Welcome to the boudoir

Finally, a sunny day! I've been trying to photograph our bedroom as it deblandifies, but it's been too grey outside for decent pictures.

We live in a dull, anonymous apartment complex (because we live in a dull, anonymous town—well, I suppose being a crime capital isn't dull exactly...), so we have to inject personality into the apartment ourselves if we want any at all. There are so many bloggers out there with beautiful houses to go with their beautiful photos of their beautiful stuff; our stuff, on the other hand, has to outshine our lame digs.

Curtains are hard to photograph, but you can see the ones I made at the edge of the photos. I got a great end-of-bolt deal on the barkcloth and used every inch of it. For anyone who hasn't sewn curtains, beware! Sewing what seems like a simple rectangle can be a major pain in the rump. It's not so much the sewing as the measuring, though working out how to sew a blind hem for the first time made me a little cranky too. Gertrude's manual was virtually useless, as usual; this was much easier to follow.

The smaller set of pillows on the bed were a much simpler job (though not as simple as the big ones farther back, stitched by the elves at Ikea). We found the barkcloth at an antique shop here in town, and it came in two strangely shaped pieces. I'm still trying to come up with a use for the remaining long strips, since I love the print so much. The colour works splendidly with the flamingo quilt.

The Other and I had been grumping since we moved in that we had nothing suitable for over the bed, so we were thrilled to find this painting at Deco the Halls in San Francisco last month.

It comes from 1973 Manila, according to the back of the canvas, and makes the room feel much livelier. It was affordable too—not always the case at those Modernism shows—though the thrift stores in town have spoiled us with really good deals on things we completely don't need for just a couple bucks....

The dresser in the first couple photos was also a local thrift find (I made the other bedside table with plans from Todd Oldham's Handmade Modern), so perhaps I shouldn't talk so much trash about this town. If it'd just give me a decent bakery, I'd be satisfied.