La chambre est terminée!

At long last, we have moved back into our bedroom! Sweet hay-zeus! It is so nice to NOT sleep in the dining room. We actually moved back in on Monday night, and have already enjoyed two restful nights in our wonderful chambre.

The room is truly transformed, almost entirely thanks to the removal of the old radiator enclosure, which occupied a small yet crucial amount of space in the room. (Some of you may remember that I actually spent many grueling hours stenciling said radiator enclosure...) And when I say it occupied a small amount of space, it was literally 4'0" wide X 1'0" deep, but somehow completely prevented us from configuring our room in what would be the most intuitive layout. Once upon a time, this box had housed a radiator, so at least it served of purpose of sorts, but the radiator had long since been removed, so now it was just a floor-to-ceiling empty box, taking up 4 precious square feet in our New York City apartment. To you suburbanites, 4 square feet isn't much, but in New York, you guard your square footage like a junk-yard pitt bull, and let me tell you-- I had latched on to that chunk of floor and I wasn't letting go!

What's particularly interesting is how clearly this room demonstrates the importance of the configuration of a room. The square footage is virtually the same (+ 4-ft.), the wall color is the same (repainted, but still the ever-lovely Healing Aloe by Benjamin Moore), the dressers and night stands are still present, the IKEA window treatments are the same, and the big brass headboard remains... and yet! This room feels completely different. All because of the way we've laid out the furniture. Fascinating! This lends major credibility to the idea that you don't necessarily need to buy new things or paint new colors in order to transform your home. Lay-out plays as important, if not the most important role in the way a room really feels.


Write that down in your D-I-Y journals people! I think we've come upon a revelation!

Another important improvement, not as noticeable but a vital change non-the-less, was the installation of a new ceiling fan with a built-in light. No more trying to put on makeup with the light from two vintage bedside lamps! Finally- for better or for worse- John and I will be able to see each other in this room!

The fan was another Craig's List victory... We'd been hunting around online, but were failing to find a fan that was a.) affordable b.) white c.) had a light d.) only 42" across. Most of the fans we were finding were 54" in diameter, which looked like we'd be mounting an airplane propeller onto our bedroom ceiling. Not a desirable look... I kept checking Craig's list on the off chance something showed up, and lo and behold! I found one of these Minka Aire "Concept I Ceiling Fan" in white, still in its original unopened packaging, listed for about $200.00. This fan usually sells for $259.00-$369.00 depending on where you buy it, plus you pay tax and shipping, so we jumped at the chance to buy the Craig's List version for about $75.00 less than retail, and call an end to our searching. Excellent all around!

So that's where things stand with our progress so far. We're hoping to start in on the living room tomorrow, but we're also signed up for a baby CPR class tomorrow night, so that might eclipse most of the evening...

I swear we're going to get this renovation finished eventually!!! (Hopefully before August 18th, or this baby is going to be camping in the kitchen!)