My Country Farmhouse – The Primary Bedroom Reno (Before, During & After)

It has been a HOT minute since I’ve last posted. It was a very busy 2022. I worked 60-80+ hours a week from January to September leaving little time to work on the property. September and October I took time off to focus on my health which allowed me the time I needed to design and implement the floor plan and material I would need for the full kitchen renovation which started soon after in November 2022 and is 99.9% complete as of January 2023 (Posts to come – and it’s SO GOOD).

When I moved in to my house in November 2019 I knew every room would need to be either cosmetically renovated or fully renovated. The primary bedroom kind of fell in the middle of the two. I should have ripped out the old lath and plaster so I can insulate. Doing that would have also rid the walls of some minor cracks but it is just too costly. And the walls aren’t as bad as I’ve seen. It was a lot of fun seeing the decades of wall papers on the walls.

It wasn’t until January 2022 that I started work on the bedroom. At that time I removed peeling wall paper, plastered holes and even plastered entire sections of walls to even them out. Followed that up with some intense sanding, primer and a fresh coat of Incredible White paint (used in most areas of the house). At that point I stopped work because it was time to go back to work. Over a couple weekends I had also completed renovation to the walk in closet which, was also SO much work. Same process, paper removal, plastering, sanding, primer and paint. I also built a shelving unit to hang in there from an old dresser. (See previous posts for photos)

From January 2022 to January 2023 the room looked like this:

One year later, almost to the day, I realized the bedroom really just needed to be finished. The bedroom has a bay 3 pane window which lets in a ton of light but the white paint on the walls, trim and ceiling meant that when the sun comes up the room is a light box. And I am not one for heavy black out or darkening curtains. So I did what I love to do and spent some time looking at bedroom inspiration photos on different Facebook groups, Google and Pinterest. I decided that a nice blue paint for the walls would be a great calming colour. And honestly I thought that would be where I’d stop besides hanging my art and possibly some new lamps. So I grabbed 5 blue paint samples to paint on to the walls to see which I liked the best.

I tested Benjamin Moore Newburg Green, West Coast, Gentleman’s Grey, Van Courtland Blue, and well… I can’t remember the 5th colour. I have to say they were all very beautiful colours. But there was a clear winner. The first 3 colours tested were just a bit too dark for my brain to like enough to paint an entire room. So, I went back for the West Coast Blue and Van Courtland Blue which were a little lighter but still dark enough to make the space feel warmer and be less reflective of the sunlight.

Once the colour was picked I figured I’d grab a can of paint ($71 inc. tax) and get started right away on painting the next day… Well, you know how it goes… I ended up going to Home Depot to grab some supplies needed for another project and was walking through the wallpaper isle when I figured I’d take a look (since I really like Peel & Stick). Go figure, they had a beautiful paper that was a perfect match to the paint I just bought… So now my plans had to change because the paper was going to happen. I decided to take a few minutes in the store to look up “rooms with a little wallpaper” and a beautiful image came up that felt right. Most cost effective way to use wall paper on a budget. A roll is $54.99 and to do a whole wall or even an entire room would easily be a couple hundred plus dollars.

The inspiration picture just felt so inviting and warm that I went to the lumber aisle and grabbed what I would need and headed home with two rolls of paper, chair rail and 1x4x8 lumber.

Having plans the day after buying everything meant I only had time to hang the wall paper and get the chair rail and ledge up and do the caulking around it first thing in the morning. Which meant it would be dry for the next day to start painting. And what a day it was, 7 hours of cutting in and painting but I got it all done.

I knew that my artwork, bed, bedding, curtains, blinds, chair, side table and dresser would all be staying. Thankfully they all work in the space. I knew that the light fixture would have to be changed and luckily while taking the day off after painting while I was walking around Value Village I came across a brand new in box 6 arm gold chandelier for only $7.99 — Literally one of the BEST finds ever. So the next morning I got the light up and modified a table I made for my first house to use as a second bedside table.

And now I have a beautiful warm and inviting room that makes me so happy to be in. I find myself just standing at the door looking at the space because the transformation is night and day. The entire reno cost me $298 which was worth every penny. This was suppose to be a $71 dollar renovation but life happens.

Here is my new (tied with first place) favourite room in the house. I hope you love it as much as I do.