Our bed room was a front room, so it’s taken some work to show it into a cushty, purposeful, and delightful sleeping house (it’s really one in every of our favourite rooms!). So in the present day we’re outlining the 6 most impactful enhancements we made to our bed room, full with some up to date footage.
Our Bed room, Earlier than
You possibly can take a look at the entire earlier than photographs of our dwelling right here, however as you possibly can see under, it was a principally clean canvas. Effectively, apart from the crumbling drywall, crooked blinds, and broad doorways to the adjoining kitchen – all of which we needed to handle. However we liked the fireside and the wall of french doorways and just about instantly knew it might make for an incredible bed room (because the home was listed as having just one bed room once we purchased it!).
After closing off one of many openings and including a lot of storage, it’s troublesome to match the precise angles of our earlier than photographs, however this shot of our fire is an efficient instance of how far the room has come over the past 3.5 years.
It’s additionally a far cry from the way it appeared proper after we formally moved in. We swear there was a fire again there someplace!
A Video Tour Of Our Completed Bed room
Earlier than we dive into the checklist of the six major issues we did to rework our bed room, let’s take a fast spin across the completed room on video. We don’t wish to jinx ourselves by calling this room 100% performed (each room tends to evolve over time), however now that we’ve added closets, built-in cabinetry, a customized mantel, floating cabinets, and so forth – nicely, it simply feels as “completed” as we expect it ever will. So right here’s how far it has come:
Notice: You too can watch this video on YouTube.
1. Including A Wall Of Constructed-In Closets
The largest purposeful enchancment on this room was including a wall of Ikea Pax wardrobes to create that correct (and plentiful!) closet house. Going from a huge walk-in closet in our outdated home to completely no closet on this room was fairly an train in persistence. However due to the addition of those closets, we have been in a position to create simply as a lot storage as we had in our outdated home!
It wouldn’t have been doable with out closing off one of many openings between the outdated front room and kitchen, in addition to one of many doorways exterior that you simply see on the proper of the photograph under (which is the wall that our mattress now sits in opposition to). It could appear unusual to eradicate a french door, however this room nonetheless has three extra units of them!
Six doorways stay, together with three home windows! So there’s fortunately no lack of sunshine or stunning views in right here.
As a reminder, right here’s what the room appeared like once we purchased it from this angle:
However again to the closets. We love Pax wardrobes due to how customizable they’re and the way simple they’re to include right into a room. We wrote a complete tutorial for easy methods to make Ikea closets look built-in.
We additionally shared a tour of how we configured the within of them, so you possibly can see precisely how we organized them right here. We even included room for our vacation decor. There’s a complete Christmas tree in one in every of them! See all of it right here.
These closets are in all probability the one greatest choice we’ve made on this room. Neither of us ever anticipated to have this a lot closet house on this home, not to mention closets which might be so purposeful. Actually, I’ve by no means felt extra organized. Downsizing + considerate built-in storage for the win.
2. Making Room For A King-Measurement Mattress
Talking of issues we by no means anticipated for this room: the largest mattress we’ve ever owned! Because of some cautious house planning and these simple DIY nightstands, we lastly upgraded to a king-size mattress after almost 20 years of sharing a queen. Not solely is it a extra spacious and comfy strategy to sleep (particularly with a canine who likes to sleep horizontally between us), however it truly helps the room really feel greater.
It sounds counter-intuitive, however small areas typically really feel extra expansive with fewer bigger gadgets than a bunch of smaller ones, which might look extra cluttered and “busier” to the attention. So making room for a bigger piece of furnishings can assist an area itself really feel bigger!
Having a much bigger mattress additionally feels prefer it LIVES LARGER too. We have now extra room to unfold out and it’s a spot the children can lounge with us on lazy weekends too.
And only for enjoyable, right here’s a photograph of this wall again once we purchased the home. We didn’t instantly know it might be the very best spot for a mattress (so we moved the mattress round for some time), however we adore it a lot now that we’ve got it there! Meant to be.
3. Fixing Up A Non-Working Fire
One architectural “holdover” from this room’s front room days is the fireside. It was now not purposeful, so we set our sights on making it into an exquisite characteristic we may get pleasure from gazing at – identical to our wall of glass doorways.
