The [First!] Before & After Reveal: Our Bedroom
WOWOWOWOW, the first before & after of our quirky mid-century!
…. our bedroom!
As we planned where our focus would go for renovations, we knew we wanted to tackle our bedroom first. After all, your bedroom is where you sleep, rest, keep your belongings, clothes, etc. I just felt like if we got this room done FIRST, it would help it to feel like home right away :)
Something about having your bedroom done, just helps your entire mood feel SETTLED, ya know?
We were SO excited to have a true primary bedroom. We’ve never had a big bedroom for the two of us before, and we’ve NEVER had a closet in our bedroom (seriously, hahahah). So, safe to say we were so thrilled to move in & make this room our own.
the vibe?
While our last house was white, bright, woodsy, and bohemian, I was surprised when I was really drawn towards making our primary bedroom moody, romantic, cozy…. Not my “normal” design style by any means, but I couldn’t shake the desire to go a bit bold and make it dark & moody! However, I COULD NOT decide if we should just do an accent wall of a dark color or all the walls.
Adam was on team ALL the walls dark, but I was a bit hesitant as I didn’t want it to feel like a dungeon. Even though I wanted to go for the whoooole room in my gut, I was afraid I’d hate it & and regret it. After debating for a few days, my dad said “Kater, it’s just paint! Worst case scenario, you don’t like it, and you can paint it back!”.
That was ALL i needed to move forward! We ended up doing all the walls dark, and we….. LOVE IT. It’s so bold, but still feels cozy. It has a very romantic feel, while still seeming unique! Also, not to mention, i genuinely think it is helping our sleep because our room gets SO dark. Maybe that’s just placebo effect, but adam swears his post-night-shift sleep has improved so much, ha!
For paint, I did jasper by sherwin williams as the main color… but i felt a little too green so I ended up HAND-MIXING a little bit of tricorn black in by sherwin williams. Hahahhaha. I definitely wouldn’t try this at home, but I am just ruthless and loved the color I hand-mixed and just went for it hahahah. That is definitely not best practice painting advice, but that’s honestly what I did!
gosh, this is fun!
Wow, I had soooo much fun planning this room and casting a vision for it. It was THE FIRST house we designed and changed up in this house, and it just felt so surreal. I, of course, wanted to honor the mid-century energy— but bring it to 2021. I also researched relentlessly to find thee bedframe, thee rug, etc. I wanted a vibe that was timeless, honored the MCM era, but still packed a modern punch! Am i allowed to combine the styles mid-century modern, scandanvian, and moody all in one ~vibe~ ???? Because that’s what I was going for!
I definitely had a “long term” vision for this room. I wanted to make it modern without being overly trendy where things will go out of style soon. For example, even if we change the paint color/vibe in the future, I really wanted items that would be versatile and evolve with how we decorate & redecorate this room over the years.
And, I’ll probably talk about this more in future posts, but this house just makes me FEEL creative. It is so quirky and unique as is, that it almost gives me “permission” to run with more bold ideas I’d normally shy away from just because the house is so unique. I truly feel sooooo excited & limitless when I daydream about this design & possibilities of this house and am finding myself drawn to new things— dark paint colors, for example, bold wallpapers, statement pieces of art, more color, etc. It feels SO fun to be inspired & creatively free! Love this feeling.
I am having a hard time putting it into words, but designing this room just made it all feel REAL. That we *actually* live here, that we *actually* get to make this house ours. Eeeeee! It was just so exciting to dream it, plan it, and then SEE IT come to life. Our first “real” primary bedroom, and we couldn’t be happier with it!
budget & planning:
When planning our budget for the entire upstairs renovation, we actually put a lot of resources/money into this specific room. We have literally never bought a new dresser, mattress, bed frame, etc. (we’ve just been reusing old ones from childhood, college, etc.) so we decided to just GO FOR IT & really make our primary bedroom feel finished, comfortable, complete, and ours :)
I talked about budgeting for this home at length in this post, but in a nutshell: we have been saving up for our long-term houses renovation/decor for a few years now so we had a set amount of money put aside to do these initial projects. It was SO nice to have saved up already & then intentionally choose what we wanted to get.
