Before and After: This Glam Bedroom Redo Features a One-of-a-Kind Ceiling Mural
Spacious bedrooms are a gift because they offer plenty of room for storage, a large bed, and even seating if you use your bedroom as a hangout space, too. But if there’s not enough furniture and decor to fill said big bedroom, it can feel bare, rather than luxurious.
Aiesha Mullings’ bedroom — with lots of square footage and over-9-foot-tall ceilings — was suffering from the cavernous empties. “It was not welcoming at all,” she says. “If I was to describe the before, I would say it looked like a room in a nursing home … I felt like there was no love in the room, especially for it to be the primary suite.”
Aiesha’s goal was to add more furniture and more personality to the “builder-grade beige” room. She also wanted to replace the brown carpeting and beat-up blinds. For her transformation, Aiesha hired pros to help with the flooring install, electrical work, and the wood slat details on the wall.
Before that went up, though, Aiesha re-painted all the white walls with a warmer light greige (Sherwin-Williams’ Dashing). “When the wood slats were installed in the empty space, it just made it look like a grand room,” she says.
Because the wood slats were already a standout on the walls, Aiesha decided to get more experimental with paint on the ceiling and doors; for that, she used a muted terracotta (a Sherwin-Williams Color of the Year, Redend Point). “I am an artist at heart and wanted to freehand a style on the ceiling,” Aiesha explains. “I decided to just let it flow, and it turned out beautifully.” She also used the same paint color on her outlet and switch plates as well as in her artwork for a cohesive look.
Aiesha built the frames around the artwork, too. “I was shopping around for floating frames for my canvas, and the prices I saw were very pricey,” she says. “I decided to research how-tos on floating frames and found it to be fairly simple.” She used pine for the frames and stained them a darker brown.
Before she brought in the furniture, Aiesha used tape to map out how it would look in the space — a smart tip you should steal for your own redos!
And speaking of furniture, Aiesha loves the pops of emerald her new bench and chair add. “I love the reading space near the window,” she says. “It’s so calming to sit and look out the window and stare into space.” Note that Aiesha got rid of her old blinds and replaced them with cellular shades, but she chose to forgo any drapery for optimum brightness. “I love the idea of not having drapes or curtains because I love to watch the sunrise in the mornings and the sunset at night,” she says.
Because Aiesha replaced the floors and bought new furniture, her project price tag was around $10,000 — but she says it was worth investing in this relaxing space for her and her husband. It’s now glam with one-of-a-kind DIY details and feels far from sparse. “I love everything about the space,” Aiesha says.
Inspired? Submit your own project here.