Another before and after.

Before: I really needed my room to be a retreat from the chaos that is moving in to a new house and it was actually the first room I tackled. The room I chose wasn't actually the master bedroom. It was the middle-sized bedroom being used by the former owners as a study. The master bedroom faced both the street and the neighbor's house on the side. This is the only one that faced only the back yard, and it had the most closet space.

The view was the main reason I picked it - I like looking out on the back yard. The former owner slapped a coat of latex paint over oil-based paint on the woodwork, so it's peeling like crazy. I am planning to sand it down and re-prime and paint.

I tore out the built in bookshelves, which was a surprisingly difficult task. They'd been securely nailed in and then caulked, so I had a lot of patching to do. I couldn't really see the point of them and they just made the room look boxed in. Looks like the room was a bright pink before they painted it to sell it.

The walls in almost the entire house had been painted a light yellow prior to the sale. An inoffensive color, to be sure, but not me. My method for choosing a paint color is to tape up several paint sample cards and then, as the light changes, take down one at a time until I'm left with one I like in all lights. It's really hard to tell in the rest of the photos, but I went with peach shades.

I tried for sort of an ombré effect, with graduated shades. I bought a gallon each of the darker and lighter shades on one card, and then mixed a couple of batches in varying proportions as I painted upward. It may not be to everyone's liking, but I find it soothing.

I replaced the old vinyl mini blinds with room darkening shades (for nighttime) and floral sheers. All three doors in the room have the original cut glass door knobs, so I got a curtain rod with cut glass finials to go with them.

Although I'm going for deeper colors in the rest of the house, I like my room to be lighter and more serene. Not frilly, but still feminine. Those little carved gourd lights reflect in the dresser mirror, which makes the room glow.

After: The view that matches the before photo at the top. It hardly looks like the same room.