Ikea Dresser Makeover: One Room Challenge Week 5

2 Comments October 31, 2018 hollandavenuehome

Hi, everyone! I’m back for WEEK FIVE of the One Room Challenge.

If you’re finding me through the One Room Challenge, welcome to my home on the internet! I’m Avery and I live in rural Iowa with my husband. You can learn more about me here, and see some of my previous design work in my kitchen. My design style is cozy, whimsical, and collected. I’ll be sharing my One Room Challenge progress on my Holland Avenue Home Instagram. Thanks for following along!

Here’s a recap of my posts for the One Room Challenge so far.

Week 1: Cozy Eclectic Master Bedroom Design Plan

Week 2: Moody Accent Wall

Week 3: DIY Throw Pillows and Vintage Artwork

Week 4: Hand-Painted Modern Chinoiserie Mural

And here’s a reminder of my vision for our colorful, cozy, eclectic Master Bedroom Update.

We’ve been out of town since last Thursday, so my progress this week is not very monumental! We went to Ikea in Kansas City on our way to visit our friends, and picked up their classic Tarva dresser. We wanted some extra drawer storage in our bedroom for sweaters and winter items that need to be folded and take up a lot of space.

We looked at all of the dresser options, and finally decided on the Tarva. It matches our Tarva nightstands, which Ben really liked!

We planned to buy the three drawer dresser since we don’t need a ton of extra space, but when we got to the warehouse, it was out of stock!

This is the dresser we ended up purchasing. It was $30 more than the one we planned to buy, but we figured that the extra $30 meant we now have a second full size dresser that we could use in another bedroom down the road. I’ll use the top drawer for jewelry storage, and we can give our sweaters plenty of breathing room in the other four drawers!

We are staining the dresser with Minwax Dark Walnut stain, and replacing the standard Ikea knobs with black hardware from Hobby Lobby. I plan to hang our gold Target mirror above this dresser, and store my every day jewelry on top.

Between today and next Wednesday, I have to paint the entire mural and finish up the sunroom. As long as I don’t get sick again, I should be able to do that no problem! I can’t believe that the 6 weeks is almost over!

That’s all for this week! Be sure to check out all of the other Guest Participants in the One Room Challenge to follow along with their progress!

I’ll share behind the scenes sneak peeks on my Instagram Stories this week, so follow along there if you want the inside scoop on mural painting before next Wednesday! If you’d like to be reminded when new posts go live, enter your email in the “Brighten my Inbox” tab on the right side of your screen.

Thanks for following along with me here on Holland Avenue Home, and don’t forget to follow along with the rest of the One Room Challenge Blog to see all of the Featured and Guest Designers!

(UPDATE: Don’t miss the final reveal in my Week 6 post below!)

Cozy Eclectic Master Bedroom Before & After: One Room Challenge Week 6

Hand-Painted Modern Chinoiserie Mural: One Room Challenge Week 4

9 Comments October 24, 2018 hollandavenuehome

Hi, everyone! I’m back for WEEK FOUR of the One Room Challenge.

Here’s a recap of my posts for the One Room Challenge so far.

Week 1: Cozy Eclectic Master Bedroom Design Plan

Week 2: Moody Accent Wall

Week 3: DIY Throw Pillows and Vintage Artwork

And here’s a reminder of my vision for our colorful, cozy, eclectic Master Bedroom Update.

Because I am also a crazy person and don’t know how to do things halfway, I decided to include the attached sunroom in my Master Bedroom update! You can read about my design plans for the sunroom in the Cozy Eclectic Master Bedroom Design Plan: One Room Challenge Week 1 post, but the main thing you need to know is that I am hand painting a mural.

I wanted the mural to be inspired by the floral bird fabric that I used to make pillows for our bed. (Pictured in the moodboard above!) I decided this about a month ago (~~wait where did October go?~~) and in my head I was just calling it my “floral bird mural inspired by my floral bird fabric”. Which brings me to my next point.

Have you ever heard the term, “chinoiserie”? I hadn’t until this week.

If you asked me what “chinoiserie” was before I knew, I probably would’ve guessed that it was a French boutique that sells either lingerie or baked goods. Or both. I don’t know. The French have some pretty crazy boutiques.

I was still in the sketching and planning phase of my floral bird mural, when I saw a new post from the Queen of design herself, Emily Henderson. The post is called Is Chinoiserie Making A Comeback? Let’s Discuss. Not knowing what the heck “chinoiserie” was, and assuming it could have something to do with pastries, I sat down to investigate.

GUYS. CHINOISERIE IS BASICALLY A FANCY FRENCH WORD FOR FLORAL BIRD MURALS, AND THEY’RE BACK!

I didn’t know they left, because I didn’t know they existed and were a whole category of design. So now my burning question is: does this put me ahead of or behind the trends? I have no idea! I had the idea before Queen Henderson’s staff said it was back, which either means I’m way ahead of the game or that I decided to incorporate something that was dated and “out”. Either way, florals and birds are two of my favorite elements to use in art, so when the post asked if I was “on board the chinoiserie train”, I could confidently say that I’ve been riding that train for my whole life without knowing where it was going or what it was called.

