I was all psyched to do my remake of Home by Christmas. By the way, I figured out why I am so drawn to this movie. It’s because of Linda Hamilton’s character’s “pick yourself up by your bootstrap” tenacity, her creative approach to life’s dilemmas and, of course her passion for home decor.

I had big plans to have a beautiful styled room for No. 1 Son coming home from college for the holidays. Let’s just say that the final result didn’t quite match my good intentions My room makeover resulted in a calamity of events, back aches and shear exhaustion. The sore back came from going up and down 2 flights of stairs all day long and hauling furniture, retrieving supplies, tools, etc. between the basement and 2nd floor. At first, I was wondering why I was so exhausted and then by day 3 I decided to put on a pedometer. Turns out I was averaging 10,000 steps, mostly stairs each day. I think that would exhaust just about anyone, don’t you think? If this is sounding like a pit party, I assure you it’s not. Well maybe a little:)

What exactly did I accomplish?

I removed the decoupaged sheet music from the nightstands I had refinished a few months back.

The veneer was in such bad condition and I was looking for a quick fix.

It just didn’t work and they sat it my garage ever since. So I removed the decoupaged paper and started over.

Boy was that a challenge! After much scraping and sanding, I patched the veneer, worked out the blisters and repainted.

I refinished his dresser

and stained his desk.

Installed cellular shades.

No success finding any curtains as of yet. I might resort to making some if I continue to have no luck.

After that, it was mostly cleaning and tidying up. I discovered No. 1 Son, like Mr. DIY, has paper issues. He still had high school papers nestled in this book case. It was a mess but it’s organized now. I wanted to paint it but I ran out of time.

This photo album was buried in all the rubble. His grandmother arranged a montage of his life. I stopped to reminisce for a while. Time flies much too fast.

Hard to believe my now 6’2″ son was ever that small.

I stuck a lame bow on the door. When No. 1 Son arrived home, I accompanied him up to his room. A young man of very few words, his response went something like this:

No. 2 son: New furniture?
Me: No
No. 2 Son: This is my desk?
Me: Yes
Taking a closer look, then quickly diverting his attention to the dresser
No. 2 Son: (Wide tooth grin and shaking his head) That is NOT my dresser!
Me: Yes, it is.
No. 2 Son: Wasn’t my dresser wider?
Me: No. that’s the same dresser.

He took a couple of turns around and smiled.

That’s all I remember. It was extremely late and I was exhausted having worked right up to the last minute. Although it was a great learning experience (I will save that for another post), I was glad to be done for now. The end result was a spanking clean room, three furniture redo’s – a blank canvas, ready to be accessorized.

Can you relate? What do you do when your vision and execution are out of sync and frustration sets in?

I’m sharing this post with:

Miss Mustard Seed: Furniture Feature Friday

Funky Junk Interiors: Saturday Night Special