OT: Renovations, part 6--Brigid's Bower (Warning! Pic heavy!)

[MorningGlow]

All rightie, here it is my friends, the master bedroom transformed into Brigid's Bower. I dedicate this renovation to all the ASAH seekers and their personal guides/gods/goddesses! :loveya:

The bedroom as it was. I painted it yellow right after we moved in four years ago, mainly to cover up the renter fingerprints and dog pawprints on the once-white walls (nice :eyes:), but did nothing else--didn't even swap out the plastic blinds covered with renter cooties or put up curtains. The yellow was cheerful enough but...nondescript. (Note the return of Nosy Kitteh on the bed!)



The door to the left goes out to the back sleeping porch.



This is a huge closet--an old-fashioned walk-in with its own window. It's also a mess, but that's for another day.



Done! Complete with the quilt that was Purchase No. 6 (with, obviously, five returns :D) The room colors are bold, which I was worried about at first, but this shade of green (which I concocted after the one I chose was, in reality, waaaayyy too dark and olive-y) actually lowers your blood pressure when you walk in the room!



The dresser and chest of drawers used to belong to my aunt when she was young (about 60+ years ago), then my grandmother used it in the small ranch she and my grandfather moved into when they sold the large homestead where they had raised their family. I'm glad to still have it. The rocking chair was also my grandmother's. I guess it's about 90 years old.





I know Brigid's Cross is supposed to be hung over a doorway, but if I did that I couldn't see it. Hung it here so I could see it even from the far end of the hallway.



Cool artwork of a bridge I found for $20 at the Christmas Tree Shops. Looks like the masthead of my blog, so I "had to" buy it.



And now, some gratuitous Nosy Kitteh pics as she soaks up some rays and a breeze in our shiny new CLEAN windows. Witchy? What? ;)

[Sanity Claws]

1. Again, beautiful

You are making that house your home.
Your interests and tastes come through.

What shade of green is the room? I had a pale sage green in a room of my house. It was very sedating, calming.

[MorningGlow]

2. I had chosen a bold green

Hard to describe--on the chip it was a deep sage, but on the walls--ugh. Entirely different. It was the first color I've come across that came out completely different once I put it on the wall (greens are tough). It was sort of...deep pickle veering toward olive. Again, ugh. So I started adding some silver grey I had left over from the bathroom and some white until I got it to a color I liked. (I wasn't about to waste a $40 gallon of paint because I picked the wrong color--I had already done that when I was painting the dining room! :D) Now it's a muted green with a touch of teal.

[OneGrassRoot]

3. Dudette, you are so good at this....

I LOVE everything you've done. Love it, love it, love it! :bounce:

And, OMG, what an uber cool kitteh in the window!!! :applause:

:hug: :hug: :hug:

[MorningGlow]

4. Aw! Thanks, OGR

I enjoy it (despite the tussles and aggravations).

Kitteh (my familiar) is definitely uber cool. She still acts like a kitten, even though I've noted some grey hairs on her face recently. :)

[JanusAscending]

5. Finally !!

Well......all I can say is, I'M IMPRESSED!! It came out as I imagined it would, and I'm sure it's captured your vision and personality!! Good job MG....I luv it! (the kittehs too!!)

[MorningGlow]

6. Hi JA

Glad you caught it--I was going to send you a PM if you didn't! (Bigger pics are on Facebook.) :hi:

[JanusAscending]

9. Already saw them!!

I just skimmed facebook tonight. For some reason my family hasn't been as active there, so I don't check it as often.

[Manifestor_of_Light]

7. Very nice, very calming!! Old furniture is good stuff.

I have a ton of old furniture in the house I inherited, and I sold a bunch of it to an auctioneer.

Still have some nice solid mahogany stuff, a rock maple kitchen table, and other things.

I got rid of the really dark stuff I was tired of looking at, with heppelwhite (oval) handles.



Update on my house fixing up: We fenced the north yard a couple of months ago. Planted bulbs, relocated a bunch of aspidistra. Our handyman took the storm windows off, and is redoing the rotten windowsills and scraping off the glazing. The house is so much brighter since we took the storm windows off!!!!

The windows are 2 ft by 6 ft, sills made out of cypress mostly, and the glass is wavy, which is really cool. Little wooden pegs in the sills and square nails.

I want to make it look Gothic, since it's that old (1882), but in white instead of black.

Dug the aspidistra out of the concrete fish pond. Will replace the rocks around it, and put more concrete on the bottom so it doesn't leak. I used to swim in it when I was a little kid!

