The 'Long Distance,' French, Shabby Room Redo...

Well, my best friend might slap me for this, but I've wanted to blog about her 'Shabby Room' redo for awhile now. Because I love it and it was quite an adventure that took many months to finish and crossed many state lines to complete. Yes, I stole the pics off your FB <wink>...

She's a 'black & white' lover and well, I'm a busy, floral lover and well, she trusted me enough to send me material in an 'if it fits, it ships' box from WI to help her recreate this room. I don't know if she likes it. I know, it's way too busy for what she's used to, but hey, I'm a busy personality. If she just wanted toned down, black and white, I was the wrong person to involve <he, he...>

She had purchased a bunch of contact paper from the dollar store in black and white rose print and that was the begining. She told me what she was aiming for and the vision in my mind was well, like this pic of Audrey Hepburn...

I don't know if I was on track, or completely off base, but it turned out GORGEOUS & FABULOUS irregardless.

 She drug an old dresser home and redone it in black, with the rose contact paper, sent me a pic and I was excited to begin...

I got it started with a couple pillow shams made in a 'crazy quilt' fashion. This 'best friend' of mine collects Kim Anderson prints and plates and such and I really wanted some 'Kim Anderson' print quilt blocks, but I couldn't locate any. So, I ordered some off the internet that were similar, for the shams. I can't even remember where I ordered them?

Anyway, the shams look like this and I made matching pillow cases with the shams to get the show rolling...

They were sent from Utah to Wisconsin in an 'if it fits, it ships' box and placed on the bed with return photos and a request for a quilt to match.

She ordered some material off ebay that matched the black and white rose contact paper on the redone dresser, the night stand and her vintage ice cream table she inherited and redone...

The black & white rose material arrived in the mail for the quilt creation and I decided to do it 'repurposed' from old velvet dresses, black corduroy jeans, hacked up dress clothes, striped material, floral material & black lace. I went with 'repurposed' material from the thrift store because believe it, or not, this is the dogs room. She had 2 border collies, "Roxy" and "LuLu," and this was their bed..

She didn't want the expensive rose material on the bed top because the dogs scratch the top and this is where 'repurposed,' cheap stuff from the thrift store works great & why I decided to go that direction...

It took me a few months to "Hunt & Gather" all the bits I would need to put the quilt together. I'm sure she was probably thinking, "nice, clean, black and white quilt..." I was thinking "Oh, wow... this is going to be AWESOME!"...

It wasn't a timely event because I moved in the middle of the creation and my life got turned upside down. I was slow getting the quilt done and in the interim, one of the dogs had an accident and had to be put down, so only "LuLu" has the room, but it's still "Roxy" & "LuLu's" room in my mind & always will be... 

I was determined to have the quilt done by at least the holidays, so I could call it her Birthday & Christmas present. Once I got all the material gathered, sorted and started on it, it only took me a couple days to get it done. Of course, it took me longer to 'think on it' as usual, than it did to get it complete. It's just the way I am~~~

Here's the top of the quilt...

I was working with scraps and bits of whacked up clothing and small yardage, buttons cut off dress clothes and bits of lace and other doo-dads, so it was a challenge...

The challenge paid off - it turned out "One of a Kind" and "Fabulous," but still 'dog approved!'

For the back of the quilt, I just used long strips of put together pieces...

I figured if the top was 'too loud' for her, she could flip it over for a change and have just 'black & white' like she loves...

The biggest challenge was getting this heavy quilt to fit into an 'if it fits, it ships' box. I got me a space bag, folded the quilt into a square and added in all the leftover bits of fabric I could fit for curtains and stuff and I jumped up and down on the space bag while holding the vacuum hose to take out all the air I could and get it as small as I could. It took me a few tries, but I got that space bag the exact shape of the postal box and taped that puppy righteously so it would hold in shipping... It was a HEAVY parcel headed her way...!

My greatest fear in transit was the space bag springing a leak and a large explosion in the mailtruck, of a black and white quilt... <yes, I still giggle when I think about it - this parcel resembled a brick when it was mailed...>

I was so, so, careful in the quilt creation, saving the expensive black and white rose material, so she would have enough for curtain panels for the window. She took some black, silky material she had in her stash. She added it to the black and white rose material. She used the excess black and white striped material yardarge sent to her from me and made some adorable curtains to match.

I made a black lace throw for the bottom of the bed out of leftover black, lace yardage, but the dog would knock it on the floor, so she used it for the valance over the curtains, which turned out GORGEOUS...

Then, she customized the mini-blinds to the black and white stripes she loves ~



She bought some cheap lamps at family dollar with white shades...

She customized them with some of the leftover bits of material...

This woman has TALENT~!!!

And, in the end ~ created a customized, french look, shabby room to "Die For..."

I figure, the total cost of the redo, including paint for the furniture and the black & white rose material was probably about $200? I might be wrong... It might have been less, or maybe more? I was including the cost of all the 'if it fits, it ships' mailing boxes that were involved in this multi-state redo...

Beautiful, French, 'Shabby Room Redo' by two women,

on a mission, with a vision

and lots of time on their hands~!