Weekend DIY - Bedroom Painting

As part of my new years resolutions list, I'm hoping to jazz up my apartment a bit. I'm coming at it room by room, polishing off each room before moving on to the next. The first room might be the most important to me, our bedroom.

Boring Walls...

I know...the mess...but that's how it is sometimes...

 I don't spend too much time in my bedroom outside of dressing and sleeping, to be honest. But I want it to be a calm, elegant retreat that I can spend more time reading in. I've seen a lot of great bedrooms painted gray lately, and with our golden brass bed and blue/cream comforter, I thought gray would be perfect for my room, too.

I went with a Valspar paint in Simply Gray, in their Signature line, and one gallon was enough to cover the entire room, thank goodness! Our entire apartment is painted the generic off-white, so the change was greatly needed.

Ellie upset that we messed up that we covered her bed

I did it right this time too, took time to tape the trim so it came out even, and covered that bed and comforter like crazy so I didn't accidentally splatter some paint on it. My mom bought the bed frame for $800 in the 1970s, and polished it up and gave it to me just a few months ago. Isn't it gorgeous!?

It only took about six hours for us to finish the room, a Saturday night and a Sunday afternoon, but now I'm worn out and ready for bed!

Paint is one of the easiest ways to drastically change the feel of a room, and it already seems calmer to me! Or maybe that's just the paint fumes...

the world didn't end....

SO LET'S MAKE WINTER  JAR TERRARIUMS!


So the world didn't end, apparently. Maybe it did end, and we all just don't know it? Sixth Sense style. Has anyone checked in with Australia? 

Well, I'm still here, and I came across these ADORABLE winter scene terrariums/dioramas in Martha Stewart Living's December issue.

This made for a fun Saturday afternoon project, and can be made as simple or as complex as you'd like.

I went to Michaels and picked up a mini glue gun, some fake snow, and because I couldn't find any small figurines like Martha used, I grabbed some Christmas/winter-themed buttons. For the base, I used an old glass sauce jar that I had saved in the kitchen. 

Because I used a glass canning jar, I needed something to bring my scene up above the copper rim of the lid. I found a random paper condiment cup in my craft bin and glued that to the inside of the lid. It was the perfect height to peek up over the lid.

Elmer's Glue painted across the clay mound held my fake snow in place, and I hot-glued my buttons into a little scene

Before I screwed the lid into place, I tossed some extra loose snow into the jar to fill up the gap between the condiment cup and the glass. 

 This would make an adorable hostess gift for a holiday party or decoration for your home. 
 

If I were to do this again, I would use a bell jar terrarium, something larger than just a canning jar, so that I could make a larger scene. I'd also look around for a few pretty objects, like Martha's penguins or skiers. 



These monogram wreaths are going to have to be my next holiday DIY - aren't these gorgeous? Via Anthropologie Magazine and Camille Styles, a blogger I've JUST discovered. I think she's going to become a new favorite of mine :)