Bedroom Makeover: Before

Before pictures:

 

After 2 years in our current apartment, we are finally getting around to a bedroom makeover.  Since no one else really sees the bedroom besides us, it sort of fell down to the bottom of our list of required rooms to decorate.  As a result, we are still using two mis-matched dressers, mis-matched night stands, a random free-standing lamp, an out-of-place bookshelf and an over-sized (also mis-matched) armoire.  The room isn’t very large and when you add our king-size bed to the mix, you end up with lots of clutter.  We have major storage issues because of the fact that we brought 28+ years of individual crap into a small 1-bedroom home for two.  Even with a remodeled walk-in closet for maximum efficiency, a small linen closet and the bed on lifts to allow storage underneath, we are still busting at the seams. 

Over the last 2 years we’ve had frequent purges of our belongings to the point that we may be on a first-name basis with the Salvation Army donations collectors.  At one point our bedroom actually contained even more furniture than it has now (shocking, I know) but over time we have donated enough clothing and tchotchkes to have eliminated one small bookshelf and an armoire identical to, and as massive as, the existing armoire.  Just over a month ago I spent a Sunday afternoon really assessing my wardrobe and pulling out anything that I hadn’t worn in the past year (including shoes and handbags).  The result was about seven bags of donations for Goodwill and the loss of at least 1/2 of my belongings (without exaggeration).  The great news is that this has allowed us to completely empty out the remaining wardrobe which we are currently selling on Craigslist.  The hope is that we can figure out a way to afford two built-in storage units in the living room and create enough extra storage space to also eliminate the bedroom bookshelf, the bed lifts and all of the boxes that are currently stacked up in our walk-in closet (blocking access to most of my clothes).

In the meantime, we’ve already bought a new bedroom set which should be arriving some time in the next week or two.  We decided to go with this black furniture which I think will be very dramatic against our navy and white bedding.  A night stand will go to the left of the bed, the tall chest of drawers will go opposite the bed and our TV will sit on top (or be mounted above) and finally the long dresser will go on the wall that currently houses the armoire and bookshelf.  I may switch out the hardware to a pewter set to give it some contrast too.

As I’ve mentioned in earlier posts, I am making a new headboard becuase I think our current headboard has too much of a “romantic” feel for the modern look we’re trying to accomplish.  I can’t decide whether to do a tufted or flat fabric headboard but I think I’ll start with flat and see how difficult the whole procedure is before I take on the tufting.  I plan to use an off-white ultra-suede that closely matches our sheets.  However, I am really tempted to get an upholstery fabric in either a toile or damask navy and white pattern.  I love the look of mixed patterns, and here those busy patterns would be behind our striped comforter and polka dot pillows, but I’m not sure I can pull that off.  Any thoughts on this subject would be truly appreciated!

To tuft ...

... or not to tuft?

 

 

 

Toile?

 

Damask?

Tough decisions!  Now, for the walls.  We are repainting (yay!) but I am having a terrible time picking out the paint color (booo).  Currently we have six samples up on one wall and I’ve managed to narrow it down to two choices (numbers 2 and 3 in the picture, below).  These two colors are from Home Depot and are called Bayside and Mermaid Net.  They are hard to see in the picture I took with my iPhone but they are both very pretty.  I really love Bayside (#2) by itself and think it would look beautiful against black furniture and navy bedding.  However, I’m afraid it will be too dark for the room particularly since we have no windows in there.  My second choice, Mermaid Net (#3), I think will look lovely too but it’s definitely my second choice with the only thing holding me back from Bayside being the darkness.  I am starting to get a little more excited about Mermaid Net, though, because a) two friends surveyed the wall o’ color samples and both agreed it was the better choice and b) a post on Design*Sponge this morning showed a bedroom with a very similar wall color and black furniture and it looked really pretty together.  So all signs currently point to Mermaid Net … what do you think?

   

Finally, for accents, I want to just hang some sleek black shelves above the long dresser (like these, from Pottery Barn) to display a vase or a few pictures.  Above the headboard my thought is to frame three of our large (8×10 or more) black-and-white professional wedding photos in black frames and hang them on the wall there.  I’d also like to add sconces on either side of the bed for more romantic lighting and for nighttime reading purposes.  I’d like for each to have it’s own switch so if one of us wants to read the other doesn’t have to be bothered and you don’t have to get out of bed to turn it off when you’re ready to go to sleep.  I thought something like this from Lowe’s would be great.  And finally, as an engagement present almost 2 years ago, my sister and brother-in-law bought us two of these awesome frames from Red Envelope.  If you’ve never been on Red Envelope they have really great things for your home and also really unique gift ideas.  They are really over-priced though so it’s helpful to hint to friends and family if you ever want one of their items!  We still have not gotten around to hanging these frames and now that the bedroom re-do is happening, I think it’s the perfect time.  I’d like to fill one frame with all wedding photos and the other with an assortment of pictures of our friends and family and maybe a few baby pics of my husband and I.  I can’t wait to see how this all comes together!

So that’s what we are working on in the LeGeytimate household.  It’s about time we have a grown-up bedroom and I’m really excited to get it all finished.  Unfortunately we have limited weekends available in October (and in our lives, generally) so the process will be slow but we are determined!  In the meantime, I’ve been paying attention to design sites to make sure I’m making the right decisions and to look for inspiration.  I saw a piece yesterday on decorating a bedroom and thought I might find some helpful hints.  Here is an excerpt from the article:

The way you arrange your furniture can either enhance the relaxed feel of your bedroom, or make it feel cramped and cluttered. As a general rule, avoid blocking windows and doorways.  In addition, make sure you arrange your furniture in a way that makes it easy to access your bed from both sides. If you have too much furniture for the size of your room, move that extra wardrobe or dresser to another room, or be really brave and get rid of it altogether.

Gee, thanks.  I was actually going to put my bed in front of the door so no one can get in or out and, since I currently don’t have a bedroom window, if I did have one I would clearly cover it up with a large dresser.  What an odd suggestion.  Are there really people who don’t understand that concept?

Finally, as if we needed any more reasons for redecorating the bedroom, I posted pictures of the room on HGTV’s Rate My Space website.  For anyone who is unfamiliar with that site and the show on HGTV, the concept is that you post pictures of a room in your house, either to show it off or to get suggestions.  Visitors to the site can comment on the room and give helpful tips.  They can also rate your space (hence the name) on a scale of 1 to 5, 1 being the lowest.  The show picks a few of the lowest rated rooms to make over and the homeowners take inspiration for their new room from spaces they’ve seen on the website.  Pretty neat concept, I think.  Anyway, a couple of months ago I posted pictures of our room and a few people rated it.  We got a 1.3 … out of 5!  Yikes.  Clearly some changes need to be made and hopefully those changes will be made soon.  Stay tuned for the results!

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