Bedroom Update

Remember back when I showed you our bedroom? After looking at those pictures I immediately thought, OH. MY. GOSH. Elizabeth! What have you done?!!? You've done one of the cardinal no.no's in design! Eeek! I knew I had to change it. But I have just not had the time until this week. If you don't know what I'm talking about.. take a look at my curtains.

See how you can see the moulding on top? Eeeek! I have not done my bedroom ANY favors. It looks messy and makes my windows look small. Here's the problem: The curtain panels are (I believe) 84 long. I needed 96" to reach from the curtain rod to the floor. So I went ahead and lowered the curtain rod for the panels to reach the floor. Which sounds good in theory, until you look at the top of the panels. With the curtains hanging from the rings it gave me a little extra wiggle room for our curtains to pool on the floor. However, with that extra wiggle room it makes the curtains look messy and incomplete. Dang it! Ok, I need to lengthen the curtains.. but how...?

Enter Mill Factory Outlet. If you live in the RDU area, you probably already know about this fantastic place. I ran in there the other week with nothing really on my mind to purchase. This will always get me in trouble. Ask my husband.
I was rummaging through the designer fabric clearance table (can you believe they have such a thing!?! designer fabric on my goodwill budget! HELLO!) and came across this beauty:

4 yards and $15 later she was mine. All mine. I knew exactly what I was going to do with it. Since it has some weight behind it, I can add a panel of it above my curtains to extend the length. The colors are perfect and will add a little extra pizzaz. Perfect. And I had a little left over to make a pillow cover for the body pillow. Woot woot!

After making my new curtains, I had the hubs grab the drill and the step-ladder and we moved the curtain rod ABOVE the moulding several inches. It makes our ceiling and our windows appear larger and taller. An instant plus. My nice looooong curtain panels help bring the eye up. Gorgeous.

Another area that was bothering me was our shelves. Remember back in January when I found these shelves and decorated them.

 Well, they looked ok. But it wasn't what I was looking for. The shelves were fine, but It looked like I tried to make them look good, but it didn't work. Something was missing. So I scoured some old Pottery Barn catalogs (yes, I keep mine) for inspiration and figured out a plan.
The candlesticks had. to. go. They were just a mess up there. I spray painted the E black to match the room, already it's looking better. Then I found a frame from our wedding that I placed our wedding invitation in. After a little re-arranging it's perfect. And for $0 it fit the budget too. :)

I learned recently that for a happy marriage, your bedroom should be your sanctuary. It should feel cozy, relaxing and have nothing that shows your "life"  (kids, bills, toys, computer, etc). It should be a place that re-unites you as a couple. With this in mind, I decided to only put accessories in there that relate to us. What better than pictures and items from our wedding and us as a couple. I now love coming into our bedroom. We try and keep it clutter free (more me than him, the clothes keep multiplying on the floor!) but we love being able to climb into bed at night and be surrounded by our history together.

Remember the wall that looked blank?

Yeah, this one. I knew I wanted to put something on that wall, but I just didn't know what. Until it hit me. My wedding portrait. It was on the wall at the end of our staircase, but it never really "Fit" that space. So I moved it. Now, it gets all the attention it deserves, and fills the space perfectly (please disregard the boxes of flooring. We are waiting patiently to install them).

I have one last thing to put in this space (hint, above the bed) but it can't happen right now. We are desperately trying to get the house ready and prepped for the new floors. So stay tuned!

I linked this post to Kimba's DIY Day so click away and
Browse through lots of other projects to get your decorating fix!