The Bedroom Nightmare

 One of my favorite projects so far was the bedroom. A quick and dirty job with high impact, not only visually but functionally, and cheap to boot. And desperately needed! The boarding conditions prior to this project were grim at best. This tiny little room was by far the most disgusting and depressing in the house. In its previous life, it appeared to have functioned as some sort of old lady’s living or bedroom (based on the color and wallpaper choices) and also a laundry room, with washer and drying hookups and stick-down vinyl tiles in one corner. It also, to our dismay, had apparently been used as an in-home dog kennel. It still makes me gag recalling the mats of dog hair I emptied from the barrel of our brand new shop vac after the maiden voyage on that floor. Adam also dug out a large swaft from the air vent and – if that wasn’t enough- there was even dog hair EMBEDDED in the paint on the walls. Like a lot. Even after a scrubbing, the room was sooooooooooo gross. The carpet was so disgusting, it was like we were playing a constant game of “the carpet is lava” from childhood. If a clean shirt dropped on the floor it was literally like…hm…that’s…. going back in the dirty pile. It all came to a front one night when a bat got in the house. Well, I should say the FIRST night a bat got in the house. Spoilers! Anyways, long story short, as we hit the deck with the blanket over our heads at three o’clock in the morning, we quickly realized the alternative horror of laying the bare carpet. It was literally worse than a flying hairy rat likely carrying a neurological disease! We started not only screaming at the bat but also howling out how utterly disgusting this was! As Adam took on his heroic role yielding broom and waving towels, I squatted in a low hover covered in the blanket, my fears of what was swooping above in a stand-off with what was lurking below. 

We crammed this project into our schedule during our highly anticipated staycation last August. We awoke bright and early Monday morning and wasted no time. When we got out of bed the bed came with us out the door. Once the room was cleared, we got busy ripping up that nasty carpet! Victory! It was a brilliant moment fit for any HGTV slot – revealing the beautifully preserved original hardwood floor underneath. The stick down tiles were a pain, but eventually those came up too. Next, a slap of primer and a few layers of paint. Easy. We were able to move back in by the end of the day, although we may have had some funky dreams from the paint fumes that night. Just a few more finishing items and our bedroom was a completely different place in a little over one day! Total relief! 

Of course this is just a temporary arrangement while we await our upstairs reno, so I was very thrifty on the furnishings. We borrowed ceiling tiles from some rooms upstairs just to tie up the unfinished drop ceiling. The baseboard was also salvaged from the upstairs bathroom. The rug and curtain were garage sale finds – thanks to my sister for the rug – and framed prairie prints were repurposed from the living room. The, ehem, “artwork” above the bed is homemade from a botched canvas I picked up at a garage sale for 25 cents and made use of some of the mini cans of paint samples I had from the kitchen. I did buy some bed risers to raise up the bed frame for storage underneath and the tiny closet could not fit both of our clothes so we had to make do.  It’s no designer space, but it will certainly get us through until we finish the upstairs. Until then, I can at least toss a pillow off the bed without fearing typhoid.