Romantic Cottage Bedroom Reveal!

I don't know about you, but I am just not ready to give up Christmas! The holiday season lasts until New Year's Day, so I try to savor every last minute of celebrations and decor. Today it snowed and it seemed to keep the magic alive just a bit longer.

I have been wanting to post our attic bedroom renovation since we finished it in June but I never had the time for a proper post, so you are going to get to see it this evening all decorated for Christmas.

You will notice a lot of feminine and romantic touches in these photos, but there are some mantiques and masculine items to balance things out on my husband's side of the bed that I haven't photographed as of yet. Once the Christmas decorations are down I will hopefully get around to covering the whole bedroom.

Here is our attic bedroom, completely gutted and rebuilt by my wonderful husband. Imagine insulation and old wires, spider webs and exposed floor joists. You get the picture. That's all that was here before. There was only a crawl space in the hallway ceiling for access, so he completely built a second floor out of the attic, including a new set of stairs from our foyer. He also built our son's room and a bathroom that we are getting ready to finish.

I told him I wanted a dreamy, vintage cottage bedroom and that's what I got!

The floor is simply 1/4 inch plywood cut in strips and painted white.You can see it a little better in the picture below. We got the look of pine flooring for a fraction of the cost! It really doesn't take any more maintenance than darker floors and has held up nicely so far. He also made the board and batten for the walls and installed the beadboard ceiling himself. Actually he did every bit of it himself. With the help of my opinon and "constructive criticism" which added to his sheer enjoyment of the renovation process...

I chalk painted this yard sale bench to give it the appearance of antique grain sack, and it fits perfectly at the foot of the bed now. I showed the before and after in my last Christmas post.

                I just love the headboard we repurposed from a flea market door! I adore lots of pillows, so I  am looking forward to making some more from vintage fabric remnants as part of my New Year's resolution of learning to sew. The gorgeous antique chenille bedspread was the first puchase we made for the bedroom two years ago before we even got started on the room. We found it at the annual Court Days festival in Mt. Sterling, KY. At the time we hadn't even decided what look we wanted for the bedroom, but finding the bedspread gave us the inspiration to go all white vintage-cottage. Total cost of the what you see in this picture (minus the mattress) is only $50.00!

This year my husband and I will be spending our 13th year together, and we look for nothing but GOOD LUCK to come our way in 2013! Our bedroom is filled with little nods to romance and lots of vintage bling. It was so easy to incorporate a dreamy Christmas feel to the room since the bedroom is all white and sparkly to start with.

     A picture from our wedding day is tucked in this little antique jewelry box filled with vintage tinsel and a bottlebrush tree. Notice what I am wearing in the picture...

I display my wedding suit on this old mannequin all year long. It is also the perfect place to drape my collections of vintage pearls. For Christmas I simply added some tarnished tinsel and my hand made angel wings.

Below is a unique window treatment I designed using my oldest and most delicate lace. It actually is a panel but I used it in a different way. It had several holes that needed to be camoflauged so I turned the panel sideways as a sort of swag and draped it over a curtain rod with a vintage silk scarf and lots of strands of pearls in various shades.

Before we finished the bedroom I had the curtain panel displayed over an old window.

I love how light streams through as if in a dream

Under the window is an old metal trunk I repainted white. I especially love the hardware.

And on top of the trunk I created a shabby Christmas vignette

Meet Joy, the sweet little antique composition doll. Isn't she an angel?

 

 Next on the tour is my dresser, a $20 side-of-the-road-sale special. It was pretty cruddy before but it turned out great with some TLC.

Love the French country details...

$5 chair makeover--- white chalkpaint and burlap, the perfect combo...

 with an 1800's romantic prairie chemise displayed on the back

Everything in this picture was stitched by hand! Can you imagine the hours?

I love using this shabby chic towel holder to hold my favorite antique garments, scarves, gloves, pearls, and any other romantic girly-girl pretties I may find on my adventures.

My dresser is a great place to display my own embellished bottles and flea market treasures. I carried a bouquet of real ivory roses on my wedding day, but this summer I crafted a bouquet using the same shade of faux roses. I was experimenting with making a brooch bouquet using vintage brooches, hankies, doilies, ribbons lace, pearls and buttons, with the intention of selling it, but once I brought it up to the bedroom it was mine. ALL MINE!

Can a girl really ever have too much bling??? Especially vintage bling? I never can really pull off the look of a lot of jewelry unless I am getting all decked out for a date or formal occassion, but I discovered that our house can pull off  lots of bling, so I love to collect it and display it unexpected ways.

I am fascinated by small treaures and I adore making little vignettes, like this antique powder compact opened to reflect the beauty of gorgeous vintage rose and rhinestone earrings, an old hair pin, and an antique English angel sticker from the early 1900's. I get so excited by such little things as these.

And I will ask again...Can a girl really ever have too much bling?  Maybe some girls, but not this Junkaholic!

This is the collection of treasures on the desk beside my bed: More of my embellished bottles, small vintage  items, antique jewelry collections, old buttons, lace, and pearls.

My favorite display in the whole bedroom is this old train case that I filled with things I find beautiful. The candle in the center is the unity candle from our wedding, and the ribbon around it is from my bouquet.

In a previous post I discussed how I am changing my holiday decorating style by adding seasonal elements to what I already have.  Here is how I tweaked the train case...

With some simple additions like my handmade bottlebrush tree/spool ornament, angel wings and a halo for the sweet little doll, along with Christmas carol ornaments, the train case evolves into a charming Christmas treasure box.

I really do decorate my home from top to bottom for the holidays! On the floor of my side of the room sits more of my favorite Christmas loot. The room really is as romantic and cozy as it looks here. Since we couldn't incorporate a fireplace into the bedroom, the next best thing is an old stove filled with white lights, which makes a perfect night light.

And what better place for David, than right beside me when I sleep? (I explained a little bit about how David ended up in our bedroom in the previous post.) My husband jokes that one day I am going to leave him for David. Actually he first started making that joke when David was still in our antiques booth and I kept going back and forth on keeping him or selling him. Now he is not only at our house, but right beside me in the floor by my bed. No one ever said junkaholics weren't a little crazy!

He really is stunning! But at least I have him facing the opposite direction so he isn't staring deeply into my eyes...

Love, love, love that grain sack stocking...

...and the old chippy plant stand loaded with my collection of vintage lace, doilies, and linens...

This tour of the bedroom makes me want to go snuggle up to my sweetie for a long winter's nap!

But in case we decide to sleep in too long, we made a personalized sign to remind to us to get up and get going, because...

Sweet dreams fellow junkaholics, lights out!

http://frenchcountrycottage.blogspot.com/2013/01/feathered-nest-friday.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed: blogspot/QoLtm (FRENCH COUNTRY COTTAGE)

http://www.commonground-do.com/2013/01/be-inspired-friday-121-whats-new-in-new.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed: blogspot/bCGJMl (Common Ground)http://romantichome.blogspot.com/

http://nominimalisthere.blogspot.com/

http://rootedinthyme.blogspot.com/

http://elizabethandco.blogspot.com/2013/01/be-inspired-feautures-and-link-party-51.html