Hey hey!! Hope your Friday is off to a great start (which lets be honest, Fridays are ALWAYS off to a great start because Friday.) A few weeks ago I shared a little bit on inspiration for updating my outside entryway, and I’m back to show you the quick results!
The biggest struggle that I have with the exterior of our house is that is just sort of boring its this (a little bit awkward) shade of beige stucco that sometimes looks pink, sometimes looks brown, sometimes looks a little greenish. Like I said, weird. That, coupled with the rock color, leaves me staring blankly at it when it comes to bringing some color in. So I embraced it and went a little less loud.
If you’ve been following along with Tyler’s Scandi Sanctuary Makeover you are well versed in the dilemmas that I faced with the design. The biggest one being the bed and the fact that it had to live in front of the window. This made headboarding (i just made that word up) a little bit harder because 1. It couldnt block the light. 2. It had to be strong enough that the bed could be pulled off of the wall and the headboard could still be leaned against. And 3. It couldnt cost a million dollars but it needed to look like a million bucks. Simple.
The first step in this journey was to find some seriously amazing wood to build with. Pine from Home D just wasnt going to do, so I ventured into the unknown world of the lumber yard and bought some gorgeous Maple. This type of wood has a few different names (possibly depending on where you are in the country?) I’ve heard it called Wormy Maple, Colorful Maple, Ambrosia Maple. Fun fact, the wood itself doesnt grow this way. Its a regular maple tree that becomes infested with Ambrosia Beetles that burrow into the wood and bring bacteria that stains it. Pretty sweet right?
I’m not a lumberyard virgin anymore!!!! You may be rolling your eyes like “yeah, so?” but this is a big deal for this girl!
I have always wanted to go to a lumberyard, I’ve always wanted to build stuff out of awesome wood, I’ve even googled local yards on multiple occasions. But I just couldn’t ever pull the trigger. There was something super intimidating about it, and though I’m not one that is easily scared off, I was terrified of this unknown world. A couple of months ago I was chatting with my friend who owns a cabinet shop and asked him where in the world he scored all of gorgeous wood that he uses for cabinets. He told me the lumberyard (of course) and so I asked him, how exactly does it work? He told me that he was pretty sure that they would sell it to me (that I didn’t have to be a tradesman) and that they would bring it out and I could pick the pieces that I want. Seemed easy enough. So when the time came to build Tyler’s headboard I was pumped and ready to go buy wood. at the lumberyard.
Hey hey!! Lets get going with these tutorials for the Scandi Sanctuary yes?? When I tell you that ANYONE can do this project I mean it. I don’t care if you’ve never DIYed anything in your life, this project is a fantastic jumping off point! The inspo for this wall treatment was a handful of amazing houses in Iceland and Scandinavia that had this killer black exterior. I was obsessed with the fact that while they were black (normally a little cold feeling) they were still so inviting. The secret sauce was that you could still see the sheen of wood grain even though the color was solid. Brilliant!!
Like many homes built in this era and area (say that five times fast), our 1920’s home is tall, narrow and full of lots of small rooms. It’s perfect if you have a dozen kids that all need their own space (or need to house your ever growing lone chair collection– leave no chair behind!), but not so great if you want an entire family to have a meal together in the same place. See this is what she looks like from the outside. We also have a killer hill for a front yard that makes our big beast appear a little more spooky than she really is.
Hey there!! Huge (massive!) thank you to everyone who took the time to click over and vote yesterday for this fun bedroom makeover, it makes my heart so happy to know that so many of you took the time to do that! Remember that one lucky voter will win a $15k room makeover from the winner so chances are I could end up at your house!! You can vote here! And I know that my international folks cant see the contest so here are the links to the Jen’s and Carter’s rooms.
Alrighty then, lets get on with the details of this space shall we? If you know me AT ALL you know I love a good accent wall. This dramatic black shiplap was one of those projects that turned out even better than I imagined. Its just so moody, and lets be honest, cool. Way too cool for a dork like me but I’m just going to pretend that I can hang.
I said it in my last post, but I feel like this room could have be in anyone’s house. It was a little bit of a beige jungle and guess what? Friends don’t let friends have beige houses.
Tyler and Sarah have the same problem that a lot of people deal with. They have a king size bed and not a huge bedroom. In fact, the only wall that was large enough for the bed is the wall with the window on it, which isn’t ideal because it limits the headboard options (you obviously don’t want a massive upholstered headboard that blocks 3/4 of the light that comes through the window.) They also had a ginorm platform that the bed sat on. It took up about 15” on all sides of the already huge bed. When they built it they had grand storage plans but weren’t using it all that much so it was ok to get rid of.
Ok lets discuss the curtain situation. One of the reasons that a bed against the window is a problem is because the curtains aren’t allowed to be super functional. The width of the curtain rod mount was also a bit of a contributor to this situation.
If you happen to find yourself in a similar situation, here is a little trick. Mount the curtains higher on the wall and use a rod that is wide enough that the inside edge of the curtains can hang next to the edge of the window. Here, let me show you.
Doesn’t that window look wildly bigger?! Its like magic!
