Welcome to Mantucket

I know that I promised Part 2 of the horror that is my front yard/plumbing issues, but I was so excited to do this project, I decided to finish and do a big reveal! Well that and yesterday was Mother's Day, and I promised my mom I'd finish and post pictures. So here you go Mom!

One of the most neglected rooms in our house (or any house we've ever lived in) has been the master bedroom. It's a lot of work to do to prettify the place where you sleep. Hubs and I have been so done, I'm talking D-O-N-E with renovation drama, that we really felt like we needed a calm, quiet place to relax. To me, that means white on white, with hydrangeas and white roses, flowy curtains and all that pretty girly stuff, to him, it means beige on beige with some more beige thrown in for good measure (he really dislikes color). Normally he pretty much goes along with whatever I want without too much complaining, so for our bedrooom, I really wanted to make it a masculine space that he felt comfortable in, while keeping it pretty. I think I succeeded.

Here's the before. Not bad.
Here's the after. Isn't it pretty?! It feels very Nantucket (Hubs calls it Mantucket) to me. This is the view from the doorway.
I started by painting the bed white. What an immense pain that was! Those little spindle thingies...ugh. It was terrible. Plus, I was trying to save time, so I decided not to use primer before I painted. Big mistake. It took 3 coats and didn't even cover everything! In the end, I decided that I liked that you could still see through the white a little bit. It gives it a little bit of a white washed/aged look in some spots. But if I had it do again, I'd use primer. I just got lucky that I like the white washed look.

The oar I had hanging in the living room. The bedding is the same, I just flipped the comforter over so it was all white showing.
These are the pictures that really inspired the room. We found the large one at TJ Maxx for $14.99, and the other two were taken at The Point (I talked about it here, if you need a refresher!). One of my favorite things about The Point was that you could see the tall beautiful trees and the ocean, all at the same time. I really wanted to convey that feeling I used to have, and I wanted to bring in the ocean AND the trees.

In order for the bed to be centered in the room, we had to do away with one of the bedside stands. We tried to make it work, but when you opened the closet door, you hit the nightstand. So while it may have been more symmetrical and "normal" to have the two matching nightstands, we opted for function. This little stand was in my living room, then in the kitchen, and I think now, it's found it's permanent home.

I asked the kids to find me "interesting sticks", and this is what they brought me. Works for me! I got the jar/vase thingy at TJ Maxx for $3.99. I put some river rocks in the bottom to hold the sticks in place, and voila!
The lamp is another TJ Maxx find ($24.99).
The view from the other side of the room
We cleared EVERYTHING off the dresser. I don't think I've ever seen it so empty! At first I planned to paint the dresser white too, but decided against it. I think it adds some rustic charm as it is.

We found the sailboat in the garden aisle at Lowes for $19.99. I can't really imagine this in a garden, but I like it on the dresser!
Really, the only I other things I did were paint the trim white (Valspar Ultra White) and put down an area rug (Lowes $98). Normally, I think area rugs over carpets are kind of silly, but it's a necessity for us. We really want to put down hardwood floors, but it's just not in the budget right now. This lightens up the room and hides a lot of the carpet, especially where our monster of a puppy had chewed chunks of the carpet out.So there you have it. Nantucket, Mantucket, I don't care what it's called. I love it!