Room Makeover: My Bedroom (And Kind Of The Bathroom, Too)

For years, I never made the bed. Like, EVER. (Do you make your bed every day?)

In my mind it totally DID NOT matter, because nobody was going to see it. I mean, why not use those precious moments in a hurried morning to load the dishwasher or do a chore that MATTERS? (You know, if I'm going to do a chore in the morning before work which HA HA NO, that never happened.) I figure I spent less than one hour, conscious, in my room per day. I woke up and went to work and didn't really go back in that room until it was time to sleep. It was not a hanging-out room. I wasn't even going to see the dumb bed until it was time to un-make it, so what's the point of actually MAKING it in the first place?

(Research like this validated my thoughts on the topic.)

(Warning: That link has a Very Scary, Intensely Magnified Bug Photo.)

Anyhoodle, my thoughts on the topic started to change when we moved to a house with the master bedroom downstairs and kid bedrooms upstairs, which forced us to naturally spend more time downstairs, nearby and in our room.

Then we had another baby and put the changing pad/station on our dresser, because who wants to go upstairs (after labor and delivery!) every time a diaper needs to be changed? No. I don't think so. We were in and out of the room a lot, as one might expect with a newborn. I started to (begrudgingly) make the bed every day, which actually means, "Throw the duvet up in the air and smooth it out as fast as I can." The lumpy sheets were making me insane and since I was dealing with a refluxy baby in that same room, it needed whatever (free, fast) feng shui I could manage. Making the bed was kind of a big deal to me for several months. It transformed the room! Good enough for now.

THEN I quit my job and I was staying at home for waaaaaay more hours than I used to. Some days I was staying at home for ALL THE HOURS. I was spending a crap ton of time in my bedroom changing diapers and nursing a baby (the glider was in there) and trying to get a baby down for a nap (she slept in a pack and play for MONTHS in our room). Sometimes, I even slept in my room! (Not a lot.) My desk was also in there, so if I wanted Quiet Internet Time, guess where I was spending it?

IN MY ROOM, YOU GUYS. I NEVER, EVER LEFT MY FRAKKING ROOM. IT WAS HORRIBLE. I spent a lot of time thinking,

"This room is actually very, very ugly. Ugh, I want to leave this room right now."

I was still making the bed (still new to me! still a big deal!), but LORDY I had not spent a dime decorating in here since about 2005, which was the middle of last decade, in another HOUSE.

Man, this is a really long lead up to a picture of my new duvet, which I am somehow calling a Whole Room Makeover. (I AM SORRY. I just feel like I have to EXPLAIN how I got to the picture I can't believe I'm about to post.)

OKAY, THE BEFORE PHOTO

This is such a sad, boring decor photo, but this is how my room looked for two years in this house and for six years at the old house. I mean, I know it's no van down by the river, but it's also not anything fun or interesting or PRETTY. 

UGLY ROOM ANALYSIS AND FURTHER EXPLANATIONS (I AM SORRY, BUT I HAVE TO EXPLAIN SOME MORE)

I hate this furniture. The wrought iron look is just...not for me. At all. But Chris came into our marriage with this furniture (woo! free!) and this room has never been a spending priority. So, we sort of try to ignore the ugly. This worked for a long time because we didn't spend much time in here, but lately that kind of brainwashing isn't working as well.

The duvet is a Marimekko print from Crate and Barrel (2005, I think, but they still sell it in different colors). I liked it for a long time, but in this room it felt so faded and washed out and also it was ooooold and I was tiiiiired of it. The whole setup is very sad and pathetic with only our two pillows (one is actually on the floor!). I never hung anything above the bed because I figured we'd get new furniture at some point and we all know where that budget conversation went so this Giant Expanse Of Blank Wall just kept existing, all Ugly and Boring and In My Face and killing my soul.

And then one day I decided to throw some money at the problem. Literally, I opened a Pottery Barn catalogue, saw what I wanted and bought it THAT INSTANT. This is the best impulse purchase of my life, people.

PRETTY AFTER EXPLANATION AND ANALYSIS

I bought a new duvet and a crap ton of pillows in a dreamy palm print and some of those fluffy pickstich shams. Part of my strategy with the pile of pillows was to try and cover up that ugly ass wrought iron scrolly-headboard. And, it kind of worked! I hardly ever think about it these days! I am thinking about maybe some kind of bench or chest for the foot of the bed, to perform similar visual-blocking miracles. There is a cedar chest in Claire's room that I am thinking of requisitioning for this purpose.

This beachy pillow cost too much but I LOVE IT.