[MorningGlow]

11. My SIL likes really dark antique furniture

The lacquered Asian stuff in particular. I don't like it much at all, and I don't enjoy sleeping in the guest room at my brother's and SIL's house when we visit California because it's decorated with that stuff.

Interestingly enough, MG Jr. doesn't like it either, and when he went there the first time, when he was 3, it freaked him out. He even made me put some ceramic clown wall hangings in the cupboard, but we couldn't do anything about the furniture, and it took him a few days to get used to it. I think he was able to handle it because the room has a king-size bed, and he was sleeping between me and grandma. If he were alone in that room--no way he'd be able to handle it.

Your house sounds fantastic! Old window glass is way cool. We have a couple of old storm windows with the pegs, but the frames are rotted, so they're going to have to be replaced soon. Lots of handmade square nails around--yep--big and small.

Enjoy your yard! We have no features to speak of--NONE. This summer it's time to get cracking and plant stuff. I want roses. Lots of roses.

[FirstLight]

8. LOOOOVE the colors!

and i noticed the flower garlands over the windows...lovely!

Your kitteh looks like mine! she looks very content in that room...witchy? nah! :rofl:

[MorningGlow]

12. Thanks, darlin'

I really was iffy about the colors, but they worked out pretty well. Of course, if we ever sell the place, I'll bet that room is the first one that gets painted over in some nice shade of beige!
:rofl:

Witchy kitteh--you'd never, EVER guess she's my familiar, would you? ;) When I used to do serious magic often, she'd show up out of nowhere and sit on the bed, staring, staring, staring at me in front of my altar.

[I Have A Dream]

10. Absolutely lovely, MG!

I really love the colors. I wish that I could do what you do. Wanna visit Pittsburgh? ;)

[MorningGlow]

13. Thanks, Dream!

But oh please--I have no special talent and absolutely NO background in interior design, art, or anything else visual, I assure you. You CAN do this--you just go with your gut and do what pleases you, and in the end it turns out all right. :)

LOL I'd love to visit Pittsburgh, just to give you and Rick big hugs! :hug:

[Delphinus]

14. Niiiiccccceeeee!

Great job - I love her cross and the things you have atop the curtains! Peaceful and calming is what I feel.

[MorningGlow]

15. Thanks, Delphinus!

The room used to be neutral in energy, but now it is indeed very calming. :hi:

[kentauros]

16. And here I thought you were going for a minty-fresh green!

:P
Although it is a kind of mint ice cream green, or maybe pistachio

I like the corner shelves, and am wondering what you have on top of them. Also, the pink crystal ball matches your curtains perfectly :) We should Photoshop Nosy Kitteh to pink and see how that works out...

[MorningGlow]

17. Well then! It's time for a closeup!

:P



They're bunches of artificial flowers "standing" on their stems--also a Christmas Tree Shops find (yes, I'm a CTS addict).

The corner shelves were from our first house, a cottage on a lake. As far as we can tell, someone made them out of the same knotty pine paneling that was on the living room walls. The place had been a rental, with a ton of naaaaasty furniture in it. The guy selling the house said that he'd pay for half the cost of a big dumpster if we emptied the house out for him, so we agreed. He was funny--kept pointing out gross plastic kitchen chairs and urging us to keep them. We kept nothing but the corner hutches, and then only when I'd cleaned them to within an inch of their lives to make sure they weren't harboring anything contagious. x( They've moved with us ever since.

The ball is one of two amethysts that I got on eBay. It was freaky--I only wanted one. I paid $98 and expected something the size of a ball you'd find rolling around on a pool table, as my elder had paid about $120 for one that size in the States. This one came from Brazil and the dealer ate the cost of shipping, which must have been quite a bit, because that sucker's heavy. And then this thing the size of a softball--no, bigger!--shows up. THEN, a week later, a SECOND, slightly smaller, one arrived in the mail. I contacted the seller and he said "Oops! Oh well. My mistake. Keep it." I had to--I couldn't afford to send it back!

I named them Elvis and Priscilla. :P

As for the kitteh, I don't think she'd cotton to the idea of being painted pink or purple (the curtains are a dusty greyish lavender), but she's so mellow that she'd probably only go "Wha--? Why'd you do that?" And then ask to be petted.
:rofl:

[Flying Dream Blues]

18. Absolutely beautiful. So serene,

and I love all your personal touches. It radiates love and good energy, MG. I know your housekeeper ghost is pleased about this one, too! :)
:hi: