Just Beachy!

After finishing up the flower shops, I took an early Sunday morning to organize my work space and to ponder where my creative inspiration was nudging me next. There's a new-ish project that's been in the wings and on my mind a lot lately. I've been really tempted to crack open the kit and start on it. I even made space on my long shelf to store the Beachside Bungalow - in case I decided to keep it on pause. But something happened a few weeks ago that reinvigorated my enthusiasm about the bungalow, and ultimately, I decided it was too close to being finished to abandon it now.

When I last posted about the bungalow, I had just finished the first floor. Well almost - I still have the powder room to finish but that's a whole other post. What I didn't share (because of the holidays) was that I had started on the second floor's bedroom. I assembled a bed kit, designed and cut night tables with the Cricut, made an upholstered chair using One Inch Minis tutorial, 3D printed pineapple lamps and painted/decoupaged a couple unfinished furniture pieces.

The mistake I made, and the thing that stole my inspiration was mostly the red paint. Yep - I tried to pull the red out of the wallpaper and use it for the bed and for the little dresser, and it really killed my momentum. Bummer dude! I was also second guessing the bronze finish on the pineapple lamps, which type of shades to use and the wardrobe didn't come out like I'd envisioned it, either.

That was really why I returned to the flower shops. I was frozen and gobstopped by a lack of inspiration for an alternate color for the furniture in the bungalow's bedroom. And I didn't want to settle for this version, but didn't have any new ideas, either.

Then... Tasha stopped by one day, and I shared my dilemma. She took one look at the room and told me I needed to go green. She's a smarty pants, and she was right. But I didn't think I had the right green in my stash of 1000 colors. But really, I did: Caterpillar by Apple Barrel. It was almost the exact acid green in the wallpaper. With a bit of a tone down (thanks to a drop of white paint), after I finished the flower shops and did a little reorg to the work space, I was back in beachside business!

I painted/glazed/inked the bed and dresser and soon my compass began to spin again! I had a new vision and a direction to go in. I even started to kind of like the crazy wardrobe. And, I was inspired to design a whole new lamp and shade with more of a coastal feel than a tropical one.

The bronze is nice for the dresser hardware, but I like the lamps better in teal! I did a two tone with glaze, so they look like ceramic in person!

Heck, I was so excited at the direction the room was heading, I even got out my sewing machine to make the bedding and throw pillows! I'm still not very good at making them, but at least I was inspired to try!

 I even made real pillows and then the pillow cases for them to slip into.

The chair even got a tiny cushion.

Including bedside lamps was an afterthought, so I hadn't planned for where and how to run the wires until after all the other wiring had been figured out. It was a bit challenging. I had to create a passageway through the bedroom wall, into the bathroom and behind the shower, then exit down the "utility" side of the house to meet up with the transformer in the crawl space. Thank goodness Russ came up with a perfect piece of metal to use as the "wire pulling tool". Measuring to make sure I was getting the access hole behind the shower was nerve racking.

I got the lamps secured to the nightstands, secured the extra wire where it won't be seen, spliced the lamp wires into one white wire and then taped the wire really well to the metal wire pulling tool. Phew! It worked!

Prior to running the wire through the wall, I threaded it through a "plug end" (part of a silicone earring backer) and an outlet cover that I made with the 3D printer. Now when you see the lamp wire it looks like a plugged in lamp should.

And boy was I relieved after all this work when the lights actually worked! You'll notice I made a couple art prints for above the nightstands using scraps from the same paper pack and pot metal frames painted in the same caterpillar green.

And I was able to sprinkle the wonderful gifts Drora made for me throughout the room. The flower vase on the dresser and the pots of flowers on the nightstands are made by her talented hands, as well as the seashell mirror, seashell jewelry box on the armoire, the adorable pipe cleaner pets and a lovely shell necklace! I am so happy that I finally have the perfect room to display them all in!

I scanned a pattern from the Mint Julep paper pack into the computer, then printed it onto cotton to make the rug. The colors were very faded, so I brought them up more with a coat of ultra matte Mod Podge, careful to avoid the white trim border I left on so that I could create the fringe.

It feels very serene with only the dollhouse lights on.

Speaking of lights, I finally ran the wire for the living room lamp, which meant I could finalize the wiring under the crawl space. The wiring of this bungalow is officially completed!

With the exception of that pesky bulb in the upstairs bathroom that does not want to stay lit. I will address that when I get to finishing the bathrooms. They are next on the list.

But thanks to a little color advice and a new inspiration, the bungalow's bedroom is Ta-Done! I just love the way the room came together and wish my real bedroom looked so lively! There's not much left on the rest of the To-Do list, so maybe, just maybe, I will actually finish another project in 2022!

Thanks for stopping by!

xo xo,

Jodi