Master bedroom BEFORE

Before you scroll any further… stop and repeat after me, “I will not stop following this blog because of the pictures I am about to see.”  Ok.  Got that done…now let me show you a never-before-seen room in my house, all BEFORE pictures, and a room that pretty much breaks every rule of decorating that exists.  You have been warned!

Here is our master bedroom.

I can’t tell you how many people have visited our home, and even stayed in our home who have never even seen this room.  Even when/if it is clean (which I may have removed an ironing board that pretty much permanently lives in our room, several stacks of clothes that need to be packed up, a bunch of other random stuff, and I even dusted and vacuumed for you too), I never usually show anyone this room.    They enter in my home in my newly painted entryway with a painted yard sale dresser, I show them my painted striped curtains, my curtains from sheets, the board and batten in my guest bathroom, my dining room, and we enjoy sitting in the living room together…because those are rooms I love, we enjoy being in, that function well for our family.

But let’s back up.  This summer marks 11 years that my husband and I have been married and 10 years since we have lived in this home.  Really not much décor has been touched in here since that time and over the last 10 years.  Which was way before I had any clue about decorating, before I read blogs, before I shopped yard sales knowing what to look for to transform to make look beautiful to fit in my home.  We did buy new bedding about 5 years ago because our old bedding was falling apart. Those lamps were purchased about a year ago on an awesome clearance deal from Kohl’s with the plan to use them in a newly decorated room, and the white standing mirror I found recently at a yard sale and hope to use in my new room.  

The room really is large which we loved when bought this home and still love today!    Our room is actually larger than our living room – sure wish we had that space in our living room instead but it is what it is.  But I sure would like to enjoy and use all of this space in a room we love and that works for us.  I would love to WANT to retreat here at night and sit in a chair in the corner reading or watching tv or browsing online before bed or sit in bed with my husband up against a soft upholstered headboard reading or working before bed.  

So the main reason I never have redecorated/rearranged or even worked on this room is the furniture.  Yes, that lovely marbled black and gray lacquer furniture.  There is not much bedding or décor that will work with that furniture – I tried to do the best I could with red and black when we were first married.  I love my husband and he knows that and I think you know that – I truly adore him and am so thankful for getting to spend my life with him – BUT his taste in furniture that he chose before we met and got married I just don’t love. 🙂  It is good quality furniture and for being almost 20 years old has held up well.  But he has finally agreed to let me get rid of his bachelor style furniture and use the furniture I found at a yard sale last summer once I get it refinished.  

There are super tall ceilings in this room – not looking forward to painting those tall walls but they desperately need it.

I would love to create a sort of “sitting area” in our room – wish the space was more conducive to moving the bed to one side but the bed really doesn’t work any other place but centered between the 2 windows.  So I hope to use the space to the left of the bed and add a chair/ottoman. 

Oh and the crazy nook in the corner.  When we moved in it was just a nook – very strange and we really didn’t know what to do with it.  It made sense to add a built in bookshelf of sorts.  So one of our first “DIY projects” was to add these shelves.  

I am sure you will want to pin this picture of this beautifully staged bookshelf, so I will wait while you do that.  LOL!  Back so soon… ok, seriously don’t pin this – wait for the after.  We installed these “floating shelves” and stained them a dark black.  The large space on the bottom was intended to use for a hamper but now that I found the laundry method that changed my life, we don’t use a hamper anymore – I just put them all in the laundry room and they are washed that day.  I plan to re-work all these shelves – possibly add cabinets on the bottom and somehow deal with all those cords too?  What would you do with this space?  Yes, we have a TV in the bedroom – not sure if it will go back on the shelves or we will put it on the dresser or tall chest – we do plan to upgrade to a small flat screen tv on the sales between Thanksgiving and Christmas this year.  

Here’s the dresser side of the room and you can see the laundry room is right outside the door – I love that!  Again plenty of space!

Ignore the pitifully small piece of art above the bed and the naked windows, and let’s talk about what is going to change over the next 4-6 weeks.  Pretty much everything from this room will be gone – dresser, nightstands, bed, bedding, décor on the walls, etc.   Anyone in the market for some really nice bachelor furniture??

The built in bookshelf nook will be reworked and painted, the walls will be painted, a set of furniture refinished and added to the room, new bedding, new décor and maybe even some DIY art. 

So this is the “series” of sort that you will see happening on this blog in the next few weeks.  The room looks exactly like this right now, but as soon as I finish this post I will be working on reworking/building more shelves, working on refinishing the furniture, making a headboard,  and then moving on to painting, new curtains, and decorating over the next several weeks.    My goal is to have it completely finished in about 6 weeks, by the end of September.  I am SOOO  excited to get to work and have a room that we both love and can enjoy!  And I am excited to share with you step by step the process.  So there will be several posts that won’t be “pretty” posts with a finished before/after as I plan to show you in real time what I am working on as I am working on it.  Make sure to follow me on Instagram and facebook as I will be sharing updates there as well. 

Here’s a list of everything I plan to do (not necessarily in any order) and share on the blog in the coming weeks:

• add more shelves to nook/possibly add cabinet on bottom
• paint nook and shelves white
• trim out the outside edges of nook to make it look more like a built in bookcase
• refinish long dresser and tall chest – stain or paint
• figure out what to do for nightstands – have 1 that matches set of furniture so either will do non-matching nightstands or find/purchase a set of second-hand nightstands and paint/refinish them or build a set of nightstands
• make DIY upholstered headboard
• paint walls and trim
• clean the carpets
• install new blinds
• make/buy curtains
• possibly stencil new curtains?
• possibly make a piece of DIY art
• find chair/ottoman for corner
• continue to look for and find more thrifted décor/accessories for the room
• add lots more pillows to the bed 🙂
• decorate!

I will be back tomorrow to show you inspiration pictures for the room and ideas I have for curtains, colors, bedding, the furniture and more.  And then later this week or Monday I will show you some things I have already purchased for the room.   I can tell you that there will be NO black, red, or burgundy in the newly decorated room. 🙂 I would love to hear what YOU would do in the room – colors you would use, ways you would rearrange the room, what would you do with the nook, etc.  Now excuse me while I get busy on that massive to-do list I just shared above!  Looking forward to sharing this process step-by step with you in coming weeks.  Operation Master Bedroom Makeover starts now!