bedroom makeover – simplify the chaos

After several weeks of work, our primary bedroom is . . . halfway done!

Yep, you read that right. I’m only finished with half of the room so far, but my oh my do I love this half!

Here’s a reminder of where the space started at the beginning of the One Room Challenge:

Throughout the past nine weeks, I painted the walls, baseboards, ceiling and windows. I also replaced the window casing with chunkier trim and updated the outlet and switch covers with wooden covers painted the same color as the wall. Justin and I hung new curtain rods and curtains, new smoke and carbon monoxide alarm, installed sconces, swapped our nightstands with the ones from our guest room, and of course, upgraded our bed, bedding, and rug.

I have realized something important about myself in this process. I understand the value of planning out a renovation ahead of time. The mood board I created at the beginning of the project was such a helpful guide for me in making decisions early on and to gather all my thoughts in one place. That being said, I realized that I also really like slow, thoughtful design decisions. I like to solidify a choice, see it in my space, and then finalize the next choice from there. This room started with the bed. I knew I wanted a platform bed in a deep, solid color. Once I had the bed in place, I could gather bedding ideas and a rug that would all coordinate well, and once I sat with those choices for a couple weeks, I found the curtains that worked perfectly to complete the look.

Looking back at my mood board, I stuck with a lot of materials and products that I first envisioned, but I’m glad I didn’t jump the gun and order everything at once in the beginning. Take the curtains for example – I originally envisioned a solid mustard color. As the renovation went on and everything came together, I realized with solid color walls (I did not do limewash as I originally planned), a solid color bedframe, and a solid color throw blanket, I needed more pattern! I wanted a subtle graphic pattern to balance out the bolder, more intricate pattern in the rug and I really wanted to stick with a mustard color. It was actually very hard to find affordable, in-stock, 96″ length curtains in a small, mustard-colored, graphic pattern that I actually liked, and I searched for weeks before finding these beauties (snagged on sale for under $50 a pair!)

I’m very glad I didn’t let the pressure of a “deadline” with the ORC rush my decision because I’m so so happy with the end result!

My goal when starting out with this space was to create a colorful, moody retreat. I wanted a place that felt relaxing for Justin and I – a little haven just for us away from the chaos of sharing a house with two toddlers and two dogs. The bedroom before was a functional, but boring blank slate. We are both so happy with how it feels now: a restful, soothing space just right for us.

Now that I’m finished with the “bed half,” I am ready to focus my energies on the other half of the room: the half that currently looks like this.

I have an Ikea dresser I plan to hack for this space, as well as add a little vanity table, more curtains, and possibly a different mirror. Again, I’m taking things a little slower and honing my vision one decision at a time! I can’t wait to see how it all comes together!

Sources

Wall Color: Sherwin Williams Foggy Day

Ceiling Color: Sherwin Williams Alabaster

Floral Sheets + Throw, both from Target (no link available)

Elbow Connectors (used to make the rods work for a bay window)

Curtains (out of stock – similar here)

Dog Bed

Be sure to check out all the other One Room Challenge reveals here!

Another week of the One Room Challenge is complete and I’m very excited about the progress we’ve made!

Since last week, we’ve had a few elements added to the room that have made a big impact. First, our rug got delivered over the weekend and I am in LOVE.

This rug is from the new Chris Loves Julia x Loloi collection and I’m a big fan. The colors are amazing, the pattern is gorgeous, and the price cannot be beat (it’s pretty reasonable at full price but I managed to snag a 9 x 12 on sale for under $300 which was even better!)

Once I put the rug down, everything tied together instantly. The bedding and rug and bedframe just coordinate so well without feeling matchy-matchy. I love it so much!

The next big change was obviously the paint. I originally wanted to try out a limewash paint. Our bedroom is a very large room and I didn’t want to fill it with furniture and things on every wall, so the subtle interest that limewash brings to a space felt like the perfect way to create some movement throughout the room. I love this inspiration image!

I ordered some specialty paint chips and was narrowing down my color options when I realized that limewash is probably not going to be the right choice for right now. Justin and I plan to remodel the en suite bathroom in three years or so, and at that time we’ll be either expanding the bathroom or adding another closet which will cut into the bedroom. We’ll be adding a wall, which will change the shape of the room and likely lead to some shifting around of furniture. The problem with this is limewash doesn’t patch well. If we’re patching holes (likely moving sconces, etc) and adding walls, we’ll probably have to recoat the walls entirely. The paint is expensive and a little more labor-intensive so I’m going to wait until the room is reconfigured with the bathroom remodel and only limewash one time.

After debating and sampling nine different paint colors, I landed on Sherwin Williams Foggy Day in an eggshell finish. I love how it’s moody without making the room feel too dark and it gives a nice cozy let’s-stay-in-bed-all-day vibe. Perfect for a bedroom!

I also like that it plays off the colors in the bed frame, bedding, and rug. It feels like a monochromatic look with just enough contrast to stay interesting.

I will say it’s really hard to capture the color correctly on screen; the picture above makes it seem a little more vibrant blue with hints of teal where really it feels more like a blue gray in person. I’m going to play around with my camera settings to try to get a more accurate photo for next time.

I have a few more areas of the wall to paint and I also need to give the ceiling a fresh coat of white paint. Our sconces came in this past week so we need to hang them, and now that the paint is chosen I’m ready to pick curtains. Then it’ll be new baseboards and window trim and working on our dresser (if you’ve been following along in stories, you know I’m going to update an Ikea Hemnes dresser into my dream modern dresser). I’m not sure how much I’ll get done this next week because we’re actually leaving for vacation Sunday (looooooong-awaited!!!) but I still have three days left so hopefully we’ll make some more progress!

Be sure to check out all the other ORC participants here.