Tag Archives: farmhouse light sconce with pulley

Master Bedroom Makeover #7: The Reveal ~ Pulling It All Together

I love spending time with family and friends, enjoying the awesome Manitoba summer weather and various recreational activities, but truth be told, I always rank my holidays (and even weekends) on how productive I was during my days off. I honestly don’t know why, but for me the greatest of summer vacations consists of a long list of completed projects! My fix is found in the satisfaction of finishing things on my “to do” list, not so much how many times I made it to the beach (which this year would be zero!) For me back to school, means getting back in to routine and of course returning to full time work as a Kindergarten teacher. Although I still try to be productive on the weekends, I have learned the importance of taking the time to recharge as well. So, as we settle back into our fall routines, I know that my projects will need to slow down in order to maintain some sort of balance juggling work, family, blogging and the youtube channel. Although the main elements in our master bedroom makeover are complete, I am pretty certain that it will be months before I get any form of art/photos on the walls! So although I would consider this some sort of a reveal, in all honesty, it won’t be finished for a while yet.

BEFORE: The bedroom was okay, but the chocolate brown walls made the room feel dark and dreary and the colour scheme was definitely dated.

Farmhouse Style Master Bedroom Makeover:

AFTER: Bright, clean farmhouse style master bedroom with a white and navy colour scheme.
  • One of the main elements of this makeover involved the installation of reclaimed shiplap from our basement, to create a feature wall that would double as our headboard.
  • Tim built and installed farmhouse style wall sconces. He used old clothes line pulleys, scrap wood and reclaimed metal frames from lampshades to create this look….I absolutely love these!!
  • The custom built-ins that bank both sides of the bed are ideal for housing our alarm clocks, books, etc. as our room can not accommodate bedside tables.
  • We had this old bevelled glass window in our basement and it seemed like the perfect finishing touch for our feature wall.
  • Of course, the new colour pallet which is primarily Benjamin Moore’s “Simply White” brightened our space and gave it such a clean look. I love the Sherwin Williams “Navel” colour, but we really wanted the room to maintain the bright white look, so we limited it to the space surrounding the shiplap wall. I love how this turned out.
  • The curtains for the window and both closets were made from the same fabric. They provide the privacy we need while still allowing ample light into the space. The curtains that I made for the closets really elevated the look of the room by hiding the contents.
  • The rusty springs I salvaged from an old sofa chair made the perfect curtain tie-backs for our farmhouse style design.
  • The old ceiling fan dated the space for sure. We managed to give it a whole new look that fit with our new farmhouse style bedroom.
  • Although we had planned to build a king sized platform bed and purchase a new mattress and bedding, we have yet to decide if we will even proceed with our plans. For now, our old white bedding has been given new life with all of the new covers I made for the existing pillows and throws. I used a variety of purchased, repurposed and even sentimental fabrics for the various pillows. I still plan to purchase EURO throws to run along the wall behind the existing pillow configuration, but haven’t yet found a navy fabric/texture I like.
  • We already had the upcycled coffee table bench in our room and it was a simple fix to recover the bench to coordinate with our new colour scheme.

Antique Dressers:

You will notice that we have two dressers in the bedroom, both antiques. I purchased the white one several years ago, but it wasn’t in very good condition. I stripped and painted it and it has been in our bedroom for years now. The second, larger dresser, was recently passed onto me from my dad. My parents used that dresser their entire married life and it is still in great condition. We opted to leave the original wood grain and I love how it becomes a strong foundation piece in the room. The contrast between the white and oak is appealing to me.

We never had a TV in our room at all until just a few years ago and for the most part, we don’t really use it. When we were planning out our master bedroom makeover, we tossed around the idea of removing it completely, but in the end, we felt that we might actually use it more now that our room is so much nicer. Sure enough, we have probably used the television more in the last few weeks than in the previous year. I would love to have the dresser top available for accessories, but for now a television is practical. We have a TV in our living room, but don’t have another sitting area like a family room or finished basement. There are definitely times when Tim wants to watch a game and I would like to sit back and enjoy a movie, so this just makes sense for now.

Sitting Area:

Although our room isn’t huge, there is plenty of room for the chair and ottoman we picked up on Kijiji. The fabric is cream coloured, but I love the idea of mixing whites. It is super comfy and a nice addition to the room. I hated the old chair we had in our room, so this is a big improvement in my eyes.

