummer totally reduces my dork factor, right?  Right?

Anyway, here's a peek into my bedroom.  By no means am I any kind of fancy pants designer, and there are still a lot of projects to be completed, but here we go!  Disclosure: My room is actually filled with lots of wonderful natural light.  I just suck at taking pictures.

My favorite part about my room is the Tempur-Pedic mattress topper lurking underneath that fitted sheet. Most. Comfortable. Thing. Ever.  All bedding is from Target, you can find similar bedding here.  I love my gray coverlet, but I really want a big, fluffy, white down comforter.  I just fear between the cat and the dog it'll be beige within five minutes of purchase and application to bed.  Throw pillows from World Market.  I hate my bed frame more than anything in the world and I'm itching to DIY a tufted headboard.

The room has a very serene feel, what with all the pale colors, but I want to add some more pops of color, especially a little more bright teal and some coral.  And a spot of yellow for good measure.

By far the coolest thing in the room is the large painting hanging over the bed.  A friend of mine from college created it and it hang in his living room for a couple of years.  I begged and pleaded and he wouldn't sell it to me.  Well, every year or so he hosts an online auction of some of his older pieces and I snagged this for only $100!

His name is Shaun Whiteside and everyone should buy his art because not only is he freakishly talented he's also a really humble, awesome dude.  And artists never get famous until after they're dead but right now Shaun is alive and needs to do living things like pay rent.

The mirror is a hand-me-down from my mom, and the little marble-topped table is one of a pair (the other is in my living room) that she got at an estate auction ten years ago.  I just stuck it in my room because I didn't have anywhere else to put it and now I love that little corner!

The amazingly talented Kristen Davis has a framed piece of paper hanging up in her house that has all the colors I want.  I'm thinking of doing the same thing over the mirror.

The little tobacco snifters came from the same auction (I'm the only twenty four year-old I know whose apartment is littered with antiques).  They're constantly moving around my room because I love them and can't decide where I want them.

The one on the left has orange dragons and the one on the right has black koi.  Um, Schumacher's Chiang Mai anyone?  I think these babies justify me putting that fabric in my room.

The dresser is also from my mom.  It was hers and my aunt's when they were girls.  There's an entire set of this furniture spread out between myself and my two cousins.

I'd like to hang up a cool mirror with a ribbon over the dresser to sort of tone down all the faux bamboo.

I know everyone is all excited about re-vamped faux bamboo, but I've lived with this furniture my entire life and can't wait to get rid of it.  Or paint it.  The latter will definitely come first.

It's definitely seen a lot of love in the last forty years.  I was considering painting it teal but I think I'm going to go with a high-gloss white.

The vase is Crate & Barrel, and the picture frame is a ZGallerie knock-off from Pier 1.  I couldn't find a picture I like in the frame so I made my own Mercury Glass with spray paint.

The shelf was the world's easiest DIY: 1. Measure width of door frame.  2. Go to Lowe's and lug around a board until some self-important middle-aged man offers to cut it down to size for the poor, helpless little girl.  3. Spray paint board and brackets in Rustoleum's "Heirloom White".  4. Hang brackets, attach shelf.  

Yes, I have 5,000 jackets hanging on the back of my door.  The little porcelain organ planter was from a flea market.

Curtains are from Bed, Bath & Beyond.  Bench goes with my electric full-size keyboard which is stored in the closet.  Another item I just ran out of storage space for.  Pillow is from Target, and cat was found living under my friend's stoop.  Her name is Fluff and she loves perching all "Hunchback of Notre Dame" on that bench.

She replaces my mattress topper as my favorite part of the room.

And so, the To-Do List:

DIY a tufted headboard
Paint dresser white
Find cool mirror to hang
Hang said mirror
Purchase and frame paper
Find new colorful throw pillows
Buy new curtain rod that doesn't bend in the middle
Justify buying new white down comforter to both Ryan and my bank account
New lamps
New sidetables

This might take a while.

8/21

I'm thinking of doing an empty frame collage over my dreaded "thermostat wall".  You know what wall I'm talking about.  That one wall that's BAM IN YO' FACE the minute you walk in the front door, and smack dab in the middle of it, right at eye-level, is a stupid, ugly thermostat.

I've had a canvas hanging over it but it's kind of a pain in the ass inconvenient to take it off every time you need to change the temperature.  It's also scuffing the crap out of my walls. (Who uses flat white paint in an apartment complex!? That stuff is impossible!)

So, here is a little bit of what has been floating around my brain lately (all images from Pinterest).

I love this color teal and have a mini-version of a white hutch sitting along the wall...

The wall is really narrow (less than three feet wide), and at a diagonal, and I'm really diggin' the idea of framing a bunch of small frames with a larger one.

I love the muted color combo and the mix of prints and empty frames.

This one is probably my favorite.  I think it's that big frame with the oval opening combined with all those itty-bitty frames.

And on a slightly different note, I love the frame hanging over the big map! I've been wanting to hang a large print over my couch for a while, but balked when I saw how much it would cost to frame the dang thing!  This would be much cheaper and, let's admit, waaaay cooler.

So, what do you think?  Are you digging the empty frame trend?  Would you go all one color or multi?  So many options!