A Sweet Dreams Rewind

It’s Wednesday again… and that means it’s time for a Rewind! And I had to dig waaaay down into our archives to find this post…

Today – because I mentioned our wardrobes in my small space post from Monday – I’m sharing the post I wrote ages ago about the renovation of our primary (master) bedroom. We went from an ugly itty-bitty bedroom to a small, perfectly appointed bedroom. You’ll have to tell me if you agree!

To call our bedroom a "Master" is really quite misleading because it's extremely small. Making matters worse, we have a king sized bed that fit perfectly in our previous home! Somehow, we needed to make the bed fit into this room... and somehow we ALSO needed to accommodate for a lot of clothing :-)

Here are a couple of BEFORE photos of our room:

I don't remember for sure, but I think the dimensions of the room were 10'x10' and the only way we could gain more space – short of adding an extension to the back of the house – was to take a few feet from the room next door.

So... the wall you see in the second photo above had to go...

But first, we had tons of plaster & lath to remove...all the walls AND the ceiling!

WHAT A MESS!!

You may think me nuts but I actually enjoy this phase of a remodel – the time when things are starting to happen! It's a very exciting time in a renovation… albeit more then a little chaotic!!

Take a look at the photo below. Can you see the new wood studs in the wall? That’s the new wall we built two feet in to the front room. Now take a look at the floor… the “H” you see is where the original walls were – two closets, one (attempting!) to serve each of the rooms.

 

The result… with the walls and debris removed we now had a room that was approximately 10’x14’… gigantic! LOL! Don’t get too excited for us ~ we still need to add back some closets!

Before we could start putting the room back together, we had to replace the old, single-paned window. Taking advantage of the open walls, I had my husband install a window that was a little bit wider then the original window... what a difference it makes! Here are some pics of that process. Brian did a great job!

But if you think that looks good, take a look at his finish work! The walls were insulated (take a re-peek at the wall removal pics above and you'll see that - typical to houses of this age [70 years] - there was NO insulation) and drywalled... and then Brian set to work on the trim.

 

Like I mentioned, our little bungalow is 70 years old. Apart from unique features like a fantastic coved ceiling in the living room that we LOVE(!), the house doesn't have a lot of the character that houses of this age usually have.

So... I did a little research and found local craftsman bungalows with trim like what Brian installed in our bedroom (and throughout the house). In combination with the arts & crafts panelled door and the "prarie-style" window, I simply love how it all turned out!!

Painting the walls & ceiling was my job. I used Benjamin Moore paints - Sandy Brown on the ceiling, Stanley Park (a lovely mossy green that the photos don't do justice to) on the walls, and Cloud White on all the trim.

And now... the AFTER photos!!

Things aren’t completely done yet… I still have to decorate!! My plan is to sew a new duvet cover (the white is temporary) as well as some Euro pillow-covers. I also need some art on the walls (the little print below is gone now – too small). I KNOW the room will look fantastic once it’s all decorated!!

And the pièce de la résistance... my built-in wardrobes!

These wardrobes are very large – seven feet tall and the length of the room (approx 10 feet). I have to tippie-toe just to hang things up! Forget getting to the top shelf... that's what tall hubbies are for!

And check out what's inside. Behind each door are great organizational features that really work for us... rods, drawers, baskets, shelves, hooks...

And look at my jewellery drawer! Every time I open it I'm filled with happiness!

The wardrobes are so important to us because the room is too small for a chest of drawers. Everything we need is in these wardrobes! We love them!!

I’m including this Rewind Wednesday post in the HOMEdigz blog party!

If you’ve joined us from HOMEdigz, welcome!!

Now… navigate over to HOMEdigz so that you can see what other bloggers are writing about today!! Just click on the button :-)

Thanks for visiting DesignTies today!!

 

Whose Design Is It Anyway?

Kelly @ JAX Decor & Design

Is there such a thing as a truly original design? Can one person “own” a design?

I was just browsing the Rate My Space web site. I saw four rooms with colour-blocked walls. They were all similar – blocks of various colours with white “grid” lines in between. A few years ago, a member of the House & Home forums painted the a similar colour block & grid wall in her daughter’s bedroom. Who came up with the idea first? Did they all copy each other? Can one of them lay claim to the design?

When you think about it, every design is based on another design. We take a design that we see and like, and then create our own interpretation of it, putting our own spin on it and giving it our own personal touches. For example – these are two of the walls in my home office (it still needs some furniture!!)



It was inspired by this nursery on Rate My Space (unfortunately, I can’t find the original post on RMS, so I can’t give proper credit to the creator of this room):



The inspiration for the letters on the nursery wall came from this bedding from DwellStudio:



And this bedding was inspired by… well, I guess the alphabet. The history of the alphabet started in ancient Egypt over 4,700 years ago. So does that mean the ancient Egyptians get credit for these three alphabet-inspired designs?

Here's another example. This is our bed:



My husband and I came up for the plans for it and built it. We based it on an upholstered bed from Restoration Hardware and a bed that Sarah Richardson designed for a bedroom on Sarah’s House:




There are obvious similarities between the three beds, but differences as well. All three have a nailhead trim detail. The headboard corner cut-outs and legs on our bed are based on Sarah’s bed. But Sarah used a bold patterned fabric on her bed and we used a solid brown velvet.

So who owns this design? I say all of us – and none us. The beds I used as inspiration for our bed were likely inspired by other beds. In fact, Sarah had to change her original headboard design because the original wouldn’t fit up the stairs to the bedroom. Which is an example of how a design evolves as you move through a project.

Nobody can say that a design is 100% (or even 99%) theirs. Every design is a collaboration of people and ideas – from pictures in books and magazines, TV shows, Internet forums, a friend’s house, stores, hotels, nature… design inspiration is all around us and in all of us.