Master Bedroom Mini Makeover

I reupholstered the valances in the master bedroom and then I stood there for a while.  We had a few pieces of art in the room that were no longer working on the walls they were on.  Plus, one of our pictures had fallen off the wall, taking a chunk of wall with it and breaking the glass in the frame (that frame later became vintage pin art).  Nothing was working.  I wanted to move pictures around but they were either too small for the wall, or not the right colour, orientation, blah, blah, blah.

You know what happens next, right?  One thing leads to another and before you know it you are begging your husband to take apart the bed so that it can be moved.  That happens to everybody, right?  Not just me?  I can't be the only one who does things on a whim like this.

In my hurricane of rearranging energy I totally forgot to take any decent before pics.  I had an idea and I didn't have time to stop and grab the camera (which just happened to be 2 floors below in the basement!).  Basically though, the bed was up against the windows and a high dresser was right by the door.

Our room isn't big.....and is FULL of doors and windows.  You'd think it would be nice to have lots of windows - and it is, but it also presents some furniture placement challenges.  There are 4 doors in the room.  One that is the actual entrance from the hallway, one to our ensuite and one to each of our closets (yes, we are lucky enough that our clothes do not have to mingle....man clothes stay in one place and girly clothes in another).  And then there are the windows.  In our actual bedroom you can see 3 of them.  There is a 4th identical window in Mr. Swell's closet (and oddly enough it is one of the ones that open....totally NOT practical!).   There has to be one in the closet so that our house looks symmetrical from the outside.

Here's a quick sketch to try and illustrate the door madness....

When we first moved into the house we had our bed against the one door-less wall.  At the time we had a queen sized bed, so it fit just fine.  A few years ago we bought a new king sized bed frame (from Urban Barn) and mattress, and moved the orientation of the bed to in front of the windows.  I can't exactly remember, but I think we just assumed that the bed wouldn't fit where it was before.  We lived with it like that for about 2 years....until I decided I didn't like it any longer (that, and I was terrified the valances were going to knock me out and I would never wake up again...). 

So, we got out the measuring tape and checked everything out.  And lo and behold, the bed would fit going the other way.  Woot.  

The only problem was that the room was too small to move the bed assembled, so we had to take it apart to reposition everything. 

Our little helper was totally into this activity.  I had no idea that climbing in and out of the all of the slats could be so much fun! She has since requested that I lift up the mattress so that she can play in the slats....I haven't given in yet.

* I still have to fix up the baseboards here.  I fixed up the rest of the room a few weeks ago, but this section was behind the bed...that I couldn't move.  And yes, Fin is wearing a very odd outfit...half pyjamas, half actual pants.

Once the bed was moved, we then managed to even squeeze in our night stands   I am still shocked that everything fits this way.

You'll notice that we have no fancy throw pillows, etc.  It's just not us.  We are lucky if the bed gets made every day, so throw pillows are just too much for us to handle.  Maybe one day....but now now.  Not with a toddler who loves pillows!

I attempted to keep Mr. Swell's bedside table as manly as possible.

He has an vintage book and a little photo album that holds our engagement photos.  The wooden box is special to him as it was his grandfathers.  He has all sorts of trinkets in there that Fin loves to dig around in and look at from time to time.

I think the little potted succulent is my favourite part of the room.  It's so tiny right now, but will hopefully grow big enough to fill up the pot.  We've never had a plant in our bedroom before and I just love that it brings just a tiny bit of nature inside.  The pot is from Ikea (it's a steal at less than $4).

My nightstand is also pretty simple.  Sticky toddler hands forces us to limit knickknacks.  I do love how Ferdinand brings a bit of glam to my side though.

I moved my high dresser into my closet.  Sorry, I am not showing you my mounds of clothes and disorganized closet - maybe one day, but that day is not today (remember how I loathe laundry???).  By  moving it into the closet though it freed up a ton of space.  Space that we didn't even know could exist in this room!  Why didn't I do that 3 years ago?

We moved up a chest that we had sitting in the basement that wasn't being used.  It now provides a nice space to sit and put on socks, etc.

The painting above the chest is one that I bought during a trip to Jamaica (in my single days).  I spent a pretty penny to have it custom framed (I think I may have just about fainted when I heard how much...I was a framing newbie).  I adore it.  It's my favourite piece of art that we have.  I do however find it a bit hard to decorate around since it's so bright.  I think it works now though with the dark walls and the ikat fabric - it gives the room an eclectic sort of vibe. 

The wrought iron piece above the bed was originally on the small wall next to the entrance door.  It's a little small for the space above the bed, but since the goal was to not spend any money on art in this room, it works for now.  I contemplated changing the candles out to white, but the orange at least provides a bit of colour against the white bed frame.

When I moved the wrought iron piece I was left with a blank wall.  I used a couple of extra frames that I had and finally framed a picture from our family photos that we had done this fall.

Below the photos is a printable quote that I just printed from my inkjet printer on some nice glossy paper.   You can find it here.

A few more shots to try and give you some perspective...

So there you have it.  That's how one thing led to another, and without any real plan, we updated our master bedroom one Saturday morning.  We go to bed every night now and always comment on how big the room feels.  It's really amazing how just changing around some furniture has made it feel like a whole new room.  The total cost of $20 (for the valance fabric) isn't bad either!

**The wall colour is Behr December Eve in flat.

Linking to:  East Coast Creative