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Hello! I'm Suzannah, a serious DIYer and mom of two little ones. Follow along with my DIY fixer upper house renovations, sewing and crafty projects, real food recipes, and de-stressing goals.
I believe you can love your home just the way it is, AND have the power to design and make big changes to make it better.
I'm also the author of DIY Wardrobe Makeovers!

The basics! Paint & windows, + my BIGGEST DIY ever: Week 2 of the One Room Challenge

I've definitely made progress on our master bedroom makeover since the "before" pics--starting with paint and window treatments which honestly has been a huge, incredible change. I'm also finally ready to SHOP for stuff which is a little unnerving (I have a hard time committing!) but really helpful to see it all come together.

(You can see all my One Room Challenge posts here. See Week 1 ("before" and inspiration) here.)



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Our progress so far includes the basics of making over a room:

  • Paint (unfortunately in this case, painting over wallpaper--more about that later) 
  • Replacing the 40-year-old window coverings with these linen Roman shades

And, progress on the biggest project of the room (and literally my BIGGEST DIY ever): making a slipcovered bed!! We're loosely following this thorough tutorial for a DIY upholstered bed, but my plan is to make it look like this Serena & Lily one on my inspiration board.

And finally, the hardest piece so far to choose and order for me is lighting. Such a bummer cause I looooove shopping for lighting, but when it comes down to it for my own room, I'm so stumped!!

1. The basics: Painting over wallpaper


The walls in this room are the same white as everywhere else in this house, Alabaster by Sherwin Williams. It's a little warmer than the white we used in our last house (White, OC 151, by Benjamin Moore) which feels good next to the warm trim--but it's still not as warm as, say, Simply White by Ben Moore.

I really will have to share more with you guys later about painting over wallpaper, but for now let me just say that we were told to do it that way (rather than take down the wallpaper) by multiple professionals and we followed a series of steps to make it work.

Here it is painted but still quite a "before" state. 

2. The basics: new Roman shades


We left that baby quilt up a long time, and the tan vinyl roller shades that were under the curtains on the other two windows. It was not my style. :P

I've shared on Instagram about these shades... I really debated going custom for all our windows but once you add up the features like cordless and top-down, bottom-up (pretty important for this side of the house with our neighbors so close), custom got prohibitively expensive. I wasn't sure how I would like the quality of these top-down, bottom-up, cordless linen Roman shades I found online... but aside from the extra length, I think they are about as good as I could expect on my budget!

Still need to take down that old hardware...

Love that they are cordless and versatile with how we open them.

3. DIY slipcovered bed


I'll talk more about this later on in the ORC, but let me just say for now... like a crazy person, I have decided to build a bed instead of buy one because I couldn't find one I liked in my price range. And because my dad is retired and very generous with his time and skills.

Progress... we're following the tutorial for the base bed part, and will tweak things with upholstering and associated things like feet.

I made some design decisions like how high the base should be, and thought about how much space we need between the bed and nightstands which will dictate the headboard width.

It's coming together! I picked up the batting after we got it assembled and I need to staple it on before we make much more progress.

We got the headboard, batting, and muslin cut out--almost ready to start stapling and assembling!

4. Light fixture indecision


Ironic and such a bummer cause I always say I LOVE shopping for lighting!!, but now it turns out, when it comes to my own room... it's hard! I think I like one of these options but as I kept adding them to this collage I think I just got more confused.

I want the light fixture to be special. A little unique, a little bit of a statement, and something that adds to the vibe of the room. I think the problem is I am mixing styles (a little tiny bit of midcentury modern, some relaxed contemporary, the vintage look rug...) and it's an old house, so none of the fixtures scream "compatible." I'd love to hear what you think!! (You can click on each of these below for more info on them. I did my best on scale.)

I also want it to go with our home--I am doing less boho than I used to go for, more of the "modern traditional" look (hence fixture 6), not much MCM, a little more contemporary which is really just a mish mash of everything else, right?... it's an older home, but I don't want to do something that's actually like what used to be here because 1930's Tudor interiors are not my thing. ;) But I don't want to go crazy with a sore thumb light fixture.

I've also done some shopping like for bedding and lamps, and am making progress with the sourcing--good because shipping delays make me nervous. (I did order the rug--you guys have been super into that on my Instagram! It's an amazing deal right here till they sell out.)

I also pulled the trigger on the big art above the bed. This print from Unsplash in a "muted prosecco gold" frame. With a big mat. I think it'll add just the right amount of color on the walls.

Stay tuned on my Instagram stories for more updates!

Follow along to see what the Featured Designers and other Guest Participants are doing for the ORC too!

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