Getting Ready for School - or putting up shades in my bedroom

The Institution

This is our bedroom - a few months ago. It has been our 'newly renovated' bedroom since December 2010. Can you see that clean, crisp white finish? Yeah, that's not a testimony to our preference for modern decor. 

We've read the books and gone to marriage conferences. We know that we're supposed to put priority on 'our space'. We know better. But we still chose to live this way for almost two years. There were definitely some extenuating reasons for our choosing to live in a room that resembles certain special institutions featured in horror movies. 

The Fabric
The colors are wrong in this
picture, but you can see the
pattern. 

I finally hit a breaking point last winter and started talking colors with my favorite Aubuchon Hardware paint lady. She told me to find my window fabric first and then to choose colors. So the hunt was on. And I found some fabric that  I really like. 

Wall and Ceiling Paint

And I picked out paint for the walls, ceiling (thank you Matt Hankey for teaching me to color my ceilings) and woodwork. It has taken more time to move this project forward than a room has ever taken me. 

This week, I was very excited to finish the lined roman shades - and hang them up. I think I will add a valance across the top - maybe of the dark blue-green color that you see pops of on the shades. But I want it also to coordinate with a new quilt/comforter (our current winter quilt is the one that I made for us when Caleb was still a baby -  I love it, but it is showing it's age and it is time to say goodbye to it).

Almost Done

The blessing that has come out of this long process is that through a series of trying things out in a different way, I think we may finally have moved into our bedroom in a way that fits us and fits the space. We've had the bed in several places. What was originally an office for me is now a closet. And this spot in front of the windows is shaping up to be a really nice place for me to sit and read. 

With a space that invited me to rest and renew, I think I might be ready to get our homeschool year started.