My bedroom used to look like this. But all of a sudden a few months ago, MM and I realized we were really sick of it. "Why did we choose this color again?"
I thought of repainting. The ceiling in that room is popcorn'ed and we're going to have to deal with that, I think, before we sell the house. So we could repaint and do the ceiling at the same time. But oh, ugh. The dining room needs painting, too, before we list. There's kitchen woodwork that needs more stripping (it's about half done.) There's an overstuffed basement and a neglected attic that need sorting through. So much stuff, very little money to do it with, and an extremely tough real estate market all mean that I can't leave the kitchen wood work half-stripped in favor of painting a bedroom that was painted just six years ago. The dining room hasn't been painted since (I figure) the 1980s.
So I decided I'd change the look of the room without repainting. Still some work and a little money to redo the room, sure, but much less mess and disruption than repainting. Do you hear that singing? That's me ignoring the popcorn ceiling for now. I went looking for kelly-green color schemes. I found some. This one became my guide.
Now, in progress, it looks more like this. Cleaner, starker, less cute.
But I need to recover a small pillow which lives on the bed as an accent pillow when the bed is made up. It had been covered in red and white polka dot. (So not me. What was I thinking? It's like I don't even know you, me.) I've fritterfrattered away three early morning sewing sessions messing around with fabric I had already or bought cheap recently trying to find the right thing for an accent pillow on the bed. I've gone through this whole stack out of my stash, and nothing made me excited to start sewing. They all felt like, "Well, ok, I guess, if I have to..."
Poor naked pillow. Sidetrack! Sewing tip, if you make your own pillow forms... take a Sharpie and jot the exact dimensions right on the form. Then, when you re-purpose or redecorate down the road, you'll know exactly what size to make the new cover. (This is, by the way, why I recommend taking the time to make a pillow form and a separate cover; you only need to stuff something once. Plus, the cover is then removable for washing.)
Another sidetrack! This size, about 12" x 20" give or take a bit, and stuffed fairly firmly, is just about the right size to sit on your lap and hold a book open at a comfortable position for reading. I have one in my living room, one in my bedroom, and I'm about to make one out of outdoor fabric for the front porch wicker loveseat.
Back to my story. This morning I finally found what I was looking for for the little naked pillow, while cleaning up random stacks of fabric in my sewing area. It's a remnant I bought for 50% off the sale price, and then my 20% employees discount on top of that when I still worked at JoAnn Fabrics.
It has yellow in it. The bedroom has no yellow. I don't wear yellow and I don't paint things yellow. I am not a yellow person in anyway. However, I feel like this works. I adore the print, the fabric feels right, and it makes me feel a little excited to do a bit of home decor sewing to get the pillow cover made. (I hate home decor sewing, really. Booooooooooring.)
The pillow will need some piping or edging. Probably black cording, to give it a "border" against the ticking-stripe pillows, but I'm not sure yet. We'll see.
Recent Comments