Metamorphosis and Blue Monday

I'm so excited to be joining Susan at Between Naps on the Porch for Metamorphosis Monday. I've been working on this project for a while and have shared just a tiny bit with you, but today I am ready for the unveiling of the guest bedroom I have been working on!

I am also going to post this over at Smiling Sally's for her Blue Monday event. This is my first time to join her. Blue is my favorite color so I'm excited to show you the blue in this guest bedroom. If you read my posts, you may know we have a wedding coming up...soon. I don't know what it is about weddings and babies, but I think they both put women in nesting mode! I didn't invite a soul to stay at our house, but suddenly felt the urgent need to redo a bedroom. I don't know. Maybe that's my way of letting off a little steam. Anyway, this is what I started with below--a perfectly decent, but decidedly masculine bedroom. The khacki walls and Ralph Lauren plaid and demin bedding were fine. But that inner nesting voice started talking :).

Good thing I'm changing things...that picture is way too high. I decided I would use two antique twin beds from another bedroom. They seem to be a better fit in this bedroom and probably more convenient for more than one guest. I had an idea of what I wanted, but wasn't sure about a color for the room.

So I started buying paint samples and just painting patches...living with it and looking at it in different lights and at different times of day. Once I got to this stage I knew I was committed. There was no way to explain those blue and yellow patches. After much trial, tribulation, and error, I decided on Whisper Yellow by Behr. I also decided to repaint all the wood work a ceiling white. It took me two and a half weeks to finish. I just never could find one day to devote to painting. I'd start and then have to clean up to go to a wedding appointment almost daily. I even showed up to have my hairlighted with renegade bits of Whisper Yellow. My hairdresser was not amused! I looked everywhere for fabric and online for bedding, and curtains.

This pillow sham was my starting point. I had used it in my master bedroom before I changed bedding. I bought the sham and euro shams on sale from Pottery Barn and then had them monogrammed in royal blue. They were just too pretty to waste!

You may remember the chair from an earlier Met Monday post. I found a blue stripe I loved and had it reupholstered. This chair, I have learned, is an early recliner and mission style.

I had given "the baby" the furniture in this room when he moved into his first apartment with his first job after college. Beloved did point out that now his apartment looked better than our empty guest room! After several antique and thrift store ventures, I found this dresser--not quite antique, just old. I paid $125.00 for it already refurbished. Some of you may not think this was a deal. Let me tell you, I do!! I happen to know that a good therapist costs over $100 an hour and that is straight where refinishing this would have sent me! I like that the top is still the original wood. It matches the beds. Those are very old marbles I've used in the vase. They were from my grandparents' house and I liked the color they added!

Finally, it's beginning to come together. The blue toile curtains are from Country Curtains. If you haven't checked out their catalog lately, I think you'll be surprised. They are not just country! The bedding is a white matilesse coverlet from J.C. Penneys.

I'm still tweaking. I have a couple more plates I may add...AW--that's after wedding.

Finally, this is the picture between the windows. I bought this by a local artist at a silent auction for a local charity. Now I know art "says" different things to different people, but it's not even speaking the same language to Beloved and me! He thinks it is lonely and depressing; I think it's serene and peaceful. :).

I'm so glad to share this with you and even happier to be through for now. I think I have "nesting" out of my system for a while--at least until AW (after wedding). Please join Susan at http://betweennapsontheporch.blogspot.com/ for the 16th Metamorphosis Monday and Sally at http://smilingsally.blogspot.com/ for Blue Monday!