Chinoiserie is back, and I’m on board.

Here are some examples from Emily Henderson’s blog post of what her team is calling “modern chinoiserie”. The traditional interpretation is the definition of maximalism, with decadent prints and colors and textures and drapes that were probably on the Titanic. Modern chinoiserie is sophisticated and can work brilliantly with more minimal design aesthetics. (The following four images are from Emily’s blog and you can find the original sources there!)

I want to give that blue wall a hug. That will always be my favorite color.

This room just radiates “cool”. The chandelier. The cane barrel chairs. THE FLORAL BIRD MURAL AKA CHINOISERIE AKA MY NEW FAVORITE THING.

This smaller scale wallpaper is gorgeous, and is the perfect feminine contrast to that statement light fixture.

I have a soft place in my heart for blue kitchens, and that tiny little mural might convince me to paint my own next to my pantry. We will see how the first mural goes, though. I might have a new favorite hobby or I might want to retire from painting forever. We’ll see.

After falling in love with my new favorite design element, I was ready to start sketching.

I grabbed my pencil and a stepladder, made my way up to the sunroom, and decided to just go for it. After studying the elements of my fabric and many examples of chinoiserie wallpaper, I found a pattern by Rifle Paper Company that is basically their take on chinoiserie. Some of my floral shapes will be based on their pattern, but I’m going to stick to my own creativity for creating the pattern and color palette!

I’ve been sick this week, so 100% of my Week 4 progress has taken place in the last two hours. I’ve been intimidated to start actually sketching out my mural on the wall, so I’ve been putting it off. But we’re going out of town this weekend, so I knew I needed to make some serious progress tonight!

I had to edit this image so you could see my fine pencil sketches, but there is progress! I didn’t fill in the details on the flowers or branches or leaves, and my sketch isn’t finished, but I started! That’s all the progress I have for this week, but I have a feeling that it will be easier to make progress now that I took the scary step of putting pen to paper (er… pencil to wall).

It wasn’t a decorating update, and it won’t be part of my before and after post, but I did spend some significant time “updating” our Master Bedroom this week. I cleaned out our closet and dresser! After purging all of the things we didn’t wear, we suddenly had way more space for our clothes to breathe. Instead of being way too full of things we don’t wear, with the things we do wear not having space after laundry, we’re just left with the things we love and wear on a regular basis! It has cleared my mind so much to know that everything has a home in our closet and dresser, and getting dressed is so easy because I only kept the things I absolutely loved. (I put some exclusively summer blouses and dresses in a rubbermaid box in a guest closet, but even without taking those away we had so much more space).

Ben and I decided we could use more drawer space for sweaters that take up a lot of room and can’t go on a hanger, so we are going to buy a small dresser when we go to Ikea on Monday. (Ps. I get to go to Ikea on Monday!!!) Our current dresser is quite large, but the drawers are not very deep and we don’t want to shove sweaters in drawers that are too small.

It will go in the empty corner of our bedroom and I plan to work out some kind of jewelry storage situation on top of the dresser, because my jewelry currently does not have a home.

I’ll share mural progress and details about which dresser we chose next Wednesday in my WEEK FIVE POST. I AM STRESSED JUST SAYING THE WORDS “WEEK FIVE POST” but we will get there, friends. This is all just for fun anyway, and I’m enjoying the crazy train that is the One Room Challenge!

That’s all for this week! Be sure to check out all of the other Guest Participants in the One Room Challenge to follow along with their progress!

Thanks for following along with me here on Holland Avenue Home, and don’t forget to follow along with the rest of the One Room Challenge Blog to see all of the Featured and Guest Designers!

(Update: Follow along with the last two weeks of the challenge!)

Ikea Dresser Makeover: One Room Challenge Week 5

Cozy Eclectic Master Bedroom Before & After: One Room Challenge Week 6

DIY Throw Pillows and Vintage Artwork: One Room Challenge Week 3

Leave a comment October 17, 2018 hollandavenuehome

Hi, everyone! I’m back for week 3 of the One Room Challenge.

Here’s a recap of my posts for the One Room Challenge so far.

Week 1: Cozy Eclectic Master Bedroom Design Plan

Week 2: Moody Accent Wall

And here’s a reminder of my vision for our colorful, cozy, eclectic Master Bedroom Update. This is what the view looked like after I painted a moody accent wall . (Paint color details can be found in my Week 2 post!)

I said last week that the accent wall made such a difference that I would be happy to stop there and call it good. But I am so glad I kept going, because the new pillows and artwork add so much personality and warmth!

Here’s what our bedroom looks like after the addition of some custom throw pillows and special vintage artwork.

The colorful fabric on the pillows makes everything feel so warm!

The indigo throw at the end of the bed is from the Chelsea Flea Market in New York City. I picked it up on my trip to New York a few weeks ago for the Better Homes & Gardens Stylemaker Celebration. (My recap post is still coming. I’ve been busy!)

