master bedroom refresh

Well I"m back in Calgary after two fantastic weeks on the East Coast at "home" visiting family and friends. I was busy while there, and one of the projects was refreshing my mom and dad's bedroom. The budget was slim to nil on this one, so I had to get the creative juices flowing. I started with wallpapered walls and a lovely wood floor, a bed with black iron-look head and foot board, and two tired old dressers. And it was quite dark, with only one window facing east.

I was very excited to see what was possible by using the sustainable design concept of reusing and re-purposing. Here is the before picture...

And after...

I wanted to create a brighter, lighter feeling country bedroom. The dresser below was painted a dark sage green (see my previous post on painting the dressers in this room). The curtains were an old shower curtain cut in two to make panels.

Everything on the walls and shelves was either something already in the house or from the yard outside. Birch branches are leaned against the wall as a point of interest and to cover up a bad crack in the wall underneath the wallpaper.

This is the second painted dresser with matching grey-green paint on the back of the existing shelves.

Jewellery is displayed on an old picture frame with a ribbon tied across the back.

The head and foot boards were painted with white semi-gloss trim paint and then distressed with sandpaper.

This bench was an old deacon's bench. We sawed off the back spindles and side arms, painted it out white, and made a foam cushion for the top.

The side table is a block of firewood sawed and sanded with a Varathane finish. 

Snowshoes complete the country feel and were found in the basement, so again, no extra cost for decoration.

This project cost only $100 dollars - for paint and fabric for the cushions. The rest was all re-purposed and reused.  I'm pleased with it, and so are my parents. What do you think?