After seeing many people online (aka instagram) participate in the BGH One Room Challenge, I’ve decided to participate too this fall! For week 1, I’m sharing my primary bedroom design plan, as it stands right now. At the beginning of May, Andrew and I had this crazy idea to switch rooms with our two older kids. To recap, we have 5 members in our family and 3 bedrooms in our house. Our two oldest children, who are 6 and 4 years old, share a room and our youngest daughter sleeps in the 3rd bedroom, our nursery.
Now, before you label us nuts for giving our master bedroom to our children, let me explain. Our house was built in 1950, there is no *master* bedroom. There are two bedrooms, one slightly larger than the other, off the same hallway, that share a bathroom. Well, technically all the rooms share a bathroom because we only have one in the whole house. The bedroom at the front of our house, that Andrew and I have used and referred to as the master since buying this house, is the largest bedroom. That is the only reason it was named ‘the master’ bedroom.
The closets in the front two bedrooms are the exact same size, so when we considered swapping rooms, there really wasn’t that much to consider. By letting our kids take over the front room, they gained more floor space to play and more vertical space to store their toys. And since all we do is sleep in our room, it was a no brainer.
We moved all of the furniture that Sunday back in May and thats about all thats happened since then. The kids’ furniture translated better than ours did. Our mirrored nightstands do not fit in this smaller room, so we swapped those out with old ones we had in our garage guest room (more on that another day). As we’ve lived the last couple of months with the new configuration, I’ve started to collect ideas to upgrade our room. Right now, we have a dresser at the foot of our bed – not the best feng shui.
As Andrew describes it, “Its like sleeping in a coffin.” Its basically the opposite of hygge, so yeah, this room needs some ‘sprucing.’ Also, we still have a few of our children’s items in our room. Their industrial shelving unit with books and a few toys hasn’t been relocated yet. And there are two smaller shelving units on adjacent walls. You can catch those in a few of the before photos.
Hopefully at this point you are ready to come over and lend a helping hand because this room clearly needs a refresh. Thus, let the One Room Challenge begin!
I’ve collected some inspiration and now want to share with you my plans.
Primary Bedroom Design Goals:
- Swap out our short, wide dresser for a tall, narrow dresser that will fit between the bedroom door and closet door (where the industrial shelving is now)
- Add paneling to the headboard wall (or maybe all the walls?!)
- Cap the paneling with a wall to wall shelf
- Paint new paneling and walls above it (and possibly add an accent ‘faux’ wallpaper with paint)
- Update/build nightstands with more storage
- Add wall sconces above nightstands
- Update and add textiles – a new rug, new pillow shams, and possibly new bedding
This inspiration photo was really the catalyst for this project. I was admittedly a little lost design wise until I saw this photo with the paneled accent wall and wall-to-wall shelf. The room is similar in size to my room so I know the scale of things will translate well. I also really love that Pothos plant draping from the shelf and already have one propagating for my room!
This second inspiration photo really caught my eye because I just love the feel of this room with all of the different textures. It is also similar in scale to my room and I have curtains that stretch to the corner of my room next to the nightstands like shown above. Seeing this photo also solidified my idea of wall sconces next to the bed. Since our nightstands are small, a table lamp takes up most of the valuable real estate on the nightstand top. So, by adding wall sconces, it will free up space for other things.
Dresser & Nightstands
Right now we have an 8-drawer dresser that Andrew custom built when our son moved into this room. It was made for this room when it housed a twin size bed, but now that we moved our queen in here, there is not enough space for it. So, we’ll be swapping it out for something more like the inspiration photos above.
We were actually gifted an old dresser from a friend that happened to be the perfect size! It’s been in our garage, waiting for a makeover for months now. Last weekend, we pulled it out, dusted off the cobwebs and got to work. We still have work to do, but here is a little peek at the dresser makeover:
At this moment, I’m planning to paint the dresser a dark gray/charcoal, or maybe even black, and add gold hardware. You’ll have to check in over the next few weeks to see the final product!
Next up are the nightstands, also custom built by ‘just show me a picture’ carpenter Andrew.
These nightstands have been around since before we were even married! And when wood was clearly a quarter of the price it is now because they are solid oak. The shape and style are very traditional, which I don’t mind, but they lack any functional storage – which is a must in this small bedroom. I would like to salvage the concrete tops, and construct a new base, with drawers. Our previous mirrored nightstands had three wide drawers and I really liked the functionality of them. I’m drawing inspiration from these:
I have been talking about cane furniture for a while now and I’ve been waiting for the perfect project to try it on. I’m really loving the style and color of the chest on the right, but ours will be more similar in size to the nightstand on the left.
Primary Bedroom Design Plan:
- We’ve already started the dresser makeover but still need to add new drawer fronts, paint, and add hardware (These knobs are on the short list).
- I’m narrowing down paint colors for the panelling and this green keeps catching my eye.
- A new rug is at the top of my list for this room and I’m leaning towards this option.
- If I can get Andrew on board, I’m planning to order these wall sconces.
- I will be reusing the curtains, headboard/bed, and some of my bedding.
- If time allows, I would love to accent the headboard wall above the paneling – possibly using this tutorial.
Those are my plans for now and I am super excited to see them come to life. I’m sure there will be some changes and tweaks along the way, but thats what good design is all about. If you want to see progress in real-time, make sure to follow me @elleandjaydesign on instagram. And you can find me on Pinterest here. I’ll see you back here next week for an update.
