An IKEA PAX DIY and a Dreamy Mural Transformed This Tiny Brooklyn Bedroom
One of the most exciting relationship milestones is moving in with your partner. Goodbye, overnight bags and missing each other. Shortly after signing the shared lease, though, the reality sets in that the design has to represent both of you, which can be tricky if one person is moving into another’s space.
Muralist and fine artist, Maggie Beckett, understands this dilemma. She’d been living in a 320-square-foot Brooklyn apartment since 2023, and had decorated it to be “girl-coded and perfect for a 29-year-old woman living on her own,” she explained. However, things would quickly change.
The New Couple Needed an Updated Design
One year after Maggie had moved into the Greenpoint apartment, Dave, her now-husband, moved in too. “He never minded my fun and girl designs, [but] I wanted to create a space that felt inclusive for him too,” Maggie explains.
The space that needed a dramatic change was the bedroom (although the whole apartment got a redesign). It didn’t represent the couple aesthetically, and, because the original bedroom had a very simple layout due to spatial constraints, the couple was forced to crawl in and out of the bed, which was not feasible long-term.
Changing the Room’s Layout Made the Room Work for 2
The apartment didn’t have any closet space, so when Maggie first moved in, she had to get creative with small-space storage solutions. But with Dave added to the mix, even more aspects of the bedroom layout had to change.
“I knew moving the bed against a different wall, where there was space on either side, made the most sense,” Maggie says. “But it would reduce the storage space we initially had on the other side.”
It was a risk the couple was willing to take to make their space feel more intentional for the two of them — instead of the apartment still feeling like Maggie’s.
After the previous wallpaper was removed, they moved all of the furniture out so Maggie could paint the new mural. It was a fresh start for the bedroom’s layout when they moved everything back into the room after the mural was finished.
They “positioned the bed on a different wall and built two slim IKEA PAX system wardrobes on either side” to add the storage they were missing now that the bed was centered on the main wall. But “most of all, I love having space on either side of the bed for both my husband and me to move around,” Maggie shares.
The 9×9-Foot Bedroom Had a Storage Problem, and IKEA Solved It
“Seeing some built-in bed storage nooks online inspired the idea for the wardrobes on either side of the bed,” Maggie says. To affordably make this idea come to life, she added two IKEA PAX wardrobes with IKEA GULLABERG doors. The added wardrobes doubled as nightstands on either side of the bed, but created even more storage space than a side table typically offers.
Maggie also bought two pine planks from a local hardware store, painted them white to match, and laid them across the top of the two wardrobes. She added a tension rod and valance to close off the entire upper area — creating the illusion that everything was one unit and the IKEA wardrobe was instead an intentional, built-in nook.
“There’s no doubt that the most special part of the bedroom is our smart storage,” Maggie comments. “The room is less than 9 by 9 feet, and we still managed to place the bed so we both have space to walk on either side, storage closets on both sides, storage above the [IKEA wardrobes], and storage under the bed!”
Unwinding Was Easier Each Night with the Room’s New Mural
The first step in the bedroom transformation was updating the paint colors and the overall design. The previous mural was a calm shade of blue with geometric lines, complementing the simple layout of the space.
While Maggie wanted to keep the serene and calm, she also wanted to “experiment with a traditional landscape-style mural in the bedroom, [which was] a fun way to practice a new skill,” Maggie explains.
She used Benjamin Moore’s “White Rain” as the base for the mural, and added Benjamin Moore’s “Covington Blue” to the trim and crown molding. Now, the space still evokes a calming feeling, but with an added layer of serenity because of the woodland scene and delicate details.
Now, with the “built-in bed nook” and dreamy mural, Maggie and Dave have a space that feels like both of them, while adding a calming room to unwind in each night.
Check out Maggie and Dave’s full apartment tour to see how they added functionality to the rest of the home! Inspired? Submit your own project here.
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