Bedroom 2: Electric Boogaloo

I wanted to get better pictures of my current project, but my camera equipment is buried in the rarely-photographed third bedroom:

Is Hoarders: Buried Alive accepting new applicants?

Bedroom #3 has been collecting all of the tools from the renovations of bedrooms 1 & 2, plus about a year’s worth of bank statements, shoe boxes, and other crud that just needs to be tossed out. We’ll get there. In the meantime, excuse the hazy pink-and-cyan iPhone photos.

This is a post about bedroom #2, so let’s start with some before pictures:

Sad trombone.

This room had/has a really difficult layout. It’s very narrow and the door to the hallway is smack dab in the middle of one of the two long walls. When I purchased the house, one end of the room was taken up by a full wall of closets. This left only one possible position for the bed: crammed up against the opposite wall, as seen above.

A few years ago I did what I could to spruce the room up; I lightened up the walls and removed the closet doors, which I hoped would make the room feel bigger.

The facelift helped a little, but in the end I decided that I really wanted those closets to go. They were built so badly and were greatly restricting how the room could be used. So in a fit of temporary insanity I ripped them out myself.

My lovely contractors stepped in at this point and smoothed out all the drywall for me. A little paint here, a little repairing there… skip to some hazy shots of the finished product!

This picture really shows how tight the space is. I don’t use bedroom #2 as a bedroom, of course — this room is reserved for arting, crafting and… ironing? — but I think it would function a little better as one now. I could fit a twin bed in a few different configurations on this side of the room now that the closets are gone. Or maybe even a full bed if I were crazy.

The wardrobe is a super cheap Ikea piece that I believe my old roommate and I bought as a coat closet for our last apartment. It now holds dresses, jackets, some art supplies, and the sewing basket that inspired me to rework this room’s closets in the first place.

The fabric and paper display is a super cheap Ikea towel rack (sensing a pattern yet?). The overstuffed butterfly chair was a gift from my parents for my first dorm room. It has definitely seen better days. The time is coming when I’ll need to decide whether to retire it fully, or replace the cushion part with a simpler, more modern sling. Like…

…this? Mmmm. Not that color, though. Maybe a caramel would work.

And facing the other way:

Hazy hazy. Sorry.

As you might be able to tell, the super cheap Ikea trend continues over here. Shelves, brackets, and desk are all courtesy of the Swedish giant. I had been using a shorter work table and desperately needed an upgrade, but I had a lot of trouble finding a pre-cut size that would work for this space. None of the Ikea desks were the right length, or affordable enough to spill paint on without triggering a panic attack. The solution ended up being this $40 heavy-as-hell tabletop, which was originally designed as a dining room table, cut down a few inches by me and my handy reciprocal saw.

You should have seen me stuff the sucker into my trunk. And carry it a block and a half from the car to my house. PICKUP TRUCK: I NEED ONE. Also, strapping young assistants. Apply in the comments.

My thrift store mirror and picture frame collection hang out over the radiator. Postcard from an old boss. Oh hello, my elbow!

This room hosts and interesting collection of artifacts from the different phases of my career so far. The art supplies are all from my college days. The plant by the window was my desk plant at my last job. The peacock feathers came from there as well.

The blueprint is of the Fisher Fine Arts library at the University of Pennsylvania, and was rescued from the garbage by my manager at the first job I had straight out of college. Now, at my current job, I attend meetings in the very same building.

More art supplies, and more art. And the brick that fell from my bedroom ceiling, which I saved and am itching to spraypaint. Maybe gold, as a hat tip to Filmspotting?

For the moment, though, I’m calling this room finished. I’m pretty pleased with the way it came out; it’s a small space, but now it feels more cozy than cramped. It’s especially nice to catch a glimpse of the plant and mirror in the bright light as I come up the stairs from the living room. Some day, when I have time to put pencil to paper again, this should make for a pretty nice studio nook.

2 bedrooms down, 1 to go!