Transformation Tales: The Master Bedroom

 

In most homes, a master bedroom is defined by its size. The biggest room – or the one with a bathroom attached – is the master room by default. In this house, neither bedroom has an attached bathroom, and both rooms are the same size. So we just delegated the master to become the master – and it did!

            We know that in some family layouts, having a master bedroom without an attached bathroom would be a deal breaker. But because it’s just the two of us here most of the time, it’s not a big deal for us. It’s also not a big deal that the room isn’t huge, because we don’t need it to serve any purpose other than storing clothing and giving us a place to sleep!

            This room had all the same challenges the other bedroom had: paneled walls (though a much darker paneling than the other bedroom), damaged wood floors, lace curtains, heavy sliding doors on the closet…all sounds familiar, doesn’t it?

            We started the makeover by removing the curtains and blinds, and we took out a little corner shelf that had been nailed into the wall. We removed the closet doors and switched out the overhead light for the same updated light we put in the other bedroom.

            We painted this room as well, which brightened it significantly! We chose Repose Gray, which is the same paint we used in the kitchen. It sometimes looks gray and sometimes almost green in this room. We put down the same flooring as the other bedroom (and dining nook) to keep a cohesive look throughout the house. And just like in the other bedroom, we painted the trim and main door (both sides) Snowbound.

            We brought our trusty curtains and curtain rods from our previous house and put them in here, and the sheer white curtains against the light gray walls feel very beachy!

            Since this is our bedroom and floors can feel cold in Indiana in the winter, we chose to put the area rug that has been in our living room in the last two houses in this room instead. The color scheme worked beautifully and it added a good punch of texture and color in this room.

            We kept our same bed and bedding, and we were able to squeeze in the same side tables we’ve had since we first got married. We had just enough room to add a dresser and little accent table – both of which are family pieces from my side of the family. I’ve owned them since I first launched out on my own!

            Our biggest challenge in this space was downsizing a shared walk-in closet to a shared reach-in closet. Could you have done it?? Here’s how we made it work.

·         *    Our bed has two drawers in the footboard, so we designated those our t-shirt drawers. We each have one and if it’s a t-shirt we own, it must fit in our drawer.

·         *    The bedside tables have abundant basket storage in them, but they had sort of become junk drawers over the years. We cleared out all the junk and made them dresser drawers instead. The little baskets are the perfect size for holding things like socks and underwear – and other smaller clothing items.

·         *    We found a super affordable closet organizer, so we did add that to the closet space, giving us a mix of hanging space and shelves/drawers. We used organizing baskets we already owned to hold some clothing and hung up the rest. This closet holds our coats, too, since we don’t have a specific coat closet.

·         *    We keep our shoes in a closet on the lower level, so they did not have to cram into this space.

·         *    And to be fair, we did get rid of quite a bit of clothing we never wore. No need to hang onto things we don’t wear, right?

·         I was so proud of us for accomplishing this downsizing event! We have everything we need and room to get more in the years to come if we want to add new pieces now and then. It works great for us!

Throughout our marriage, we’ve made a point of being very intentional in our wall art in our bedroom. We try to choose things that represent our love and commitment to one another. We choose a lot of wedding memorabilia and photos that are significant to our relationship in some way. We used those sorts of pieces in decorating our room, and I love all the memories they represent.

Rather than bringing back the closet doors, we put a curtain over the closet opening here, too, and it feels cozy and warm. We put a set of hooks behind the door to hold our bath towels and robes – and I leaned my full length mirror against that wall, too. When I need to use it, I pull it out and place it wherever I want for viewing. It works so much better than having it tied to one wall.

Though Braeya goes throughout the house at her leisure all day, she has always preferred our bedroom for her true rest – day and night. So she shares this space with us. She has favorite spots on the bed, beside it, and under it, too. She just moves around at her own pace! Lexi joins her now and then, but this is primarily Braeya’s room in addition to being ours. We all sleep very well here.

We don’t have many more plans for this room, other than to add some more wall art, eventually. We intentionally left some spaces blank so there would be room to grow!