Master Bedroom Challenge: {pretty, happy, funny, real}

This week, Leila at Like Mother, Like Daughter, announced a Master Bedroom Challenge: Make Your Bedroom Beautiful and Useful.   It was a perfectly timed challenge for me.   As part of the Reasonably Clean House series at the blog, Leila recommends beginning the process in your master bedroom.   Her reasoning is right on target, as I've learned after nearly sixteen years of keeping --or trying to keep--our house.  

Our bedroom is last on our list to work on in this house.   Since we moved in over a year ago, we've worked on all the other rooms.   Now, it's time to start making the master bedroom come together.   It's a large wonderful space.   My mama always said the problem with a bigger house/space is it is easier to clutter it and you aren't as wise with organization.   She was right.   Lot of corners and spaces to "store" things in this room until I get to them.   Plus, the kids love coming in to play, as it's the only room that still has wall-to-wall carpeting.  

For this challenge, I just focused on our nook since it was the one causing the most problems.  

Here's what the cozy nook area looked like when we first viewed the house:

On closing day:)

Closing day pic of whole wall with my closet

Here's what if looked like YESTERDAY morning.  If you have young children looking over your shoulder, you might want to shield their eyes.

It is a tremendous humiliation to post this picture, and it should be.   I have been blessed beyond what I deserve (as this picture proves) with a lovely master bedroom, complete with a beautiful spot to pray, drink coffee & tea, read, or just sit with my husband or children.  

Over the past few weeks, I've had oral surgery and two children have had viruses.   Our living rug may not have survived that.   Anyway, the laundry didn't get put away.   Instead it was piled on these chairs and that basket where children pulled out what they needed after sorting through and spreading around the rest.   How demanding: clean clothes each day!    Even before my oral surgery, the chest and surrounding floor space had become a dumping ground.

So, first step to tackle this: open the blinds and let in the sunshine!

Second step: put up my heavy-duty folding garment rack to help with hanging and organizing the clothes.
It was SUCH a help.   I don't have much hanging space in my laundry room, so it's been a hassle to hang clothes on laundry day.   We don't fold many things in our house.   The garment rack is also handy for parties when you need to hang guests' coats and it's a huge help at garage sales.   I originally bought it for a home sales business.

By the afternoon, this is what my little nook looked like and it has changed my attitude and the feel of the whole house for me.   The best part is everything was put away and not just pushed away to be dealt with later!

 My curtains were a tremendous deal.   They cost me $31.50!   The lamp was a garage sale find at $1 and the glider rocker and ottoman were another garage sale splurge at $50.   They looked brand new when I bought them.

The afghan was a wedding present made by my cousin, Linda.   It's one of our favorite possessions and it is THE favorite blanket in the house.   The chifferobe (a wardrobe in Louisana) to the left is  one that my mother rescued from a crumbling antebellum home next to our farm.   How's that for Anne Shirley--delightfully-romantic-shivers-down-the-spine?!  She had the door centers replaced with masonite and painted them.   I wrote about it here.

A room isn't cozy without books!

Divine Mercy, crucifix (wedding gift), and the psalm which most represents my soul at prayer: "O God, you are my God, for you I long; for you my soul is thirsting."  Psalm 63

Mama's ceder chest.   It was the last thing I cleaned out when we emptied their home after their deaths.   It contained some of our baby clothes, her wedding dress, letters, photos, souvenirs like the paper fan from The Grand Old Opry, where they went on their honeymoon.   That's her painted tray. 

The small print has Psalm 91:11: "He shall give his angels charge over thee, to keep thee in all thy ways."   It was given to me by a dear friend, Karen, when we moved from Louisiana.   The icon print is from a card sent to me at Mama's death by one of her friends.   It was a mass enrollment card and it makes me think of the prayers being  said for Mama and of her friends who loved her.

This is our sacrament shelf on top of the DUSTED bookshelf.   Our wedding picture in the middle, with my RCIA keepsake and one for Joey's confirmation.   Then, each of the children's baptism photos.   LOVE.

I am so thankful for this bedroom challenge to motivate me to take back my space and make it a place of beauty, rest, and contentment.   

{real}

Oh, and a little pie thrown it!  Late night baking for our local Catholic radio station's fund-raiser after yesterday's cleaning frenzy!