The Blue Room

I have had the worst time trying to photograph this room!  All the photos come out too dark.  Maybe I should use a flash on a real camera instead of my iPhone!  Ya think? 

Anyway, here's a preliminary glimpse of it.  Mark says this is now his favorite room.  It's still got a ways to go but it's getting there.  I've already posted pictures of a lot of it but not the main view of the bed -- so here it is! 

Next I'm planning to put a shelf just above this window that goes all the way across the wall.  We'll put lots of cool vintage RED things on it -- probably mainly old toys because we're like that! 

The trundle bed (originally $130 from IKEA) was $29 at the thrift store. The trundle and both mattresses were free.  I splurged $15 on the tan damask coverlet and two matching pillow shams.  All the rest of the bedding was free except for the long, rectangular tan damask pillow which I made out of this pair of pants that I paid 27 cents for.  Clothing is a really good source of cheap or free fabric if you don't need large quantites!

The two red pillow cases were free from Angel Stephanie. Everything else in this photo was free except the brown menswear-ish curtain fabric --  I paid $3 for it and made 4 curtain panels. I'm still waiting for the bed skirt or it's inspiration to find it's way to me!  

I hate both lamps but they're still a work in progress.  The one on the right was an experiment is spray paint!  It was once brass but I sprayed it brown which is much better.  This is also where I learned that you can spray paint lamp shades -- though it would probably look better if I hadn't run out of paint half way through!  I hate that ugly table lamp on the left -- AND the ugly shade -- but they WERE free!  I'm patiently waiting for an idea to recreate them.  I'm also working up courage and inspiration to delve into making some interesting lamp shades.  We'll see!


The square white pillow was made from a white oxford shirt that I found in a dumpster.  Here is a photo essay of it's creation. 

Free white oxford shirt with spot on shoulder.

Measuring to cut (inside out).

Cut.  Ready to sew.

Ugly free pillow about to sacrifice it's stuffing.

Stuffing freed of it's ugly cover and ready for it's new pretty cover!

Of course I don't have a proper photo of the finished product because it just doesn't occur to me that I'll need a close-up shot of a pillow until I write a post about it!  But you've seen oxford shirts and you can kind of see in the photo above that it has the buttons going down the middle and the breast pocket remains as well and it just looks like an oxford shirt pillow  -- like it should!

Beside the trundle bed, on the right, is a vintage radio cabinet (free) that I use for blanket storage (wish I had a better photo of it too!).

All free stuff (including the lamp and radio cabinet everything is sitting on) except the globe ($3).

This room also has the vintage Coke box ($40), the little car-laden shelves (free), and the stack of vintage suitcases (free) that I've shown you before (but I'll include photos for the sake of thoroughness and newcomers)!

All free stuff except the Coke box ($40), the picnic basket ($2), and the Walmart truck (a gift from Mark's son Noah).

Free vanity stool and free lamp (which I hate but it will be transformed at some point!).

All free.  The suitcases provide great storage!