This is the first time we have ever truly invested & “designed” rooms instead of just working with what we had— and it was so. fun. We felt READY to invest in 1-2 statement pieces per room that we LOVED & could enjoy for years to come (and then cut costs on the “smaller” things like curtain rods, frames, bedding, decor, etc.). Oddly, there really are no used pieces in our bedroom which is rare for me, but it also felt very exciting to invest & handpick the exact pieces we wanted. I
(Don’t worry- I’ll share ALLLLL the links at the bottom of this post! enjoy!)
The thing I was most excited to buy? A bed frame. We knew immediately which one we would get, I’ve loved this specific one from anthro for FOREVER, and Adam also loved it. So I KNEW i would buy it once we finally found our “long-term” house (my family has forbid me of saying “forever home”, which honestly, is #valid given our recent moving history, hahaha). To get this bedframe as cheap as possible, I waited for a sale and put my anthro birthday coupon (IYKYK) on top of it (saved almost 40%!!!!) and now we have the bed of our dreeeeeeams. We’re obsessed with it—it makes the room, and is such a statement piece. It was a total investment (literally the most expensive piece of furniture we’ve ever bought, *nervous laugh*), but the coupons/sale helped a LOT and we LOOOOOVE it. I can’t even express how happy I am with it. #ThanksBirthdayCoupon!!!!!
Other investment pieces were the dresser and rug. We also waited for labor day sales to snag these for some solid discounts, and looooove them. Such good quality & can’t wait to use them for years to come. Some bigger changes we made included ripping out the carpet and putting in white laminate planks. They have a lovely wood-style grain and we love how the white floors contrast the dark walls. (Can i recommend these floors yet?? Not with 100% confidence because I don’t know how they will hold up with time-- but so far, so good!) We also hung two big globe lights which I am SO happy with. I feel it really elevated the space and tied it all together.
All in all, I love how this room is woodsy yet modern, has the MCM-vibe, but still feels minimalist yet cozy. Basically….. it feels like home!
now, without further ado, THE BEFORE AND AFTER:
the before….
….and the after!
also, WHY i didn’t make my bed better for this photo is beyond me, but just roll with me, peeps 😂 I’m a lot of things, but I am NOT a home photographer. #ThisPhotoTakenOnAnIphone8
BEDROOM LINKS:
Bedding duvet/pillowcases: quince
Sheets & Pillowcases: simply organic bamboo bedding
Bed frame: anthropologie
Lighting: home depot
Lumbar velvet olive pillow case: etsy
Lumbar pillow: amazon
Dresser: west elm
Mattress: amerisleep (LOVE it. If you like super, super firm mattresses, you’ll love this!)
Ceramic: h&m home
Rug: lulu & georgia
Artwork: joybird
Flooring: best laminate
Paint: Shade jasper mixed with shade tricorn black
Dresser artwork: minted
Curtain rods: amazon
Curtains: target
Mirror: target
Planters: amazon
Fan: amazon
more details & snapshots
are we done yet?
Nooooo, not quite! While I would love to wait to share this master bedroom until everything is perrrrrfect, where’s the fun in that?! While I am SO happy with this room, I am still waiting for the perfect piece of art to hang on the side wall (and maybe a bigger piece for above the bed???), a cozy corner chair, and a few extra decor items, but I’d say this room is about 90% done and I just wanted to show you the progress! We couldn’t be happier and truly love it!
in a nutshell (and what to expect moving forward!)
The FIRST “before and after” of this house— with many more to come! We’re still hard at work putting together the rest of the house! My intention is to keep updating the blog and putting room by room details and links, so check back often for more. You can find the FULL STORY on buying our house here, and the most recent house posts here. Thank you all for the enthusiasm you have shared with us for this house! We feel SO at home here & it’s so special to have you all along for the ride!
Now, I gotta ask, what are your thoughts??? What do you like? What surprised you? I’d love to hear your feedback and comments below!