Remodeling To Make An MCM Atomic Bedroom

From the moment that we bought this little house, I knew that, one day, I would remodel the bedroom and make the MCM, atomic, retro bedroom I have always wanted.

Well, it took three and half years, but I finally did it! The whole project cost less than $200. Here's a cost breakdown:

Pearly White Paint: $40
Aqua Paint: $20
Other Colors of Paint: $4
Mirrored Stars: $25 shipped
Curtains (colored and white): $60

I took some "Before" photos... kindly pardon the mess. Before the remodel, my bedroom was a dumping ground for things we didn't really know what to do with as far as storage went.

    

That last one there is after I emptied everything out of the closet in order to paint.

As you can see, there is a LOT of ugly, cheap paneling. I HATE this kind of paneling. I always see weird images in the fake wood grain. It's disturbing. 

I had painted over every single piece of this kind of paneling in the house EXCEPT here in the bedroom. Here's a video overview of the room before I started:

So, I painted the closet first, Saturday night:

Then, I painted the walls. Here is a "before" shot of one wall:

And the same wall after one coat of paint:

 

 

 A short video showing the way I found to paint paneling SUPAFAST!

And the same wall, again, after four coats of paint, finished: 

And the opposing wall, finished:

Here's a sneak peek shot after I started painting colors:

 

And... FINISHED: 

 

 

Kitchen Sputnik Starbursts

I have fallen in love with vintage-style starbursts. I adore them, those long-legged, atomic, Sputnik-style stars. And I started putting them in my kitchen when we put up tile and painted last year. I continued that design as I finished the kitchen and hallway remodel this year.

After painting the whole kitchen and hallway the same color (Angel Food by Behr) as the rest of the kitchen, I stuck chrome Sputnik stars in automotive chrome vinyl stickers all over the kitchen wall as an accent wall. In the various sizes, it looks like a retro star field, and I am thrilled with it. Take a look:

Office Redesign

When we first moved into the house, we knew it was going to be super small, especially when it came to my home office. My Tommy Lee built me a little room off the front of the house out of scrap lumber, repurposed lumber, and a few new pieces; the total cost of initially constructing the little room was $400. Most of that cost was laminate flooring, paint, and nails. Anyway, my office has seen a few dozen configurations in the three years we've lived here, but none of them worked for me... at all. So, this year, I decided to make the office I have always wanted. The first step was finding the right desk.

I fell in love with a vintage tanker desk I found on Craigslist for $20, so I sent Tommy Lee and my son to fetch it. They cleaned it up and painted it creamy white (1960s Ford Tudor white) with bright orange drawers. I then searched the Internet for a good long while and found just the proper accoutrements to my new desk: an atomic starburst clock with colorful balls, a bendy tree floor lamp, a retro-style radio (for listening for the radio ads I make on the local radio station), a suitcase-style record player, and, the coup de grace, a landline telephone styled like the rotary phones I grew up with.

I then pared down everything in my office, got rid of a lot of things I never used, and then organized my files and office equipment. I bought a retro-styled TV, too, but the resolution didn't look right for using it as a computer monitor, so now, I am trying to figure out how to make it work in my ever-shifting bedroom design that I plan to undertake later this year.

Here are some before shots of the office:

As you can easily see, it had become a catch-all spot. Being as it is the entrance to the house, people just tended to leave stuff in there... and stuff from other areas of the house that didn't have designated areas tended to migrate into my office because, hell... Mom just works in there; no big deal, right? Well, I am one of those people that can't tolerate mindless clutter, and the older I get, the worse I get about it. So, I redesigned the whole thing. I am in the process of still figuring out where things go, but it is getting better. Here are some "after" shots:

 As you can see it is far less cluttered, a lot more clean and neat, and it has that MCM, retro style that I have fallen in love with, thanks to Pinterest. Here are some photos of my favorite pieces:

Tulip tree lamp - $40 on Amazon; colorful atomic wall clock
from Retro Planet.

Retro, rotary-style push button desk phone in Tiffany blue.
(I wanted it in yellow, but it was sold out... :-(

Retro radio

Suitcase record player... so my vinyl can finally see the light
of day!

I am sure that I will be doing more in here (changing curtains, adding a curtain to the closet door opening, fixing the one open panel in the drywall), but, for now, this is so much better for me... I feel more productive; maybe I am just happier in here... who knows?

Quick Tip for Smooth Boxed Mac & Cheese

Ever get tired of working out the lumps from the powdered cheese sauce that comes with boxes of Mac & Cheese dinners? Here's a quick tip tip avoid it: mix the powder with the required butter or margarine before adding out to the pasta! Simple, and gets rid of all the lumps!