Goodbye, Bedroom Carpet!

Hi, there. This post is about my bedroom makeover, and I'm participating in the One Room Challenge linking party with Linda from Calling it Home and lots of other amazing bloggers.  If you're interested in seeing my previous posts on this project, click here. And thanks for being here!

So, this happened:

Ahem. You may remember me saying this about our bedroom makeover:

"I know I can't refinish the hardwood floors under the carpet yet,  and I won't part with my ceiling fan that I love to sleep under in the summer, but I've got big plans for the rest of this room."

Yeah, well.

I've been reading lots of blog posts by ORC participants and a lot of them mention that this challenge is exactly what they need to motivate them or to "light a fire under" them to get something done. I've concluded that I walk around with a fire lit under me all the time, and link parties like this must just push me over the edge. I may try plumbing a bathroom in here pretty soon.

This all happened the same day we started talking about it. Max Cat had decided a corner of the carpet was his new wee-wee pad, so we'd decided to rent a heavy-duty carpet shampooer. Then a conversation started that snowballed like this:

"We should just get rid of the carpet."

"Yeah, we should have done that when we first moved in."

"The guy we bought the house from said there were nice wood floors underneath."

"You know, if it needs some repair, we could do it."

"I would love to have white painted floors, anyway!"

"This would be so easy!"

"I'm sold! Let's do this!"

Yes, my iPad is opened up to a YouTube video on how to remove carpet tack strips. I figured it out myself before the video loaded, though. Pry and pull!

We just worked our way around the room, moving furniture, pulling, prying, sweeping, mopping, and moving furniture again. It wasn't too hard, but it wasn't perfect.

This is a really small hole, and it looks like where an air grate used to be. I've seen lots of tutorials all over the place on how to patch a spot like this, so I think we can tackle this. Or put a rug over it.

As you can see, the floor is not yet lovely. It is painted brown and has paint splatters all over it. 

The plan that's bouncing around in my head right now is to give it all a light sanding, prime it and paint it. I'm just torn between white floors and gray floors. Rand votes for gray, since he thinks it will show less dirt and he doesn't think the floors should match the walls and the ceilings. I'm pulling for white, because this:

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and this:

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and this:

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Oh, Mylanta. So what do you think? Team White or Team Gray? Would I regret white floors for any reason? Any thoughts?

Also, I already own a gallon of BM Rockport Gray Porch and Floor Paint, if that makes a difference.

Linking Event + Guest Posting

Hello!

A couple things. First:

I'm a little late to the party, but hopefully they'll still let me in. During one of my daily hours-long blog reading sessions, I stumbled upon an linking event called the One Room Challenge from Linda at Calling it Home. Basically it's lots of bloggers reimagining rooms in a short period of time and then sharing it all at once. This is really my thing.

I decided to jump in because I just coincidentally happen to have started redoing a room of my own recently, and you know I want to talk about it. Plus, I love link-ups and discovering new blogs, but it's hard to find link-ups for decorating blogs (at least for me it is, is it easier for you?). And seriously, room makeovers put me on the edge of my seat. I'm really into this stuff.

So I'm joining in with my bedroom makeover. In case you missed it, here's my inspiration post for that room. It's already looking a lot different, so I'll share my results October 10th when everyone else does. In the meantime, that lovely button up there is now sitting on my sidebar, ready to send you straight to my bedroom makeover posts.

Next thing:

Are you seeing that "Featured On" button over there in the sidebar?  I've got a guest post up at Answers.com today! My husband's grandfather's sixties-but-not-swanky-modern bedroom set got a serious facelift this weekend, so click on over and take a peek. Please leave me a nice comment while you're there. I'm scared some jerk will leave some rude comment like "U Smell" or "Ron Paul 2012."

Oops! Bedroom spoiler alert! Here's the finished product:

And finally, I just want to say THANK YOU so much for reading this little blog. Blogging is so much more fun when you think someone's reading it. I really appreciate it.

There's Hope for This Bedroom

Psst: This is my first post of a whole bedroom makeover. This is part of the One Room Challenge Link Up from Linda at Calling it Home. If you like what you see here and you'd like to know what else happened in this room, here's the rest:

Linking Up
Goodbye, Bedroom Carpet
Adding Some Color Back Into My Bedroom
Thrifty Finds for My Bedroom

Here's the original post:

My poor master bedroom. I've failed this room over and over and over again. When we first moved in, it looked like this:

Then I decided I wanted it to be dark gray, but I accidentally chose a cold, dungeon-y dark gray and we had this (these are pre-blog photos showing different angles of the room, sorry!):

So then I repainted it with a warmer dark gray, and I realized I just don't really like dark gray paint in my house when I got this:

Some people can paint their walls dark gray and make it look amazing. I cannot, so I'm done with that and I will be painting these walls white.

But there's a problem. So stupid. When we first bought this house, I was excited to jump in and start changing things. And I had no clue what I was doing. I knew I wanted white trim, so I went to the store and bought some white paint and painted all the upstairs trim white. Great! Right?

No. Back then, I didn't realize that there are lots of different whites out there, and the white I chose is a bit of an "antique white" and it's a little warm. Meaning, when you put a true white next to it, it reads as a little...pink. So slightly, but enough to drive me crazy. Plus, I used a satin finish, so it just isn't as sparkly and bright as it should be.

So let's talk about what needs to happen here.

Master Bedroom To-Do List

+ Paint the trim BM Simply White in semi-gloss.
+ Paint the walls BM Moonlight White in a flat finish.
+ Repaint the bedroom furniture set (phase 1).
+ Replace the bedroom set with something more mid-century and leggy (phase 2).
+ Hang curtains to make the window look bigger. (Maybe more drop-cloth curtains, maybe stamped? Maybe a different fabric? Not sure.)
+ Find and buy new bedding I like.
+ Replace the lights on either side of the bed.
+ Add some plants.
+ Bring some color to this room with art and pillows on the bed.
+ Hang lamps from the ceiling.
+ Find a way to rearrange the furniture in a way I like.

After the gray paint debacle, I want bright and white. Here are some images of what I'm thinking for this room:

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Are you seeing it too? I know I can't refinish the hardwood floors under the carpet yet,  and I won't part with my ceiling fan that I love to sleep under in the summer, but I've got big plans for the rest of this room. I'm also excited to show you the new bedding. I'm off to go paint now!