New Paint & Curtains Completely Transform This “Bland” Bedroom (It’s Renter-Friendly, Too!)
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When Louisa Linde moved into the rental apartment that she shares with her husband, Ray, and two daughters, it was already fully renovated. Still, as move-in ready as the space was, she found herself yearning to fill it with homey splashes of color.
“All it needed was a boost of color, because their interior was kept very neutral. It felt quite bland to me,” Louisa says. “I was super excited to personalize this space and make it feel more like a home rather than a guest flat.”
To start, Louisa and Ray tackled their bedroom, transforming it from a neutral, more impersonal space into a dreamy pastel hideaway.
The walls got a light blue refresh.
The most substantial change that Louisa made was replacing the room’s plain, magnolia-colored walls with light blue paint (Rust Oleum’s Duck Egg).
“I loved the original parquet flooring in our bedroom and envisioned that a light blue would go so well with the dark brown wood and the white paint,” she says. “[The room] gets amazing sunlight. I knew [the color] would work here without appearing too cold.”
She and Ray decided to paint the bedroom’s visible heating pipes the same shade of blue to make things feel cohesive. However, she cautions against waiting a few days to pull off masking tape. “It took some of the ceiling paint off!” Louisa says. “[I] would definitely recommend pulling the tape off while the paint is still wet or at least freshly painted.”
Pink blackout curtains add a vibrant, modern touch.
Next, Louisa turned her attention toward the room’s existing blue curtains and valances, “because they felt very old-fashioned and stuffy to me.”
“It made sense to use the existing [curtain] tracks because the window is too large to have blinds fitted,” she says. “Blackout curtains seemed like a good solution for this bedroom. Plus, the pink tasseled curtains that I found were just too cute!”
Adding a new hue to the space via the curtains was an easy yet impactful swap. “If you want to make your home more colorful, but you’re doing it on a budget, just start somewhere,” she recommends. “You can add more items over time. It doesn’t all need to be finished on day one, but I promise you’ll already feel happier by adding a little bit more color to your room.”
Strategic pops of color elevate the space.
From there, Louisa continued to add functional pastel pops of color to the bedroom. While Ray put most of his clothes in the room’s built-in white dresser, she installed a gold railing and color-coordinated her clothing in rainbow order, so “it’s practical and pretty at the same time.”
Rather than replacing the king-sized bed that came with the space, Louisa swapped out its blue plaid headboard with an arched pink velvet one she found for £60. “[It] gave the room a more modern feel, and the arched shape looks like the sunrise is above your head,” she says.
Although Louisa can’t add wallpaper to her rental bedroom, she added more colorful accents to the room by mixing stripes and floral bedding from NEXT. Her DIY rental transformation is a testament to how much you can personalize a space as a renter without sacrificing functionality.
“I absolutely love that I was able to completely transform this room without having to undertake any structural changes,” Louisa says. “I’m so happy to wake up in such a joyful space every morning.”