Chiang mai master bedroom finished

I think its finally finished. My chiang mai dragon pillows are here, which is the final finishing touch. (For now, anyways. When is a room ever totally finished?)

I think I've talked just about every item in this room to death.  The only things not discussed so far are the new indigo blue duvet and the rug.  The blue duvet came from The Company Store.  We have a humongous brown flannel pinstripe blanket that is super-warm, but brown flannel pinstripe did not lend itself to this design, so I tried a duvet.  I am normally a duvet-hater, but I am happy with this one so far. The ties in the corners that keep the blanket from sliding around make a huge difference.

Our old apartment had carpeting in the bedroom, so we did not have a rug for this room.  A new 8x10 rug that would be almost entirely covered up by the king bed was not in the budget.  Instead, I bought two 5x7-ish white flatweave rugs from Ikea ($80 total!)  and taped them together with carpet tape.  I am less than impressed with how they have stuck together--my side is fine, but the Mister's side always moves around, so it is on my list to get a large needle and some fishing thread-type-stuff and sew them together.  Since that would involve moving a king bed in a 10x10 room, I have been putting that task off for a while now.

You can read more about pulling the room together here: the original moodboard, the evolution of the moodboard, the summer bedding version, headboard, Espana night tables, art over night tables, striped curtains, West Elm euro shams, lampshades, dressers, chiang mai dragon art.

Sources:
1. Headboard: Craigslist
2. West Elm bedframe
2. West Elm euro shams
4. striped curtains made from West Elm duvet
5. Company Store indigo blue duvet (The lightweight coral summer bedding is from West Elm.)
6. chiang mai pillows
7. Espana/Rast night tables
8. dressers: already owned, from a defunct furniture store
9. hardware on dressers and Rast night tables
10. jewelry box: garage sale
11. mirror: thrift store
12. Erslev rug, 2 laid together
13. Bamboo frames: thrift store
14. Chinese lion: Homegoods
15. Green vase: Crate and Barrel
16. lamps: Homegoods and Pottery Barn Kids years ago, spraypainted Krylon Navy Blue
17. lampshades: plain Target shades with blue grosgrain ribbon added

beribboned lamp shades

Thanks to everyone who commented so far on my Christmas Challenge so far--if you haven't yet, you can still help me raise money for charity here.

*********

I've finally finished decorating the master bedroom; the last thing I had wanted to do was change the lampshades on the bedside table lamps. Although the mismatched lamps are about the same height, the lampshades were different sizes and shapes, and one was really stained from living in the garage for a while. (I did not take a closeup of that.)

I had these two matching lampshades in my basement heap o' crap--they were previously on the lucite ball lamps on my desk, when we lived in the apartment.

Here they had not found a home, partially because they were trimmed with a greeny-turquoise ribbon that just wasn't the right color. (They weren't the right color in the apartment, either, but I never got around to returning them before we moved, so into the basement they went.)

They were the right size shade for the lamps, and they were free, so I figured I would make them work somehow.  My first thought was to simply paint the turquoise ribbon navy.  I got a $2 sample of paint from Home Depot and got to work.

This sucked.  I did not tape it off, and I did not have the steadiest hand, and I messed it up.  It also looked dull and matte.  So, I ripped the painted ribbon off.

I rummaged around in my stash of ribbon and came up with a medium size navy blue grosgrain ribbon.  A hot glue gun and twenty minutes later I had two navy beribboned lampshades.

I would not say that I had the steadiest hand on this endeavor either, but I did not care enough to rip it off and painstakingly try to make it even.  There was an episode of The League and a chocolate cake calling my name, and I had expended all my crafting effort for the day.

Next up, my chiang mai pillows finally arrived!  I'll be doing a post on the finished master bedroom soon.

the master bedroom with the dragon painting, so far

My master bedroom is slowly coming along.

Here it is on moving day:

Here it is for the last few weeks, with stuff of everywhere:

And here it is today, with my chiang mai dragon painting finally finished, new bed, pretty curtains, bamboo blinds up, and navy blue mirror in place.

I am really happy with the navy/coral/citron color combo I've pulled out of the painting, and I think the painting makes it look a bit more pulled together as well.

The room is tiny.  We have a king size bed and there is about 25 inches on either side of the bed to the wall.  There is 18 inches between the end of the bed and the dressers.  I have stubbed my toe many times rounding the corner of the bed.

You might notice I decided not to get that mirror from craigslist and instead used a mirror we already own.  It was in our bedroom at our old apartment, then I painted it orange and put it in the boys' room here.  Since I was looking for a round mirror and knew that one was the right size and it was already in my house, I decided to use it.  I painted it navy blue and I think it works nicely.  That gives me a blank spot over the dressers in the boys' room, but I have some ideas for its replacement.

Things that still need to be done:
* art over the bedside tables
* hack a Rast table for my bedside table
* tray for dresser
* throw pillows
* navy Euro shams

Nearly done!

wide stripe curtains in my master bedroom

I posted recently about my love of wide-striped curtains, and my inability to find them in stores, or even the fabric to make them myself.  Elizabeth of Princess Nebraska had a great idea--use the West Elm striped duvet to make the curtains!  What a fantastic idea.

I used two twin duvets to make the curtains.  I ripped the seams apart so I could use both the back and the front pieces for four curtain panels.  The twin duvet measures 86" long by 68" wide, so they are similar to an 84 inch curtain panel, and certainly wide enough.  The 68 inches wide came in handy, as I was so excited to get started I accidentally ripped an eight inch gash into the fabric as I ripped the seams.  One of the curtain panels is a weeee bit less wide than the others.

Because I was a bit on the sloppy side with the first duvet, I had to cut off the ripped portion, and use hemming tape on all sides.  The duvet is rather thin--its really two bedsheets sewn together, so its not upholstery weight.  Because the material is so thin, you can see the hemming tape through the fabric.  I put these in my bedroom, not a high traffic living room. If I were going to put them in a living room I'd probably want to actually sew seams all the way around, and line them as well.  But my bedroom doesn't get direct sunlight so I'm fine with them as they are.

With the second duvet I was much more careful, and slowly ripped the seams.  On this one, I only used hemming tape on the top to create a stiffer hem for the curtain rings to grab.  Otherwise, I simply folded the seam back over and ironed it flat.  It looks good and no one can see it.

I spray painted our existing silver curtain rods white, and spray painted some curtain rings as well.

I'm really happy with the way they turned out.  Its exactly what I wanted and I love the citron, navy and coral together.