Carolyn’s Bedroom Makeover: The Bland, Beige Before

It’s been over a year since my partner and I moved into our home. There were plenty of things to occupy our attention, such as getting rid of the garish mixture of red and yellow walls in the downstairs living area, installing a new door, fixing some damaged exterior portions, and so on and so forth. But finally, enough was enough, and we decided to tackle the one room that hadn’t gotten a speck of attention: the bedroom.

Feast your eyes on that peachy-beige wonder. I’m sorry if I offend anyone whose room is painted this color, and I truly believe that with the right furniture and accessories, any paint color can work, but let’s just say that, from a personal perspective, I had lived with this particular hue long enough. I’m not sure if the photos accurately convey it, but being in this room sometimes felt like being enveloped in a sea of sickly flesh. Not to mention the fake crown molding and the boob light adorning the ceiling. And to give credit where credit is due, our furnishings weren’t exactly holding up their end of the aesthetic bargain either.

I don’t want to sound like a grumpus, though. There are so many things that I love about this room. On the bright side, it’s well…pretty bright. Giant windows mean that the room is flooded with light, and we have a great view of the backyard, so I can often see my dogs out back, frolicking happily. (Or happily barking at a terrified squirrel, as the case may be.) Also, the room is huge. It fits a massive bed, two behemoth dressers, and a dog crate, all without feeling cramped. For a bit of foreshadowing, when we moved the crate out to paint, I felt like I could have hosted an aerobics class in there. I also love the weird places where the eaves bump into the room, since I’m a nut for any awkward architectural feature. Seriously. The weirder the better, which made for some interesting house-hunting discussions between my partner and me.

It was definitely time to give this room a new look, but since we’re saving money for various other house projects, it had to be on a tight budget. (We were aiming for $300.)

You’ll hear more about our plans and budget in a future post, but for now, let’s talk about a few constraints of the space. For one, even though we’d like to replace the carpet in the long-term, we knew that it wouldn’t be feasible at the moment. The dog-marred berber had to stay, so we needed a style that could work with it, instead of fighting against it.

Additionally, we have two 70-pound snugglebeasts (the aforementioned carpet-marrers) who like to sleep in crates. That means that we have two hulking pieces of furniture that are unattractive but non-negotiable. One fits in the closet, as you can see in the pictures above (and for whatever reason, that’s the one that they battle over each night), but the other crate had to be front and center in whatever design we came up with.

Finally, the bedroom set was something that my partner purchased a while back as his first “grown-up” furniture. He adores those pieces, I like them well enough, and they’re very well made, so even though I tend to be anti-furniture-sets, it’s all staying. Any furniture liberties that I take will have to be with the bedside tables.

So, with all that in mind, stay tuned for the plan, the follow-through, and the “after” of our bedroom makeover extravaganza!