Other Accessories:

As I mentioned, I haven’t really put much thought into accessorizing yet. There are no pictures on the walls, but I do plan to create some sort of a photo gallery down the road. For now, I have a few pieces that I have incorporated into the design just to give it a more finished look despite the bare walls.

  • I found this oversized lantern style candle holder for $2 at a garage sale this summer. It wasn’t damaged, but very grungy for sure. It looks wicker, but is actually woven metal. I love how it is rusty and aged. It sits on the floor beside my parents old dresser and we opted to put a plant from my dad on the other side. I’m loving the addition of live plants in our new space. (I hope we can keep them alive!)
  • On the white dresser, I have my DIY Answered Prayers project, a stack of vintage books, a little garage sale white trinket holder and a vintage Hurricane Oil Lantern that I claimed when my dad was downsizing.
  • We also have a large floral basket that is home to our “sleeping pillows” during the day.

Overall, this room is decorated very sparsely. There aren’t many accessories in the room and the walls remain bare, yet it has a surprisingly warm and cozy feeling. I’m very pleased with how this room came together and the sentimental elements make me feel so happy in the space. My dad recently moved out of the city and having a few of his things close, somehow makes the distance seem smaller. So pleased with this almost finished space!!

You can see how much Hershey loves our new room too! I could not get him to leave, so that I could take pictures!

Be sure to check out my previous Master Bedroom Makeover posts to see how this look came together through the various DIY projects!

Master Bedroom Makeover: Part 2 Custom Wall Sconces

Initially when we were considering lighting in the alcove, I was set on pot lights. These would eliminate the need for the lamp that rested on the headboard (sometimes…when it wasn’t falling over). The issue with the room layout was that the closets banking both sides of the bed made it impossible for a nightstand of any kind. Years ago, I made bedside pocket storage for both sides of the bed to help solve this issue, but it still wasn’t ideal, as you really can’t fit a lamp in a pocket!!

It was actually Tim’s idea to mount sconces instead of pot lights. Originally, I was like “no” I really want pot lights, but the more I thought about it, the more I liked the idea. Of course, the issue with me is that I don’t just want normal store bought sconces….I wanted something original that would fit with the overall design I had in mind. Lucky for me, this wasn’t a hard sale. I found a few DIY sconces on Pinterest that I liked and Tim set to work. Although he didn’t follow this plan to a tee, this is the style he modelled ours after. We had seen some really awesome fixtures with pulleys and decided to incorporate that into the design as well.

Custom Farmhouse Style Light Sconces:

Tim constructed the sconces out of…you guessed it…scrap wood we already had. I decided on a dark stain to contrast the very white walls. We also just happened to have two old clothesline pulleys in the basement. We had removed the previous owners clothesline (from the basement rafters) when we moved in, but luckily Tim kept them. We ordered the wire and light kit from Amazon. The light sockets came in a set of four for $22.99. The cord was a bit pricey at $25.99, but there was enough for both sconces, a new fixture in the kitchen and still extra for another project. This was a relatively simple project for Tim to build, but the wiring made it a bigger project. I am honestly so lucky…my man can do anything!!

I found some amber vintage style light bulbs on clearance at Michaels. The original price was $12 each, but they were clearing them for $3, so needless to say I bought several. We tossed around several ideas and even sampled a few different “shades” for the sconces, but in the end we settled on upcycled lamp shade frames. I picked up this set of shades for $3 at the thrift store, removed all the beads and then rigged up some wire across the top to hold the “shade” in place. I must admit removing the beads was a brutal job. There must have been a million of those little suckers and all were individually beaded onto fine wire. Not only did it take me a couple of hours to remove the beads and wires, but my fingers were filthy and super sore from the tedious work and wire pokes😣. The final step was to spray paint the completed shade a matte black.

I love the way they turned out! Tim did such an amazing job with the building, staining and installation of the sconces. The amber light isn’t as bright, but is still fine for reading. I love that he put them on a dimmer switch, so that we can adjust the light depending on our needs.

Keep an eye out for my next Master Bedroom Makeover post where I’ll share how we transformed our old ceiling fan, so it would work with our new farmhouse bedroom design.

(Disclaimer: I never took a picture of my old fan before we took it all apart, but this one is very close to the original design of ours.)