Decorating, DIY Art, DIY Monochromatic Art, home decorating, Redecorating, Style, The City House, Truly Madly Deeply

Updating the Master Bedroom on the Cheap

I made an monochromatic art piece a while back that I did not show in the place where it was going to hang because, well, um… I was a little embarrassed about the state of my master bedroom. Right now I do not have the time or energy for a major overhaul, but a little redo will help it.
Here is the before picture:

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There are several things I like about the room. I love that we have new carpet, I like the accent wall where the two windows are. I like the size.

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I cannot tell you what I was thinking when I bought brown bedding. It is wrong for many reasons. I never liked the bedding with the wall color, it is dark and we have a light colored cat and while I love the art piece above the bed, a family piece, it was too small above the bed.

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For Christmas Hubby bought me a camera. I am learning to use the camera so hopefully you will notice an improvement in the photo quality soon. Today the pictures are all ipad because Hubby is ready to leave for Star Hill.
The camera was a deal and came with a rewards program. There were enough points to get me a suit, my mom a coat, and a bedding set. I am not the bedding set kind of person generally, but I really liked this set and I can finally show you the artwork up in the room. I am by no means finished with the room but I wanted you to see what a big difference changing the bedding makes.

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The next projects in the room will be the addition of accessories, I need more storage and I want to add a little more art.
The family piece did get to stay.

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Right now the dresser is filled with my shell angel collection for Christmas, but it needs to be beautified. It is normally empty. I need help with what to do here…HELP!

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This coming year will be a year of projects. The city house needs a back yard redo, bathroom updating, and the family room will be finished. Star Hill is getting a porch redo and deck work. Oh, and there will be a wedding this summer! The Southern Belle is getting hitched.

DIY Monochromatic Art, The bedroom, Truly Madly Deeply

DIY Monochromatic 3 Dimensional Art

 

I do love finding treasures in the trash. Two weeks ago on my way to work there it was. A giant framed art piece leaning against a trash can waiting for the truck to whisk it off to the landfill. If you know me at all, you know that I stopped and jammed it into the back seat of my car. I did not have an idea what I wanted to do with this piece. I already have a huge chalkboard and recently made a paint chip piece from another large framed print. I knew something would come to me if I would just be patient. While looking through Pinterest, ran across this artwork for sale.

Truly Madly Deeply
I loved it. Our master bedroom is a little lacking in artwork. Something like this piece would be amazing, but $515.00 plus shipping is way out of my comfort zone. I thought the idea of a monochromatic piece above our bed would be restful. I have  been happily married to my best friend for over thirty years. I think that the words from the Savage Garden song just fits in our room. I knew that I had found inspiration for the rescued art piece.
I developed a plan.  Use the frame and hopefully the print, look for letters that are the correct size, map it out, glue it down, paint it then ta-dah.  Oh how I wish things went this well for me…

The plan worked perfectly until I priced out the letters. It cost $40.00 for the letters and spray paint- and that was with a coupon! I was thrilled to find that the print in the frame was glued to hardboard and was stapled into place. I really thought this would go quickly until I discovered the frame was not painted, it was covered with a sort of wallpaper like stuff that had to come off. After I determined that the frame was solid wood and worth the effort, I peeled off the paper that came off easily then got busy with a wire brush on the parts that did not come off easily. Two hours later the frame was clean.

As I got ready to put the letters down I recruited the math teacher that lives at my house to help. No way did I want to mess up a $40.00 project.  I have whole pieces of furniture that didn’t cost that much!  He mapped it out for me with a ruler. I carefully drew a pencil outline around each letter before I started gluing the letters down one by one with E6000 I already had on hand.

After the glue down process, I applied weight to the whole thing in order to make sure they were stuck to the board completly.
Next I had to fill in the holes in the bottom of some of the letters with painter’s putty. It had the nerve to turn coolish this week so I did not get the chance to spray paint the picture for a few days. It was torture to see it sitting there not painted, but I have been feeling a little under the weather so being in the unheated garage was out.
Finally, Friday after work the stars and planets aligned.  Low humidity, no wind and warm enough to paint. I chose Krylon Ivory in a satin finish.

It looked pretty rough afte the first can of paint.  Why oh why do I think I can get away without priming?

Sooo after a trip to the store for spray primer and more paint…grrr.

I ended up with this beauty.