The Pillows and Indigo

When I saw the berry colored floral bird fabric at Mood, I knew instantly that it needed to be in my house. It is my “spirit fabric”. It’s like a spirit animal, but fabric. If I were a pillow, I would be this floral bird pillow. I decided I needed to find Ben’s “spirit fabric” since it’s his bed, too, so I found this green plaid flannel that I knew he would love. Now we have both of our “spirit fabrics” as pillows for our bed, and I’m pretty giddy about it. I already had the navy euro pillows from Ikea.

My original plan was to sew standard shams from the bird fabric to place in front of the euro pillows, but after doing some research about proper bed making I decided that it would be better to sew two 20×20 pillow covers. The advantage to this decision is that if I ever get tired of them on my bed (which I don’t foresee), I could always put them on my couch. I couldn’t put two standard shams on my couch. (Well… I guess I can do whatever I want… but in the design world, that might be silly!) I bought the lumbar pillow form from Hobby Lobby, and I already had the two 20×20 pillow inserts for the bird fabric.

I’m absolutely in love with how everything came together, and the warm colors and faded indigo throw are a match made in heaven. I’ve recently been attracted to darker, moodier colors, and this new bedding fits right in with those changing preferences.

The Artwork

When Courtney from Dandy Roll reached out about partnering together, it only took one glimpse at their Instagram page for me to say “YES YES YES!”

I met Courtney in Joplin when we both had paper companies and sold greeting cards and art prints at craft fairs. She now owns a boutique in Rogers, Arkansas, with her husband. Dandy Roll has a wide selection of curated vintage prints. Whether you’re looking for botanical prints, vintage maps, or my favorite, vintage bird prints, she has it all.

Here are a few of my favorites that she has available online right now.

No. 1 | Vintage birds

No. 2| Pigeon print

I’ve also had my eye on this Oak Stopper Carafe.

I love everything that Courtney has curated for Dandy Roll, but the prints she sent me have a special significance for me and Ben.

I asked if she had any vintage maps of Iowa, and she did! That got my wheels turning, and I had the idea to frame a series of maps that represent the places that Ben and I have immediate family. She happened to have three maps (all from the same series) that I could frame as a set! From left to right, the maps are Turkey (where Ben’s parents live), Iowa (where Ben’s sister and her family, Ben’s brother, and we live), and Kentucky (where my parents and sister live). This personal touch is very special to us. I love vintage maps of all sorts, but it is very cool to have a visual representation of the places that are dear to us.

They are the perfect addition to this moody green accent wall, and I love the vintage warmth and personality that they add to this view.

Thank you, Courtney, for adding such a special treasure to our home!

After a few inquiries on Instagram, I said I would share a tutorial for the pillow covers I made. I don’t have time to include them in this evening’s post, but I will share that tutorial with some photos as soon as I can!

I originally planned to stain our Ikea nighstands this week, but after seeing them against the moody accent wall, we decided to leave them. We were going to stain them so there would be more contrast, but after adding the darker paint color we liked the look of the lighter wood. (Especially because the lamp legs, headboard, doors, and trim are all darker wood). Yes, it is one less change for the update, but I wasn’t going to do something just for the sake of blogging about it. We like them just the way they are, so I’m calling it good!

This week I will start on my updates for the sunroom (which is just on the other side of that door in the photo above). I’ll be clearing it out, finishing the white paint, and starting my mural that is inspired by the floral bird fabric! Aside from styling the rest of our bedroom, the sunroom will be the majority of the next three weeks of the challenge. I know that the hand-painted mural will be time consuming, but I find painting to be very therapeutic. Ben will be volunteering to run sound for the local high school’s theater production, so I’ll have quite a few evenings home by myself to paint paint paint (and paint some more.)

That’s all for this week! If you’re looking for a CHEAP and high-impact way to make a big change in your bedroom, new pillow covers are the way to go. You don’t need to buy all new bedding or new pillows. Just recover pillows you already have! I have white sheets and duvets on all of our beds so that I can easily switch out pillow covers when I want a style change.

I’ll be back next Thursday with more progress on my Cozy Eclectic Master Bedroom Update. Be sure to check out all of the other Guest Participants in the One Room Challenge to follow along with their progress!

I’ll share behind the scenes sneak peeks on my Instagram Stories this week, so follow along there if you want the inside scoop on mural painting before next Thursday! If you’d like to be reminded when new posts go live, enter your email in the “Brighten my Inbox” tab on the right side of your screen.

Thanks for following along with me here on Holland Avenue Home, and don’t forget to follow along with the rest of the One Room Challenge Blog to see all of the Featured and Guest Designers!

(UPDATE: Don’t miss the last three posts for this six-week challenge!)

Hand-Painted Modern Chinoiserie Mural: One Room Challenge Week 4

Ikea Dresser Makeover: One Room Challenge Week 5

Cozy Eclectic Master Bedroom Before & After: One Room Challenge Week 6