The Big Reno Reveal... FINALLY!

Well, after months of chaos in our master bedroom, the last of the boxes of stuff that was being stored has been sifted through and removed and now, I can officially welcome you to our brand new master bedroom...

Come on in...

From the bedroom door looking into the room

Working our way clockwise around the room...

Looking back at the bedroom door as we make our way around...

Okay... we've made it around... so let's go into some details ...

It all started with this...

Lagoon Quilt from Bed, Bath and Beyond

Last Spring, Hubby and I, after months of searching for a new bed set, found this quilt and shams at Bed, Bath & Beyond in Raleigh, NC.  Finally we could begin to repaint our bedroom!  Using this as our jump off point, in early August, I head to Home Depot to pick up 2 gallons of CIL paint:  one can in "Green Grape" and one in "Quiet Blue".  I decided to paint the bed wall in the Green Grape to give it a little "ZING" and pull the palm frawns out of the quilt, but knew that too many walls in that color would be "too much!".  It turned out to be a perfect color to accentuate the golden brown of our pine bed.  The "Quiet Blue" is a soft blue with a hint of periwinkle.  So relaxing for our "Polynesian" theme we were aiming for.

Our tropical quilt against the "Green Grape" wall

I had picked up the LOVE picture frame last year at the annual Ganz outlet sale for a ridiculous price and decided to tell our love story in pictures using the frame, placed strategically over our "love nest".

From left to right: Hubby's baby picture; Engagement pic;
 Wedding pic; Honeymoon Pic; 2010 Vacation Pic; My Baby Pic

In August, you may recall, I blogged about my Sis from NC coming up to help me with accessorizing the bedroom.  Here are our great finds:

First off were the lamps:

Tropical Looking Table Lamps

Pineapple-like tops

I looked everywhere prior to my sister's arrival for tropical-themed lamps.  I had seen some online but they were well over $100-200 and I wasn't about to pay that for bedside lamps.  These we found at our first stop, Homesense, where we paid only $39.99 per lamp!  The second lamp is placed in the corner of the window wall to give light to that side of the room.  

Next, were the window treatments:

Billowy cotton gauze drapes

It has been well over a decade that Hubby and I have had proper window treatments on our bedroom window.  We've always relied on the white pull-down shade to block out the morning sun, but the windows never quite looked finished until my sister's great eye caught these beauties... and only $16.99 per window tab at BouClair!  As the wind blows in the window, the movement of these sheer beauties takes me to a tropical island where the sea breezes blow in through the sheers!  Aaahh!!

While in Homesense, my sister saw this cool little planter:

Adding some tropical flair...

and she picked it up for us as a "room warming" gift.  It's hollow inside with a little planter box at the top.  I threw empty plastic shopping bags in to store them for the bathroom garbage and then found the plant at walmart for less than $8.  Adds the perfect tropical touch, don't you think?

In September, my sister brought up a gift for me, as a thank you for having her stay in August.  She'd bought it at home in NC but couldn't fly it up with her in August so she brought it up when they drove back to Canada for a family wedding in September.  Here's what was in the bag she brought:

Great little touches, don't you think?  For my birthday, a girlfriend who knew of my bedroom theme, picked up this for me:

I still have to find the perfect picture to go inside but hopefully after our Bahamas cruise we'll have the perfect picture to add inside the frame.

So... that's the bedroom... ready to see the expensive part of the redo?

First off, we gutted the walk-in closet which was so disgustingly messy and inefficient.  We went to a local organization store in our neighborhood, Solutions, where we designed and assembled this:

Our beautiful new walk-in closet...

We took down the old single bars and added double bars...

which left oodles of space for shelves!
We added new track lighting as well!

Inside the closet I found the perfect place for one of the gifts my sister had given me for my birthday:

I love me some flip flops!

The closet has given us so much more storage space and with it being so organized, we decided to take the door off which allowed us the extra space to hang the flip flop hook and hang up my mirror that had sat propped against the bedroom wall for years.  

Now onto our final piece of the bedroom reno puzzle... our ensuite:

Our new ensuite

For this little room we decided it needed more than a new coat of paint.  We gutted the room, replacing the old "bone" colored toilet and grody sink and vanity with a new energy efficient dual-flush toilet and vanity/sink... in fresh white!  We chose a higher seat toilet, which in hindsight (no pun intended) makes us feel like we're about 5 with our little feet dangling down a bit (but we figure in a few years we'll love it when we don't have to bend down too far to sit).  The new vanity is also for taller folks, not that we could tell in the Lowe's, but we're loving having a vanity with drawers and better use of storage space.  I found a tropical looking garbage pail similar to the planter in the bedroom and I painted the old wooden toilet/magazine holder in the same "Quiet Blue" of the room to give it a more fun, beachy look.  Speaking of beach...

Life's A Beach!

This wall hanging was another of my birthday gifts from my NC sister she brought for me in August when she came to stay.  Seriously... I couldn't have done my room without her now could I?

Remember when I wrote last about my crazy week running back and forth to Lowe's?  This was what I was in search of:

Fresh new en-suite

... the cabinets!  After bringing home 3 different medicine cabinets, this is the one we chose.  It has a push-in mirror that opens up to 3 fairly thin, but useful shelves.  I like how it looks like a picture frame around the mirror.  I also picked up the over-the-toilet cabinet.  I had put one similar down in the powder room on the main floor that had a towel bar beneath.  It was a Debbie Travis "Nantucket" cabinet from Canadian Tire and was discontinued.  Because I wanted needed a towel bar I decided to purchase one on it's own and had Hubby assemble it onto the bottom of the white cabinet.  Voila...!  Who needs the Nantucket after all!

So... the bedroom is pretty much finished now.  The only thing I think that is missing is a lovely, large print of a tropical location across from the bed either in the corner or I'll move the wooden shelf over Hubby's dresser and put one there.  I may try and take one of our own photos from the Caribbean to have mounted as a large poster/picture, or I may find one online like this to get printed:

My Ultimate Bucket List Destination - Bora Bora

Hope you enjoyed your tour of our new and improved Love Nest!