Ok sorry, I went off on a curtain tangent.
Lets talk about the walls. The first thing that we did was repaint the walls with my favorite white (which has been officially titled Mandi White at my local Sherwin-Williams store) It is their extra white base with 3 oz of white pigment added. Its kind of crazy how much painting your walls and ceiling white opens up the room and gives it so much life.
The headboard is a DIY that even the most beginner DIYer can knock out in less than an hour!! Though it did push me outside of my comfort zone and sent me to the actual lumber yard. (It was sort of terrifying!) Tutorial and story for that coming soon!!
Do you recognize the wall sconces? If you are a frequent Target shopper than I’m sure you’ve seen these killer table lamps yes?
Wellllll, all we did was take the weight out of the bottom (this will require you to disconnect and reconnect a pair of wire nuts) and hang it on the wall. FREAKING BRILLIANT RIGHT??! Man those things look like they should be hundreds of bucks. I love a good hack.
The throw at the end of the bed is actually this rug from World Market! The original plan was to put it on the floor (obvi because its a rug and all) but I set it on the end of the bed so I could vacuum and I was like “Hmmmm. It looks like it should live there.” Is it a little unconventional? Maybe but man it looks so great!!
The one request that Sarah had was a vanity, which happened to be the perfect reason to get rid of the TV.
The vanity is this desk from Target. I’m not going to lie, I was stressing about this situation. With such a fast turnaround I didn’t have time to order anything online so I was limited to what little (miniscule) offerings St. George stores had. I was striking out left and right and had saved Target for the end. When I saw this desk I was SO HAPPY, it was just the right size, the color was great because it was there, but not too bold, and it was available! Bada bing!
I used a hanging light kit with beige cord from the shop and rehung the vintage cast iron mirror that they had. All of the trinkets and books are either thrifted, from the clearance section at Homegoods, or from Target. With the exception of the FREAKING AMAZING GEODES + STANDS. YOU GUYS. I died when the showed up at my house. They are from Vintauand I cant even put into words how much I love them. In fact I’m feeling a little Speidi obsessive about it. I mean, who ever thought I’d relate to Spencer Pratt?
The amazing dresser is one that I’ve been hoarding in the back of storage unit #2 for a while. It just so so good.
The Jackelope Tyler had just hanging out in his office…I love how it adds a little bit of weirdness to the serious wall. The hanging Macramé planter is from IKEA! I’m not going to lie, I feel a little ashamed that I bought something that I can so easily make but its hard finding giant wooden beads (do you know of anywhere!?) It comes with a tray that I didn’t use. Clock is this legend from Target and is just like the one that I used in my Laundry Room. What can I say, its a good clock. The print is a picture that Tyler took when they were in Italy last year. He’s an incredible photographer (thats actually how we met, he shoots the landscapes for myTemple Prints)
Hey hey!! I’m DYING to show you guys this master bedroom makeover! If you follow me on Snapchat (@vintagerevivals) then you got to witness the whole thing in action (including Joanna Gaines giving me her stamp of approval thanks to faceswap.) If you missed it, then get your cute buns over there right now and follow so that you don’t miss anything!
There are like 3 REALLY important things to talk about before we get to the pics. 1. I teamed up with Angie’s list to create a sleep sanctuary space based on Arianna Huffington’s new book The Sleep Revolution. 2. This room makeover is part of a competition between me, Carter Oosterhouse, and Jen Bertrand (which I was DYING about because HELLO. Carter?! Sigh.) And 3. The winner of the contest gets $5k to donate to their favorite charity AND one lucky voter will get a $15k room makeover from the winner. Now I know what you’re thinking. “Mandi I love you, but CARTER OOSTERHOUSE in my house?!” I know. Trust me when I tell you, I’m thinking the same thing. But, lets think about this logically for a minute. Would you rather have me and all of my fearless DIY skills, or stare at Carter Oosterhouse for a few hours? You know the right answer to this, as hard as that choice might be.
Ok so enough chatting, lets get on with the room reveal!
This is what Tyler’s Master Bedroom looked like before I got my mitts on it. I think its pretty safe to say that its not horrible. It probably what a large portion of master bedrooms look like.
There were a few design dilemmas that needed to be addressed, and the space needed some personality, all while making it a perfect sanctuary for sleeping.
Tyler and his wife Sarah dig a good rustic vibe. But instead of going pallet wood and mason jar rustic I went a little more Icelandic moody rustic.
This is where it ended up…
When I say that this was a whirlwind makeover, I mean complete and utter insanity. We did the entire room in 2 days (shout out to the worlds best husband). I am obsessed with how it turned out. Head over to Angie’s list to get all the nitty gritty details and see the other rooms and gosh darn it vote because I would LOVE to come and overhaul your house!!!
Until then, can you guess where the sconces are from? Check back tomorrow for all of the sources and to see if you guessed right!!
The inspo for this wall treatment was a handful of amazing houses in Iceland and Scandinavia that had this killer black exterior. I was obsessed with the fact that while they were black (normally a little cold feeling) they were still so inviting. The secret sauce was that you could still see the sheen of wood grain even though the color was solid. Brilliant!! 
