One Room Challenge Master Bedroom – Week Five

Week Five of my six-week master bedroom update is here that means we are in the final stretch… If you were not here last week let me remind you what’s up. Twice a year Linda of Calling It Home hosts the  One Room Challenge, during this event twenty design bloggers take on the challenge to transform one space in just six weeks. Every Wednesday, the designers document their progress while sharing their sources and professional advice. In addition to following along, everyone with a blog, (that’s me!) is welcome to join the fun as a guest participant by linking their own room transformations to Calling It Home.

If you missed the progress so far you can have a look back:

  WEEK 1, WEEK 2, WEEK 3, and WEEK 4

This week I have started to pull together art and accessories and completed one big project, making and hanging my Greek key valances and drapes. You can see from the photo above I’ll be pulling in lots of texture and brass accents along with the deep greens and corals in the bedding.

As for art, I am a huge collector of flea market art so for the master bedroom I think I decided to use my collection of paper cut silhouettes. That means arranging a gallery wall. This is always a challenge (well actually the getting everything hung straight is the real challenge) but I am looking forward to finally getting these babies on the wall and out of a pile on the floor of my closet.

If you guys follow along with my blog or even just the One Room Challenge you’ll know I am a huge vintage/thrift fan. This room is no exception. Every single piece of furniture involved in this plan is a second-hand find (except the mattress, I don’t do second-hand mattresses, yuck.) That being said I did make one big retail splurge for this room, a starburst mirror for over the bed. I knew this was what I wanted as soon as I bought this bed and now it’s mine. Looking pretty snazzy!

Now for the project that been making me sweat, the curtains. You may remember my inspiration curtains from WEEK 2

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I started with making the valance, the big plus of using a valance for your curtains is you don’t have to spend a ton of money on curtain rods and hardware. I started with a 1″x6″ cut to 52″ about 9″ wider than the window on each side, 2 sturdy “L” brackets (for longer spans use more) and get this, electrical conduit and brackets. That’s right guys none of this is going to be seen and a 5′ stretch of 1/2″ metal conduit costs only $1.65 and the conduit hangers are less than $1. But no one will ever know.

All put together it looks like this. The “L” brackets placed to line up with the wall studs. I went ahead and made sure everything thing screwed in and aligned properly before adding on the valance. This may seem like an extra step because I had to take it down again but the board is much easier to deal with when you’re not having to peak under the valance. You can also see that I used mismatched clip rings leftover from another curtain rod meaning each window set up cost me less than $10.

Here is a better shot with the curtains clipped on, for the final hang I will pinch the fabric before clipping it to create pinch pleats (spell check says pleats is not a word, you are wrong spellcheck.)

Now how about another budget/time-saving secret. I hate making curtains so rather than make them myself I used Ikea MERETE grommet top curtains only I flipped them clipping the bottom and cutting off the grommets at the hem. I love using these curtains because of their nice heavy weight and long length. You can see I am hanging mine right up to my eight foot ceilings and there is plenty of fabric to spare. Doesn’t hurt that they are only $30 a pair, I couldn’t buy the fabric for that price.

For the valances I was able to score an extra MERETE panel from the floor sample bin in IKEA’s clearance room. To create the valance I used two layers of fabric. I drew out my Greek key design remembering that the two end blocks would need to be wide enough to wrap around the corner of the valance board. There is some math involved here which depends on the size of your widow so I won’t go into detail but draw out what you want out on paper and do the calculations before you do any cutting. You can see mine below has a line in removable ink the I sewed along to join the two layers together. I then clipped the corners and turned right side out and ironed everything flat.

Now it’s ready for border trim. I used grosgrain ribbon for the trim, after pinning in place I sewed it to the valance along the top and bottom edges. Once complete you can staple the valance to the valance board using a staple gun starting in the middle and working your way out.

I also applied this ribbon border to the curtain panels, you may remember I have used this technique before. I love it because it is such and easy up grade.

I am going to save a full shot for the reveal next week but here is a little sneak peek of how everything turned out.

So what’s left for next week?

• The gallery wall is going up
• and I am not so patiently waiting for my new ceiling fan from our sponsor Lamps Plus to arrive so I can get it installed.  The estimated delivery date is today so cross your fingers it is not delayed. There she is the 52″ Minka Aire Aluma in Oil-Rubbed Bronze, isn’t she a beaut?

• and don’t forget I have to get everything cleaned up, styled and photographed so I can share it with you guys.

Busy week ahead hope there aren’t any last-minute glitches.

If you want to see what everyone else is working on be sure to stop by and check out all the linking participants and guest bloggers.