Master Makeover: Bedside Baskets & Accordion Lamps

After a relaxing week-long break from house projects while my sister was in town, we're back and ready to jump right in to this bedroom makeover.

Those of you who follow me on instagram got a little peek of the action on Saturday...

This is a somewhat photo-heavy post (to make up for being MIA for a while!)

So, last time we left off with the most challenging project we'd ever tackled. And it wasn't over yet... we were left with a ton of nails that needed to be dealt with and holes that needed to be patched. Our Friday evening looked like this:

Brad hammered all the misfired nails in while I came behind him with spackle. We had to use a hand sander on many spots because the surface was protruding where some of the nails went in (beadboard is a strange soft and fibrous material, unlike wood).

After everything was sanded smooth and patched, I ran caulk along the seams and we let everything dry overnight. The next morning we came back and sanded over the dried spackle and we were ready to paint.

A few hours later, this project was finally OVER.

And now we have a pretty new ceiling, ready for some beams.

After that was out of the way, it was onto the next project—floating basket shelves.

The gap between our bed and the wardrobes is too small for a side table, so I opted for something with a smaller footprint, and also used the opportunity to bring in some warmth through texture.

I picked up these water hyacinth bin at The Container Store for $10/ea:

To make them more functional, I decided to add a shelf inside each one using a scrap piece of wood I had in the garage:

After measuring the basket depth and width, I ripped them down to size on the table saw and stained them with one coat of Dark Walnut so they blended in nicely:

Now—how to install them? We threw a few ideas around, and ultimately decided to try drilling a couple long screws from the inside of the wardrobe to the back of the shelf, which would also hold the basket in place.

It totally worked. Here's the inside of the wardrobe:

We also placed a screw on the side of the basket to hold the shelf level which is completely hidden by the basket weave.

The process was repeated on Brad's side:

A couple small screws were placed at the very bottom (from inside of the basket) just to be safe, and after pulling and pushing on them, it's safe to say they are very secure.

We don't keep a lot of stuff near our beds (our old nightstands just had a tiny drawer), but we do like to charge our electronics so Brad decided to make the shelf extra functional and run wiring through the back for our chargers.

First, we drilled a hole at the very bottom of the wardrobe and ran an extension cord through it (this will be hidden in a second....)

I plugged the charger into the extension cord and Brad drilled a small hole in the wardrobe, just large enough to fit the end of the charger through:

And now we both have built in/hidden charging stations:

The handle opening at the bottom was bothering me, so I cut a piece of scrap plywood to size, stained it and placed it at the bottom (it's a tight fit inside the basket so it won't go anywhere), and now we have a flat place to set our drinks (or whatever):

Then came the lamps.

I picked up two of these beauties on Amazon for $147 shipped back in January:

It looks like the price has gone up a little since then, but I still think they're by far the best deal around for that style.

Here they are in the flesh:

They were a lot more rustic than depicted in the photo (rust being the key word). I can't tell if it was intentional or if someone just left them sitting outside for a few decades, but I wasn't sure how I felt about it. Brad wanted to keep them as is, but I worried it was a little too shabby so I gave them a couple light coats of black satin spray paint just to give it a slightly cleaner look.

When they were dried and ready, it was time to hang them. There were a couple hole notches in the back so we measured, marked and drilled in a couple screws, then Brad made a hole near the bottom for the wire.

Earlier we had picked up a touch pad dimmer, so instead of flipping a switch (which this lamp did not come with) it would remain plugged in full time, and we'd use the touch pad to control it.

We decided to mount the dimmer on the wardrobe behind the basket so it wouldn't be easily visible—which also meant we had to unscrew the basket to drill another hole behind it:

The hole had to be large enough for the end plug to pass through. Here's a shot of it from the inside of the wardrobe:

So that just plugs into the extension cord we ran earlier for the phone charger. Brad still has to organize the cables, but everything is hidden behind the wire baskets so you can't see it when you open up the wardrobe.

I used velcro to mount the dimmer and it works like a charm:

After the wiring was taken care of and we were ready to mount the light, we realized that it had no extension control. Unless you tilted it backwards, it would be fully extended, so I used a small zip tie (painted black) to hold it in:

I can still move the zip tie down and let it extend whenever I want to, but it's honestly not at all necessary so it will probably just stay like this.

I love the way they turned out! Ignore the distracting unfinished plank wall, we can't finish it off with quarter round for a while.

The final element to our bedside storage are these wire and canvas baskets I picked up from Walmart (for just $13/ea!)

I love the added touch of the chalkboard. I'm a little obsessed with these baskets.

They are perfect for storing/charging my laptop and iPad, which I frequently use in bed at night:

How about some shots with everything all put together?

Don't mind the weak basket storage styling... I just threw a few practical things in here for now so you get an idea of all the possibilities, maybe I'll get more creative for the reveal...

