Bedroom Remodel and Friendship

Me and my closest friend

One of the kindest things somebody has done for me was to help me remodel my bedroom. My bedroom, to say the least, was a mess. I once heard a decorator say that most people never do their bedroom - it's the place with all the leftover furniture, and a space where you throw all that old junk you don't know what to do with when you are picking up the house.

Mine was like that, only at some point years ago, I got it in my head that I should paint an "accent wall" a dark raisin color. Let's just say, it made a dark room even darker and there is a reason I didn't go into interior design. But I lived with it,  as a bedroom isn't a priority - nobody sees it.

Then, my oldest and dearest friend proposed a visit to see me, but not just any visit. She, who has electrical, construction, carpentry and design skills, was going to do a room makeover on that room.  She acknowledges what is hard to say: I likely will die in that room, and she wanted it to be a peaceful space for me.  And, she said she could do it in three days.

I wanted to see her and I really doubted we'd get any work done as it has been about a decade since we've managed to fly to each other's city, and there was a lot to catch up on in the short time I'm awake.   But it was fun to plan and dream. I set up a pinterest board with the style I wanted - Hollywood Glam. Because the room is so dark, I wanted to add lots of light and sparkle with mirrored furnishings, sheen on the bed, and crystal accents. And, because my husband's favorite color is purple, I decided that it would be the accent color. After all, he's going to have to live with it a lot longer than I will.

My friend came out and to my surprise - we worked! Actually, she and my oldest son and husband did most of the work, but I still managed to paint some trim. So, here are photos (testing the new panarama feature of the iPhone)  of the before and after on the bedroom.

Ugly raisin red colored back wall, fake brass bedrailing, red and gold colored bedding- some clutter is because we were moving things out and putting boxes in before the remodel, but also - it was cluttered.  

After.  gorgeous silver and mirrored furniture, bedding with plum, we spraypainted the headboard silver.!

Look at the panels she did on the wall, with wall paper that I painted purple.  The chair was a later find and now there are two of them, which is a story unto itself.  We spray painted an old chest of my husbands's and she put that fabric on it.

What you can't see is the crystal light fixture above the bed. It is just drops of crystal and she put it on a dimmer switch. At night, we leave it on the lowest setting and I look up and see beautiful firework colors. During the day, it throws light around in rainbows, just the way I'd hoped.

Because we were so successful, my friend found her passion. She is going to start a non-profit, fixing up rooms for the terminally ill. She will need to get materials and companies on board with her (I paid for the materials myself but she wants to do this for people for free or minimal costs), and I think it's a fantastic idea. (Her initial website is http://www.room4healing.blogspot.com.)  I find such beauty and peace every time I go in there.  It's clean and calm and pretty.  As soon as the non-profit is in place, I'll include it in my links of charities to give to.

In the meantime, I have the bedroom of my dreams, to match the friend of my life.