Tree of Strife

Just in case you wonder what I've been up to... In addition to training for my first full marathon, trying to decorate my house on a budget and doing a ton of DIY projects and parenting those two crazy boys, I FINALLY finished Tree of Life! Ready to package this baby up and send it on to my dear friend Alisa's sweet baby girl. They bettah use the shite out of this thing, that's all I gotta say about that!

After initially thinking I'd hold off on our bedroom until the last, I found the headboard that would perfectly echo the Draper headboard I've been drooling over on Mad Men, while being soft enough to balance the fun beachy colors I want to use in the room, and it was on sale (West Elm, I love to drool over you). So, while we don't have a King bed yet-we have a King headboard. Yes, J had some questions about that, ha!

Since I have the headboard in there, I sold our old bed set, which left us without nightstands. I found some awesome brightly colored nightstands boasting sunny yellows and pop your eyes out turquoise, but they were almost $200. Yeah, no. So it was off to craigslist, where I found a cute solid wood table that had been painted a chocolate brown. I popped off the ugly wooden handle, ordered a leaded crystal knob from amazon and after two coats of Martha Stewart Egg Yolk (color matched in Behr paint plus primer, satin finish) and a little sandpaper action; voila! I had a nightstand.

For Jared's, I re-purposed an end table that my mom refinished years ago, which was an old LP closet. I don't want a bedroom set, because I'm over the whole matchers thing, but I did want them to 'go'. So now, two bright yellow coats later, they do.

These will look awesome against the bright blue walls that will set off the headboard, yes? Stay tuned!

(It's the large painted splotch...Martha Stewart Araucana Blue)