Before and After: A $1,300 Bedroom Redo Has a DIY Headboard and a Low-Cost Luxe Light Fixture

One great source for bedroom design inspiration? Hotel rooms! (After all, a restful night’s sleep is pretty much the hotel industry’s bread and butter.)

Calming colors, layered bedding, and lamp inspiration galore are commonplace in luxe hotel rooms, so it makes total sense that Santeka Grigley’s vision for her bedroom during the One Room Challenge was “a serene, hotel-inspired” space.

Before, her beige bedroom was far from calm or relaxing. Santeka and her partner, Reggie, had been fixing up rooms gradually in their home, and the bedroom was neglected over time. “It definitely showed with the mismatched furniture, lack of character, and a yellowish wall color,” Santeka says.

Santeka and Reggie set about to create a space that they “yearned to return to at the end of the day.”

Although Santeka is normally drawn to bold, vibrant colors, for her bedroom redo, she and Reggie —again taking a page from the hotel world’s design book — chose to go classic, dark, and moody. Their dark paint choice (Sherwin-Williams’ Cyberspace) and the new textured headboard are the stars of the show.

Santeka and Reggie built the slatted headboard (plus the matching floating nightstands!) from scratch, and it was much more difficult — and involved a lot more troubleshooting and research — than anticipated. “I’m glad we didn’t let lack of knowing how (in that moment) stop us from seeing the vision through,” Santeka writes on her blog — a great DIY mantra.

To create the headboard, she and Reggie started with basic plywood boards, which they sanded and stained with a mixture of Varathane’s Special Walnut and Golden Pecan. After measuring the frame and hanging up the base, they had to create the actual design of the wall. They planned the placement of the angled 1×2 slats using an iPad, making sure to cover up any visible seams on the plywood backdrop. “We underestimated the amount of time it would take to complete,” Santeka says. “We didn’t end up finishing it until week seven and had to work around it to keep the project on track.”

Because Santeka and Reggie were working on the project for the ORC, they had a tight deadline of eight weeks. “It felt like Amazing Race: Home Design Edition!” Santeka says.

In the end, though, they created an intricate, one-of-a-kind piece of geometric art that doubles as a headboard. (Underneath the headboard, the frame of the bed is an IKEA NORDLI bed with storage.)

Santeka’s advice when working on a project like this is to “be nice to yourself, and be flexible,” she says. “Don’t get bent out of shape when things don’t go as planned. Just take a breather, and pivot when possible.”

For more luxe getaway vibes, Santeka and Reggie installed circular golden sconces on both sides of the bed to provide a soft glow. A $70 light fixture hangs overhead, and there’s a DIY there, too: Santeka spray painted the flush mount fixture gold and then wrapped the upper and lower rims with yarn and brass beads to soften it and to mimic a $500 inspiration piece she’d seen online.

With the hardest parts of the project out of the way, Santeka added furnishings, such as nightstands, a chest of drawers, a bench, and a storage cabinet, almost all of which she fixed up with new paint or hardware. Finishing touches include wall art and a thrifted mirror, as well as a cozy comforter set and faux fur throw for the bed.

Santeka’s favorite parts, though, are the parts that she put so much TLC into. “I love that I stepped outside of my comfort zone; I love bright colors and bold patterns, but I decided to incorporate darker hues and textural fabrics to transform my bedroom,” she says. “[And] I’m most proud of the slat wall. It truly is the focal point of the room.”

Because she did much of the furniture upgrading herself, Santeka’s bedroom transformation total came to $1,300. Talk about luxe-looking for less!

This project was completed for the One Room Challenge, in partnership with Apartment Therapy. See even more of the One Room Challenge before and afters here.

Inspired? Submit your own project here.