The “Post-Divorce Time for a Change” Bedroom Makeover

Makeover by: Wendi
Location: Seattle, Washington

The room had looked the same (horrible) for 18 years. After my divorce, I decided it was time for a change. The project was done over the course of the summer this year, with the main costs being paint and trim.

Though I did not set a budget or keep track of the total, the project was relatively inexpensive. I reused many items (repainted bookshelves and bedside tables, used a light fixture that had been purchased for another previous project, kept the old bed).

My inspiration — besides my lifelong love of pink, orange, and red together — was a sari I owned in pink and gold. Searching for ways to decorate with it, I saw a lot of Pinterest images of Moroccan or Indian rooms using pink, orange, and red. And I knew from the start that I wanted a chocolate brown wall.

At the same time, since the room is an attic room, I was searching for pictures of other attic rooms, and finding a lot of them with light painted floors. I fell in love with the glossy white floors I saw, and slowly, my design fell into place.

The paints were all Glidden Duo, with the exception of the paints used for the red side tables and to refinish the ceiling light and door hardware in oil-rubbed bronze. That was Rustoleum spray paint.

For decoration, I plundered a lot of my own stuff that wasn’t being used or had been used elsewhere. I brought in art from other rooms and framed some art that I had never gotten around to framing before, including some of my own artwork. I put new cases on old throw pillows. Many other items in the room came from thrift stores, including many of the decorative pieces on the bookshelf and the candle lanterns. I did buy a couple of small new things to decorate — a basket, a couple of paper lanterns, bedside lamps.

IKEA was, as always, a good source. The bedside KAJUTA lamps were only $9.99 each. A pink glass VÅRBY lamp was $12.99. The nightstands are RAST pine nightstands, which currently are $14.99, but in this case I’ve owned mine for more than 10 years, and all I did was spray paint them red to make them new again.

The bookshelves are an IKEA hack. They are a large IVAR fixture, that we altered with beadboard, paint and trim to turn it into a fake “built-in” bookcase.

More about the project at: Slumberland

Thanks, Wendi!

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