Here's the lights in action:

My absolute favorite part is the improved atmosphere set by all of the new light sources. There's just a completely different feeling in the room since they've been installed.

The cozy factor is slowly steppin' up and it's slowly becoming my favorite space in the house.

And the kitties', too...

Any time of day you can almost always find either Susie or Biscuit in that spot (sometimes both if everyone's getting along).


At this point I'd say we're just about halfway done now that a few big projects have been marked off the list (wardrobe installation, plank wall, and ceiling). The next two major hurdles are the ceiling beams and paneled wall—I think both will make a huge impact in the room.

Time to start planning our next project... I'll check back in soon!

Master Makeover: Beadboard ceiling, lights & speakers

You guys.

We just experienced the most challenging and physically exhausting DIY project of our lives. Our bedroom needs a deep cleaning after this one.

It all started Thursday when I discovered an accident after we had cut our holes for the recessed lights...

Four of them were in the way of where I planned to run the beams. Oops. Totally my fault...

Since the ceiling is textured, we couldn't easily patch over it, so that meant we'd have to either forego the beams or cover the ceiling and start over. I had actually hoped to install some sort of beadboard or paneling initially, but decided it'd just be too much work with everything else we have going on. But now we didn't really have a choice, so off to Lowe's I went on Friday.

Fortunately, the size and shape of our room worked out perfectly to have six panels placed right next to each other. I'd use a seventh to fill the area in between the wardrobes, and the little walkway going into the room. I drew up this plan (to scale) to lay it all out before we began:

The black rectangles are the wardrobes, the brown lines are where the beams will go, and each color is one single panel. So we didn't have to make any cuts at all in the center, just for the green areas. Should have been easy then, right....?

Before attempting to secure the first panel, we made sure to use lots of liquid nails. About 3/4 tube per sheet.

Then we hoisted it over our heads and quickly realized what a challenge this would be. Between Brad's bad back and my 100lb self, trying to keep it from falling with our heads, align it perfectly with one hand and pass each other the nail gun across the room with the other, it was a nightmare. 

On top of that, our nail gun started acting crazy—it was sparking and shooting nails across the room. We tried adjusting the pressure level to every setting we could and it would either drive the nails in halfway, or shoot them so hard that they would go into the ceiling and fly back out 3 feet away. It was insanity. By the end, these were all over the room (and in our bed)...

Anyway, after shooting about 500 nails into the first panel (many of them still sticking halfway out), piece #1 was done.

You can't tell from the photo but I have some serious nail hole filling to do.

At this point, we debating even continuing. How were we going to get through six more episodes of this? I tried calling my dad to come lend a hand but he didn't answer. We were on our own. Somehow we found the willpower to forge on...

There's a small gap in the center because the boards didn't quite meet all the way, but there's going to be a 5" beam there so it doesn't matter at all.

It took us hours, but we eventually made it to the back wall. Installing the smaller pieces that we cut for in between the wardrobes was a piece of cake compared to the entire panels.

Planking our ceiling was so much easier than this, if you were wondering (more time consuming, but at least 2 people could easily do it).

The next challenge was the entrance area:

It actually wasn't a challenge at all compared to what we had been through. I just measured and cut four pieces to go around the attic access box. We'll be putting crown molding here which will cover almost all of the sides, so it didn't mater if the beading lined up or there were gaps (there were).

After the entire ceiling was covered, Brad drilled new holes for the lights with his hole saw.

We decided on two in the back over the bed, two on each side of the room, and one by the door for a total of 7. We also have a chandelier going in the center.

Then he cut holes for the speakers using a jigsaw.

He spent the rest of Saturday wiring everything up. Poor guy, all of this in one day.

We also had our electrician come by earlier in the week to add a second switch so we could have our recessed lights on one circuit and our chandelier on another.

Some of the horizontal seams are really noticeable right now but it's nothing some caulk can't fix. You won't be able to tell once it's done (and remember there's a beam going in the center).

We also finally got around to putting our new bamboo shades in. These ones are blackout because the sun rises directly in front of our window and has been waking us up by 6am every day.

These are the Tibet Oak color from justblinds.com (the same place I got all of our other shades from—love them!)

I'll also be adding curtains in the near future so the window doesn't look as naked.

My favorite part of this whole project is the lighting though. It completely changes the mood of the room. It's so nice to have an actual dimmable light source after living with the crappy underpowered fluorescent-yellow center light.

Oh, and the speakers can be connected to the TV so the audio experience is pretty awesome now too.

And that's about it for this weekend. My little sister is visiting from Florida so I'm not going to spend a lot of time on projects this week (my body is still in pain from Saturday so I can't overdo it).

The goal is to get everything patched, caulked, sanded and painted by Sunday night, so there won't be any second post this week (sorry!). Family first :)

Hope you all enjoy your first week of summer, see you in a week!