My vanity corner

I mentioned in this post about our bedroom that I was working on turning this little corner in our bedroom into a vanity area.

It was my best idea ever. There were a few reasons why a vanity came to mind here... 1. The desk didn't have another home, and I seriously got this awesome West Elm desk for like $70 at the Pottery Barn Outlet last year. I'm just not wanting to part with it. 2. Our bathroom does not have drawers, which means that I basically never put on makeup, because it is too much work to get it all out, ha. 3. I have very curly, thick hair that takes forever to blowdry and straighten, so I have absolutely no interest in doing it unless I can sit down.  So, it worked out when we moved around furniture and had some extra space in the room! 

I had already updated this garage sale chair with the same spray paint and a couple dollars worth of this gray and white chevron fabric from Hobby Lobby. 

Then, I found this ugly plastic brass mirror at my favorite thrift store for $26 and gave it a nice coat of white semi-gloss spray paint. 

I put all of my makeup brushes in a drinking glass and that milk glass footed bowl is holding the makeup that I use almost every day. 

I put my perfume on a little cake stand I had, not that I usually wear any. Having a husband with fragrance allergy is so fun.

The great thing about this desk is that it has a separate piece underneath that rolls out really far. So I was able to (with a little purging) fit all of my makeup under there. Now, should you wonder, I worked at ULTA during high school and college. I'm happy to say that outside of my wedding makeup and mascara and eyeliner, I haven't bought makeup products in four years. And the stuff is mostly powder eyeshadows and blushes, so it's not goin' bad, and if it does I don't care.

This is what it looks like with the desk rolled out.

Oh, and the necklace holder. It's just a rustic wood frame that we used as a sign at our wedding. I backed it in foam board and covered it in fabric and then a piece of lace, and use specimen pins to hold up my necklaces. 

Our bedroom

When we first moved in (almost a year ago, oh my goodness!), our bedroom looked like this:

The photo only makes it look dark because it was taken at dusk right when we got into the house. We actually like the paint color, so not much has really changed in this room besides adding blinds, curtains, our furniture, and new carpet. We do have plans to paint the room this summer, though! Here's a picture of how it looks now from the same view, from the double entry doors.

All of the bedding I've actually had for years. I love our white organic bamboo sheet set from Target. The only problem is how dingy they get, so I may need to buy a new set soon! The quilt is from Marshall's a few years ago and is reversible. We don't need much else on the bed during the hot Texas summers.

I love how the gray and white striped body pillow cover looks with the plain bedding. I found it at Target.

This is looking to the other corner of the room, where you can see the bathroom door. In the corner is a vanity I'm working on for myself.

The gallery above the bed is one of my favorite parts about our room. I love the different frames I've collected over time and how all of the pictures tell a story of us. They're mainly pictures from our wedding or engagement photos. There are a lot of photos of our family and friends there as well. I love the framed lyrics to a song that was played at our wedding.

This corner window was a little bit hard to "dress", because as far as I know they don't sell any curtain rods that connect in the corner for windows like this. So I just kind of makeshifted this solution, which was just to take the finnials off the two ends and make it look like the rod comes to a corner, even though it really doesn't! The curtain rods were found at Marshall's and the white curtains a bargain from Home Goods.

This little ledge is actually a really special DIY. We found the old wood board at the old home where Aaron's grandmother grew up. I just attached L-brackets to it and then attached it to the wall, and it now holds some frames with more pictures, tealights, and a little jar with some fake flowers and our cake topper.

This little corner is what I'm working on turning into a vanity. I first need to get a nice big mirror for the area. I love being able to fix my hair and put makeup on right here, where I keep all of my products in the little drawer. It works so much better than our drawer-less bathroom. I recovered that chair from a garage sale and gave it a coat of paint. 

 And last but not least on this little tour of our bedroom is this beautiful quilt at the end of our bed. Aaron's grandmother quilted this for us as a wedding gift and it is so colorful and lovely.

Thanks for viewing this little tour of our bedroom! There will definitely be a few more updates to come!

Master Bedroom Gallery Wall

Hammering the first nails into our house's walls was nervewracking. I was so scared of making a mistake, which isn't even something I worried about in our apartment. There's something about the house that seems so permanent, though... but the ironic thing is I know in the back of my mind that any changes CAN be made!

So it took a while to hang things on our walls. In the downstairs I'm still not sure where I want to put a lot of things. I am an extremely indecisive person to the point where it might be unhealthy. In our bedroom, however, I knew how and what I wanted to hang.... it was just a little scary.

I knew I liked our mini gallery wall above our bed in our apartment, but I didn't like that we had so many things hanging so many places on almost every wall. I wanted to combine things, so that's just what I did.

I've never tried the method of cutting out paper the size of the frame you're using, taping up, putting a nail through it, and then hanging the picture on that. It sounds lovely, but I wasn't patient enough to sit and measure out and cut paper for all of my frames. My method was lazy and different but it worked for me.

First, I laid all of the frames out in the arrangement I wanted, on my bed. It took some moving around, but I finally got it just right.

Then I measured out how long and high that was, and figured out where I should start to position on my wall. Then I one by one, took frames and hung them with thumbtacks where they were to go. I hung everything in our apartment with thumbtacks, and Aaron was sooo mad! He's one of those people that only likes to hang things perfectly on the studs. I however, don't really care and I will hang whatever, wherever (unless it poses a safety risk). 

Eventually I went through and replaced all of the thumbtacks with nails and used the tiny pinhole as a guide. It worked so beautifully.

I'll also share the other progress we've made in the room. This is the view from the door. The curtains are very makeshift, we just threw ours up there on the rods that were in here. We hate that they don't fully cover the windows, but are still deciding what to do about that.

The rug was $19.99 from Ross. It is great and covers a stain.

We actually really like the paint color, so that will be staying for the time being. Next up for this room: curtains!