I am never one to say “no, thank you!” to a great hand-me-down piece of furniture…bonus if it is a quality item or an antique! When my husband and I married, we received a king bed suite that was beautiful! Carved pieces and a cane headboard. In our last home…a 50s ranch house…the ceilings were lower, and it looked really beautiful in our bedroom. In fact, we were able to spread out the entire suite over two rooms which was an added perk!

Ours basically looked like this one!

In our new home, the ceilings when from around eight feet tall to closer to 10 feet! Your scale of decorating has to drastically change for things to make sense! Not that you have to “fill” each space, but you do have to change how you see the spaces! For us, we can now see the beautiful dresser and chest of drawers, but the bed and side tables seem dwarfed in our room.

So, what to do? Well, I love a great thrifty find, and the thrill of the hunt for a specific piece! I just knew a four-poster bed would be a great fit, and I came across this beautiful rice bed, and loved the carvings! $200 dollars. It was listed for $300. I offered $150. They came back a couple of days later with $200. Done! Love a good negotiation! 🙂

I also knew that I didn’t want or need another traditional brown stained piece in our bedroom, and that painting anything I got was essential to break up the monochromatic furniture scheme!

(Word of advice in case you haven’t ever bought an antique or a piece of second-hand furniture. It really is best to add some diatomaceous earth in the crevices for about 48 hours to ensure you aren’t bringing any critters in the crevices into your home. ugh! Feeling my skin crawl as I write this…eek! You can pick it up at any hardware, co-op, or home improvement type of store! OR order some here! Non toxic and pretty inexpensive to avoid the repercussions!)

This bed was perfect! The carvings were beautiful! And the scale to the room is amazing!

Time to paint! What a labor of love! I love to refinish and paint pieces, and I wanted to try the chippy, layered look! Well….it didn’t quite happen. There is a level of patience to that where you wait for your paint to thicken and only hit certain areas, and I lost in that category! Very impatient refinisher here! There you go….admitting it is the first step in the 12 step program….haha!

Annie Sloan is my gal when it comes to chalk paint unless I mix my own from leftover Sherwin Williams or Benjamin Moore colors I’ve used in my house! Frugalista here!

Okay…sidetracked!

Back to the paint…first layer Old White. Then Duck Egg. Then Florence…yikes…kind of overwhelmed me! Then Coco. Then a wash of Provence. Then a dry brush of Duck Egg, again!

A little sanding and a coat of matte finish clear sealant! It was done! Soooo pretty. Soooo happy!! I couldn’t wait to get it in the room!

We woke up early Saturday, and if you know me I need an extra 15 minutes of silence with my coffee, but for this I popped out of bed….moment of crazy! Kind of out-of-body for me!

Assembly…check!

Mattress…check!

Bedding…meh! Love my bedding….doesn’t hang as far as it is supposed to! Well, that will come later…thinking maybe a dramatic linen spread with ruffles like one of these!

So, once again…here is the before.

And here is the after!

And don’t mind the pink paint chips on the wall. Thinking of painting the room Pink Quartz or Pink Swirl. I read somewhere that a beautiful bedroom promotes healthy sleep and a healthy marriage! Stay tuned for that choice!

I am so in love!! Sweet dreams!