There have been a couple of levels to this transformation, the first components being a contemporary DIY mantle we constructed for the encompass and a beachy spin on fire logs.
A newer replace has been the addition of this massive sculptural mirror that I had my eye on for years (it’s now not offered however this one is comparable). I knew the irregular textured border would play so fantastically with our plaster sconces -and it helps to bounce much more mild across the room.
So all of these sluggish and regular aesthetic enhancements that we made to the fireside over the past three years have created such a pleasant point of interest for us to get pleasure from from mattress.
4: Including Even Extra Constructed-In Storage
Along with the closet storage, we made our bed room much more hardworking by incorporating a complete wall of cupboard storage across the fire. Not solely did it assist make sense of some empty nooks on both aspect of the fireside, it additionally helped create extra essential space for storing for our previously storage-challenged home.
I imply, simply take a look at the entire hid space for storing we earned on this wall as in comparison with the earlier than photograph under.
We created this bonus space for storing by constructing in some Ikea Besta cupboards and topping them with butcher block counters. Not solely do they appear good, however they maintain every thing from board video games and books to our laundry basket out of sight.
You possibly can see the entire tutorial for constructing them in, in addition to a tour of how we organized them in this publish.
5. Hanging Good Window Coverings
We imply “good” in each senses of the phrase: good as in “considerate” and in addition good as in “voice-controlled.” Fairly than rehanging blinds on the wall of french doorways, we opted for an almost wall-to-wall curtain rod with blackout curtains (ours are the ivory colour). Not solely do they appear so much nicer than the outdated blinds did, however in addition they do an unimaginable job at conserving the room darkish at night time. We do sleep in right here, in spite of everything!
On the room’s three home windows, we hung low-profile fashionable curler shades to maximise the view throughout the day. However we splurged for good blackout shades in order that we may management them with our Alexa. We did a complete good blinds FAQ publish that particulars the fee, set up, and operation of those shades for those who’re curious. We’ve had them almost 3 years and nonetheless love them!
Collectively, this mix of blackout curtains and good blinds has made our in any other case brilliant room (which we love throughout the day!) a comfy and personal sleeping house at night time.
6. Carving Out A Spot For Fairly Stuff
One factor this room is just a little brief on is wall house, since a lot of it’s occupied by home windows, doorways, and closets. In order that’s why I used to be excited to say this bizarre nook by the door for purely ornamental functions. And it’s now one in every of my favourite corners of our total home!
On the identical time that we prolonged the built-in cupboards throughout this wall, we additionally added three lengthy floating cabinets. Loads of my favourite ornamental stuff hadn’t actually felt prefer it had a spot to shine – and the second these cabinets went up and I crammed them with crops, books, artwork, vases, and crystals my coronary heart skipped a number of beats.
A spot to show fairly issues could sound just a little superficial, however I really consider that seeing issues that you simply love in your house each day will be what really makes it really feel like YOUR dwelling. Particularly in a beautiful association you could take in from a number of rooms (these cabinets improved the view into our bed room from our downstairs dwelling space in addition to our view from inside the bed room itself).
We love that the cabinets assist our bed room look decidedly un-bedroom-y from our sitting space (as a substitute of a mattress or one thing extra overt from that doorway). And having a spot to showcase private favorites like some metallic birds I made with mates in a workshop or a portray by one in every of my kids is so good. Sidenote: for those who’re searching for out extra shelving tutorials to improve your room, this publish has 16 simple DIY shelf tasks for you.
For good measure, I’ll depart you with one final earlier than & after – which is the same view from our kitchen again once we purchased the home.
We actually have come a good distance, and we’re past grateful that we took an opportunity on this outdated seaside home that was available on the market for nearly a yr!
With that, we’ll wrap up our checklist of six issues we did to show this former clean field of a front room right into a serene and purposeful bed room. It really is our favourite bed room we’ve ever had!
As a reminder, this Might will mark 4 years of dwelling right here – so in no way was this a fast bed room transformation! However over time, some considerate, purposeful, and simply plain stunning modifications can add as much as such an enormous distinction.
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