See How a Builder-Grade Bedroom Becomes a Thrifty DIY Dream
Going thrift shopping for decor remains a strong home decor trend for 2024. After all, it’s a bit of a treasure hunt. For Paula Truscott (@mismatchedhome), thrifting is a way to decorate her most loved spaces without breaking the bank while still sticking to her personal style.
Paula and her partner, Martin, had already tackled the living areas in their home, as well as a nursery and toddler room for their daughter. Finally, it was time for them to design a bedroom they loved to spend time in. “It was always in the cards to do and just constantly took a back seat,” Paula says. “We always shut the door when friends came over as it was pretty embarrassing.”
The pair have an eclectic design style evident throughout their home, and they wanted to bring that into their bedroom, which didn’t necessarily show off their personality. “The room had a greige textured paint feature wall which we loathed, with off white walls and stained carpet,” Paula says. “The house was built in 2010, but everything was just basic builder grade. There was nothing interesting about the room at all.”
Two DIY treatments create a more stylish statement behind the bed.
Some people like a gray textured accent wall, and others don’t. Paula and Martin fell into the latter category. They added wall paneling (painted white) and a live-edge ledge behind their bed instead, both of which were first-time DIY projects for the pair.
“The wall paneling was left over from someone else’s job, so we scored it cheap on Marketplace,” Paula says. “The timber used for the ledge was purchased from a family owned timber yard so also quite cheap.” (And the decor on top of the ledge was thrifted, too.)
Paula adds that they chose to run the wall paneling horizontally below the ledge to make the space feel wider and vertically above the ledge to simultaneously draw the eye up.
New paint and floors help the room feel complete.
“We felt all efforts to improve the room would be wasted without ripping out the carpet and repainting the walls,” Paula says. Paula and Martin wanted to replace the carpet with oak hardwoods, and they installed it themselves — another first-time DIY project for them.
They also tried to paint the ceiling and it didn’t go as well. “We failed epicly,” she says. “I think it was mostly because of the color and technique. We hired a professional painter who fixed it for us.”
Paula’s takeaways? Hire a pro for the hard stuff, and definitely go bold on the ceiling. “Don’t be too monochrome; add pops of color so it doesn’t feel cold or clinical,” Paula says. “The ceiling blends perfectly with the black fan, and it gives a camouflage effect.”
Upcycled furniture makes for a budget-friendly bedroom set.
Another black-painted beauty in the space is the IKEA TARVA dresser; Paula and Martin added rounder, chunkier salvaged furniture legs, textured Anaglypta wallpaper to the fronts, new trim to the fronts, painted the piece black, and added drawer pulls from Amazon.
The couple also painted their nightstands (found secondhand) black.
Thrifted decor completes the room.
Although Paula and Martin did buy a few new things for their bedroom’s new look (see: the bedframe, the rug, bedding, blinds, and lighting), Paula’s advice is to “thrift often.”
Her new gallery wall consists of thrifted artwork, and the mirror was a $700 find majorly discounted for $50 because it was slightly damaged. “Sometimes you find the best things when you’re not looking,” she adds. “Be patient when it comes to thrifting, and give yourself a lot of time to find the right pieces.”
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