I had some canvas wraps printed (at Costco!) for over the bed. They're 16 x 20's and I thought they might be too small for such a big space, but I actually really like them there. At this point, Claire BEGGED ME to "be in a picture with her picture." What a stinking HAM she is.

THEN I got really nutty at Target one day and decided I LOVED the brighter green color in the duvet and what the BATHROOM really needed was a makeover too. (I am really good at spending money.) I got some new hand towels.

And then I got a new bathmat. What I really wanted to do was rip the room to the studs and start over again, but that actually costs more than a bathmat and hand towels (Crazy! I know!), so I quit while I was still under $40 for the room and actually, it makes me notice the 1997 brass-colored everything a lot less when I have nice hand towels to look at, so that's a win in my book.

This is kind of a boring picture, but I also finally hung some prints that I got for Christmas (about Maui, of course). (I LOVE THESE PRINTS and his whole Hawaii-themed shop of original artwork. LOOOOOVE!)

So, that's what I've been spending money and time on this past month. Wheeee! 

Comments

[Bre]

How funny that you talk about making the bed vs. not as I just had this discussion with my husband yesterday! I found throw pillows for our bed that I loved but was trying to decide if it was worth buying because we never ever make the bed. But I love the pillows and it was a foun out of business 60% off clearance and well we ended up buying them. Now to see if they ever actually get used (outside of company coming over this forcing me to make the bed!). Love the bedroom/bathroom make over!

[Jesabes]

Ugh, I hate that the master bedroom is never a spending priority. Guests SEE everything else, so it's all been spruced up. Our bedroom, however, still looks like we just moved in (complete with BOXES) and we've lived here three and a half years. I want to paint the plain white walls, so we've never hung anything. We don't have a bed frame. And, no, I never make the bed (same reasons you originally gave). Every six months or so we say we've GOT to decorate the bedroom.

[Elizabeth]

See, that's why I finally decided that my bedroom was going to be awesome, because I got sick of it never being a priority even though I am always in the damn thing.
I LOVE your new room. It looks so good.
Also, FYI, I bet you could spray paint that bed white, scrollwork and all, and it would look fricking awesome.

[Morgan]

Oh, hahahahhaah. You are killing me here. Currently, we have two comforters, one in master bedroom and one in guest bedroom, and they are that same exact crate and barrel pattern. Taupe in bedroom and green on guest room. They were lovely until about ones month ago and I guess that i when they turn on you. Because I currently want to set fire to them. Time for new grown up bedding. Sleep has become my number one preferred from of recreation. And those comforters must go.

[Life of a Doctor's Wife]

Oooh I think it TOTALLY counts as a Whole Room Makeover! The bed looks fabulous. And I love that you carried over that tropical beachy theme into the bathroom.

I spent years never making the bed, but I do like how clean and neat it looks these days. It really is such a quick way to make the whole room look better.

[HereWeGoAJen]

I make the bed most mornings (unless Matt is still in it, on the weekends) but that is half because I am a neatness freak and half because Matt makes such a mess of the covers while he sleeps that if I do not return them to their original positions every day, they like fall off and stuff.

Your before picture is more decorated than our current picture. Our bedroom is kind of sad. But, I have the opposite now. Our current house has the master bedroom upstairs out of the way and I almost never go into it. I intend to decorate it, but I somehow never actually do. (Despite writing several Style Lush posts about how I am going to.)

How much are the canvas prints at Costco? I am trying to get some for our downstairs.

[Erica]

I never made my bed in my whole adult life until I started staying at home and seeing it too often.

And now I need some canvas prints to hang over our bed.

[Home Sweet Sarah]

Looks fab!

And I make my bed every single day. I quite literally have not missed a day in probably 15 years and that includes when LG was born. I am insane, I know.

[Mel]

Love that pillow and LOVE the costco canvases. I've never thought to buy them from there and now? I totally will.

I did my best to make the bed when I worked outside of home but if I was too busy to get to it in the morning, then I just didn't sweat it much. But since having Landry and being home full time? OH my. I am not sure there has been one single day the bed wasn't made. It is almost a tick, I cannot stand the thought of walking in to the room with the bed not made. I actually find that I can keep my master bed and bath the cleanest rooms in the house and I keep them as my sanctuary.

Love the redo!

[Holly]

I am a compulsive bed-maker. Always have been. It makes my skin crawl to have the bed unmade, so, I literally have made the bed everyday of my life that I can remember. Even when sick, I'll make it, then climb back in. Probably a good thing especially since the master bedroom shares a door with the living room. Gotta love 90 year old houses! And you never know when Better Homes & Gardens might stop by for an impromptu photo spread :)