Maybe Matilda: Townhouse Tour: Master Bedroom

We've been settling into our new place for about a month now, so I suppose it's time I start posting a few pictures. I'm starting with the master bedroom today, simply because it is A) the room that looks the closest to being 'finished' and fully moved into, and B) it happened to be the cleanest room of the house. That's all it takes to earn the honor of being the room to kick off the house tour!

As a reminder, we sold our house last month, and instead of buying a new house, we used all the money from the sale to help pay off our student loan debt. We only moved about 10 minutes away from our old place, into a townhouse that we'll be renting for a year (minimum) while we save up for a down payment for a house.

Without further ado: our new master bedroom.

The bed was a Craigslist find from about 5 years ago--I spent $25 on it, plus $15 worth of oil-rubbed bronze spray paint to cover up the original brass (which I think is back in style now . . . but the oil-rubbed bronze certainly fits better with my style, if I can claim to have one . . . cottagey, I suppose?). The paint job is holding up okay . . . I just won't take any pictures too close or you'll see all the spots where the spray paint is rubbing and scratched. For now, it'll do. Remember how I said we haven't yet abandoned our cheapskate, penny-pincher, poor student lifestyle? Prime examples in this post :-)

The photo above the bed was our 'guest book' from our wedding. I was sure we'd never, ever sit down and flip through an actual guest book, so instead we framed a big photo of ourselves and set out pens for people to write a message on the photo mat (sadly, we missed out on about half of our guests who didn't realize they were supposed to be signing the mat--should've set out some instructions).

We've spent many hours pondering which of us this cryptic signature is referring to:

. . . and we've written that exact message into the guest book of every wedding we've attended since.

In our previous house (that still sounds weird), we painted the master bedroom a soft, celery green (I've wondered if the new owners will keep it or paint over? It was hands down my favorite color in the house, but I have learned that green is a somewhat polarizing paint color). I liked how soft and quiet the colors in that room were, so I kept all the bed linens neutral (creams and tans).

But against these gray walls, the neutral colors of our bedding and pillows looked dead boring. I've had a Hobby Lobby gift card burning a hole in my pocket since Christmas, so I finally spent it on fabric and sewed some new pillows for the bed (I re-used the old pillow forms, and sewed envelope-backed cases for them). I'm not a terribly knowledgeable or talented seamstress, but I can handle pillow cases. I love the bit of color they bring into the room. I'm on the hunt for new lampshades--not loving the pattern or the brown tones on our current ones anymore. No luck yet.

Our nightstands are not actually nightstands at all, but some sort of little end tables? They were hand-me-downs from my parents about 7 years ago and have never been terribly functional as nightstands, but if it ain't broke, right? I may have gone slightly basket-happy on my side, with one basket underneath for my yarn and half-finished crochet projects, and another on top for my books, Kindle, and little odds and ends. Maybe once we're in our next house, I'll bite the bullet and get us actual nightstands with drawers. Just one minor detail on a huge list of things I'd like to upgrade someday.

And while we're speaking of furniture that needs an upgrade, may I recommend that you never, ever, ever buy this Ikea dresser? Worst purchase of our lives. It is the crappiest piece of furniture devised by mankind, but we have been too cheap to replace it, and have dealt with its issues for years. We stained it this dark color (it was unfinished when we purchased it), and it looks okay . . . but it's main problems are in the totally horrible construction. Two of my drawers don't close completely unless angrily kicked (a gentle kick won't do--must be delivered with fury), the bottom of one of Jeff's drawers continually falls out and must be reattached, and one of my drawers has a board that comes loose every time it is opened which must then be lined up perfectly and (again) kicked into place. It's a terrible piece of crap.

The mirror above the dresser was another hand-me-down from my mom, that I'm not totally sure about in that spot. (Thoughts?) I'm considering painting it a distressed white and hanging it on the wall. For now, it's just leaning there while I decide what to do. The two little birdhouses are from Hobby Lobby (quite a few years old now).

On the opposite side of the room we have the closet, and a rather big empty corner that I'm thinking would make a nice little reading area if I can find a cozy chair for a good price. But I am hesitant to buy anything specifically for this townhouse, since we know we won't be here very long. So this will probably never come to be, but I am clinging to the idea that someday, somewhere, I will have a charming little reading nook!

And that hanging on the wall (I have no idea what to call it) really pleases me. Yet another hand-me-down from my mom, that I haven't ever used until now because I wasn't sure what should go into the little basket area. I finally cut a piece of burlap to fit, and placed 3 fake plants from Ikea inside. I really like it.

And finally, the master bath, which I only took this one picture of, because do you really want to see the toilet and shower? They aren't anything too exciting or special, I promise, although I am really excited about having 2 sinks, as well as a good amount of cabinet space in here. The master bath in our previous house was about 1/3rd this size, with 1 sink and almost no storage space at all. Jeff eventually gave up and just moved all of his stuff into the kids' bathroom, since we couldn't ever get ready in our bathroom at the same time. First world problems in a serious way, but still. This feels very spacious and luxurious. Although I can't figure out why the builder would have installed 2 mirrors but only 1 light fixture, awkwardly centered between them?