Our Farmhouse | Spring Bedroom Refresh

Jungalow Style Master Bedroom

Finally! The sun came out! So here we are with my latest interior project - a master bedroom refresh. Right now we're not in a place to dismantle our lives (ie the kitchen) for a big renovation, so decided to take on a smaller project instead. When I'm styling a space I tend to borrow from other rooms, and after I completed the master last year I moved around a lot of plants, books, odds and ends. The space was feeling a little empty. Time to refresh!

First let me share what stayed the same, which is actually a lot. The paint, window treatments and almost all of the furniture are still in use. We moved the crib over to the kids' room and in it's place I finally assembled a desk Adam gave me for mother's day last year (which was also the weekend we closed on this house and moved it, so that box became hidden under other boxes and on and on). I should also note that I kept my 'Secondhand First' mission with this space! My mom did bring me to a new set of sheets as a gift, but everything else is either second hand or self made. I'll go into detail below!

So what's new, Jess? Come on over and have a look!

Master Bedroom Secondhand First Jungalow Style
Custom Made Bedroom Pillows - Jessica Quirk
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Bedding

To brighten things up, I started with a new-to-me white coverlet (found second hand on etsy). Underneath are the organic cotton sheets my mom gave me, which are also white with a small grey print. I swapped out my navy bedskirt with a white version I already had in my linen closet. I also kept the two quatrefoil cream pillows and blue textured pillow that I made last year for this bed. Although green velvet might not conjure up spring to most, it reminded me of moss and since I have a thing for using houseplants in all of my rooms now, it helped pull those colors into the bed area. I'm not sure that last sentence totally makes sense. For the throw pillow I used a modern paisley with a combo of pompom trims that I made myself. (and for the bench makeover you'll see on the opposite side of the room). I also kept the white throw at the end of my bed. 

Behind the bed, I created a new headboard using 600 feet of cotton cord affixed to an oak base (which I also made). It was probably a week of knotting and Adam and I both love the end result!

Above the bed, I installed an oak shelf (on sturdy brackets, mounted to studs!). I'm still working on how I want to style it, so you'll see two different versions of that #shelfie in this post. One version has a Robert Cox oil painting I love and the other is just plants. I like how the painting brings in some blues and yellows (and in that version, I have the blue pillow on the bed) but I also like just plants. I might rearrange it every time I clean the room! Who knows! I've been playing around a lot with that shelf and I think as the plants mature and grow it's going to be even cooler.

Plants in Master Bedroom On Shelf Over Bed
Master Bedroom Update
Shelf Over Bed with Plants Jungalow style
Rattan Chair Makeover and Desk in Master Bedroom

Desk

The desk was a gift from last year and I'm keeping it simple with a couple plants and a framed photo of me and Felix. The chair was such a score for me - I'd been wanting to add something rattan to the space and this baby popped up at the Habitat ReStore just a couple days later. I sanded down the peeling poly and then rubbed on some beeswax conditioning paste I made. Finally, I used some leftover velvet to reupholster the seat. Hello retro! I love it! The woman who cut my fabric was like "is this color coming back in style? It's very 1970s!" to which I answered "I'm not sure, but that's exactly what I'm going for!" Green isn't going to float everyone's boat, but baby, it rocks mine! And velvet is just so lux! I used a 50% off coupon to buy it as well so la-ti-da!

Decor

Small basket wall i bedroom
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Over the wide dresser is my ever growing collection of baskets and trivets and anything straw. Everything is second hand minus the hat which I made myself. I also have a Calethia plant that I repotted (it made its first appearance in my upper living room) and is thriving now that I actually take care of it. It's kind of been one of those that I let totter near the edge of death before reviving (or used to!) Now she has more room for her roots and gets enough water to be happy. 

I swapped the location of the dressers, but kept the mirror where it was, so I put a plant, a globe and some yellow billy balls up there (those were formerly on my bedside tables!) Looks cute! On the left is the bench I reupholstered, using the same fabric as the throw pillow on the bed. Before it was a cat scratched mess with a loose leg and after it's sturdy and perfect for... gathering laundry and getting piled up with junk. Seriously. I'll try to keep it empty to use for putting on shoes or whatever. Mainly I bought it because I wanted a project and it was $6 so I'm pleased with the end result. 

MCM Dresser with Globe and Round Mirror
Habitate ReStore Bench Makeover

Lighting

Macrame Modern Light Update

I kept my same bedside lamps but finally installed an overhead light! You guys - I left the old wiring sticking out of my ceiling for 9 months. WTF?! Earlier this week I installed the new light, which I updated with some more macrame. It's subtle enough but still improves the look of a basic builder's fixture. And because I made it into a project, I consider it a "supply" which is kind of a round about way to keep within the second hand first. (I allow myself to buy project materials new.) Because nothing was up there at all, I couldn't just live with what I had and lights can be tricky finding used (there are plenty of boob flush mounts out there, but not my thing style wise). I hope there's no one out there bored enough to blog about the times I had to buy something new from the store! I'm sure I'm the only one who cares about the whole 'Make, Do, Mend' thing anyways!

