This lovely bedroom in our 1890s home is cheerful and inspiring. It has a partial view of the river and entire neighbourhood from the highest vantage point in our house and charming bay windows. This is the before – real estate photo. The photographer makes the room much bigger than it is, but that’s OK.

There was a warm area rug covering the entire floor. The desk and built-in shelving were great for a teenager, but not needed in our current household. This is a guest room or a bedroom – intended for our visiting adult daughter. I have noticed that none of my university student children actually sit at a desk to do their studying. I do!

The built in and desk were expertly photographed here to minimize their size – they were actually not so sturdy and protruded in to the bedroom quite a bit more than they appear. About 2 feet or more. They were removed, the small desk cabinets were repurposed in the previous bedroom reno (#1). There were many cracks and holes filled in the walls as expected.

The floor under the carpet was the same pine as in bedroom #1. I loved it and knew it would need to be refinished when we bought the house, so it was time to get to work.

We hand sanded the floor (wearing masks) to minimize the vibrations on the ceiling below, stained and varathaned as in the bedroom #1 reno. The yellow pine stain on the floors was needing a refresh, and we darkened the stain – to move from 1970s yellow-orange to 2019 urban farmhouse. The floors were varathaned in satin – not gloss. I am really hoping that when we rip up the nasty brown carpet in the rest of the house that the pine floors are still there and can be refinished to match.

I liked the apple green paint colour on the walls, it was cheerful, but it had been quite marked up and as it needed a refresh, we changed it to a very pale millenial pink. We are working on a very neutral almost white wall colour throughout the house, to keep things as neutral as possible.

All of the trim was painted in a white satin paint. All bedroom walls had been previously tested for asbestos to ensure that we were not releasing particles into the air. We assumed that the trim may have previously been painted with paints containing lead. Instead of stripping the trim to the original wood tone, we repainted with fresh white paint to seal in the lead paint, instead of releasing dust particles.

The bed in the original photo was positioned with the headboard to the window. I see a lot of headboards in front of windows in those house flipping shows. I love looking out my windows. The most important aspect of this room is the pretty windows, and the beautiful view of the river and down the hill. The bed was moved to the opposing corner so that it could face the view and the windows. It had to be tucked between the oddly positioned closet in the middle of the back wall. The other wall has the doorway – so that didn’t work,

Adult children move to new houses but don’t take all their stuff. One of the boys left behind his drum set. Our daughter had left behind a large dresser and vanity – both thrift store finds. (Dresser Habitat for Humanity), (Vanity – Salvation Army). I posted about chalk painting these pieces at https://everydaylillie.com/2019/12/05/renovation-painting-projects/

Now that the makeup table is done, I’m going to claim this room as my makeup/dressing room. It has the most light in the house! My daughter visited for the weekend, and suggested maybe she could take the pieces home with her…

Still to deal with – the wobbly ceiling fan and the wooden blinds, some drapes – and the dresser and closet full of my daughter’s clothes! I added some of my silver pieces to the dressing table. Did you know that you can clean silver with a Magic Eraser? It still needs a lot of elbow grease. Who knew?

The comforter set is from Walmart, the bed from Wayfair, and the carpet from Lowes! I’m hoping for a Boxing Day sale on cordless white blinds. I have a lot of windows to replace the blinds in. I will update with another picture when we get to the blinds!