Jungalow Style Master Bedroom Spring Refresh

So that's my spring refresh on my bedroom. I grew up with parents who loved to move around furniture and make small changes (or big, my mom would re-paint rooms all the time!) and it makes me happy to do the same thing. Huge thanks to my mom who helped me sew, pry out old staples and watch the kids so we could make this happen! If I missed anything, please let me know if the comments!

Our Farmhouse | Dining Room Makeover

MCM farmhouse dining room 1.JPG

Guys! I am so excited to share with you our latest finished project - the dining room! When I stepped foot in this house I saw so much potential and I think the completed dining space is a testament to that! While we normally tackle all of our reno work alone, this project included new hardwood floors (they're ash!) and a custom iron railing. The rest of the work - all us! And by us I mean me, Adam, my father in law Jim and my dad! Plus both grandmas who helped watch the kids while we worked over the course of many weekends. It's not like what you see on TV! This stuff takes weeks (or in our case, months!)

Come on over and let me tell you about it!

Before

before 1.jpg

This space is part of a 1965 addition the original owners designed for the house. Standing at this vantage point is what sold the house for me (really, I knew the moment I walked in that we were meant to live here. Read more about how we lost out on it at first and then how it all came to be here).

Fun fact: we're the third owners of the home and before us, it was all in one family! In fact, our next door neighbor was raised in this house! 

Adam and I love both farmhouse elements and midcentury style, so the blend of the two inspired this room.

Take a look at the carpet, wall texture and color, railings, steps, flower box and window awning - they're all about to change below!

 

After

MCM Dining Room in Farmhouse.jpg
Rug and Floors

Floors

When we moved in the dining room was carpeted. We knew we'd want to change that (hello sticky, messy kiddos!) but had other more pressing budget issues to take care of first. One night while looking around at lumber on craigslist, we found a local supplier who wanted to clear out his stock of mixed width ash. The price was incredible so we bought everything we could and we hired out the installation. Instead of staining it, we had a couple coats of oil and a top wax coat applied. We also had our back hallway and kitchen done in the same wood and plan to refinish the original hardwoods from the front living room in a similar fashion.

On top of the wood, I found this awesome black, grey and off white rug from AllModern (in the 8x11 size). It's indoor/outdoor (which I've found are awesome for cleaning and kids!) It sweeps up so easily but hides crumbs pretty well too. A win win! It's definitely one of the most bold elements in the room and I looooove it.

MCM farmhouse hybrid dining room.JPG

Furniture

I told Adam before we did this space I was going to try to do it all second hand or homemade (and that was before I decided to make that my mission for the whole year).  The side credenza came with us from our last home (in fact, we bought it when we first moved in together in Park Slope, Brooklyn!). The table - 'Brazilia' by Broyhill was a craigslist find. I reupholstered the chairs myself (not well enough to make a tutorial, sorry!) they've been scotch guarded and already clean up well. 

10 light chandelier

Lighting

The star of the room may be the 10 light chandelier, but getting it was not easy. The first one I ordered came broken and the replacement was backordered until March. The company told us to donate or trash the broken one, so we decided to try to fix it (failed) but put it up anyways while we waited for a few months. Long story short the new one came earlier than expected, but with globes broken so between the two we finally have one light fixture. The quality is not amazing, but it looks good hanging up. I wasn't willing to pony up the thousands of dollars for the original designer version. Whatever! LET THERE BE LIGHT! 

The lamp on the credenza was a vintage find and I recovered the shade myself. 

Walls and Windows

This space originally had paneling on the lower half of the wall. On the south side, we tore it out and installed new drywall (#neveragain) and on the west wall I used joint compound to fill in the grooves for a smooth finish. I googled numerous tutorials and watched YouTube clips and it's pretty straight forward! 

Next I painted the ceilings (basic white ceiling paint out of the can) and then the walls in Chantilly Lace (Benjamin Moore). I also painted the window trim and went bold by going with Black (also Benjamin Moore). I love the contrast and how it gives the room sort of a Scandinavian vibe!

railings.jpg

Railings

The old railings had more of a 1960s front porch feel than we wanted, so we took them out ourselves and had our pal Josh at Clutch Fabrications design new custom rails for us. So fresh! So clean! We also opted to change the edge from a double curve to one curve (where houseplants now live) and a straight edge. This was more economical for the metal work and also gave us an extra two feet of usable space in our dining room. 

Decor

Prints.jpg

Look familiar?! That's because I borrowed it from the upper living room. One of the things I like to do with decorating my house is to move things around from time to time. A lamp in the bedroom today might be in the living room tomorrow. Since we're not getting a lot of living done in the living room, I felt great about giving these piece a place to shine!

I did buy new frames back in 2017 from Target (available here and here). The candlestick holders are from Goodwill and the mirror is also from Target. On the table I made a quick runner using the same fabric as the lampshade and trimmed it with French grey pompom trim. 

Near the room's light switches I hung two botanical prints - a paw paw and a poplar. We have both on our property which is kind of cool! I found them at a garage sale many years ago! 

MCM credenza styling.jpg
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See the rest of my Farmhouse Makeover posts here!