@evelynandtheodore

Thrifty Thursday 10: Mid Century & Boho Bedroom on a Budget- Planning

Out of all the rooms in our house, I think our bedroom has gone under the most changes.


First there was coastal, with a navy blue linen headboard, blue coral watercolor prints on the wall, and our blue & white coral print coverlet. The room was complete with nautical décor from Kohl's, and just over-all was a barf-fest, looking back. I don't even have pictures at my disposal, it was so bad.


Then in pursuit of something new but cheap, I went farmhouse-trash. I went to thrift stores, bought the cheapest thing I could throw some paint on, and called it a day. That worked for a whole 3 months before I was over it.


Not to mention, I moved us at some point from the larger bedroom to the smaller one (which I would do over and over again, because it's so much better). Drawing clearly is not perfectly to scale, but you get the idea here of what I'm working with (window on left wall, door opening bottom right corner):




Luckily, the whole time I was hating the house, I was building an inventory to make me love it. I was scooping up mid century pieces here and there (when I had the chance & the cash), discovering what vintage décor styles/pieces I really enjoyed, and collecting natural elements I knew would stand the test of time when it came to my style preferences (think skulls, geodes, and wooden animals).



Now, our bedroom is far from done, but it's a whole heck of a lot closer than it was when we first moved in.

Our main furniture items are mid century wooden pieces, the décor is natural & warm feeling (baskets, skulls, textiles, simple colors), and the layout is almost perfect. There are just a few things I'd like to change:











  1. First things first: I have far too much laundry out all of the time. That whole corner near the lamp is piled with laundry...oops. Not just dirty laundry, but also clean & folded laundry. I attribute this to two things- a) my dresser drawers in the concave aren't very accommodating, and b) I own too many clothes. So let's get rid of some clothes, see how everything fits in the drawers then, and if needed, possibly swap the concave dresser for the Montgomery Ward one that's hiding in the closet (with deeper drawers).
  2. Remove the excess: I would like for our bedroom to house only the essential furniture. It's a smaller room, about 10'x10', so I want it to feel as spacious as possible without actually having a larger floor plan. Right now, the excess really only includes a bookshelf, but I can also see me eventually wanting to remove the chair I have next to my concave dresser in favor of a plant or something.
  3. Open & brighten the space: First thing after the bookshelf makes its way downstairs, I'll be removing at least one shelf from the wall, and replacing it with the Montgomery Ward mirror from the set I have throughout the house. This will be on the wall opposite of the window, so it'll help reflect some natural daylight, as well as give the room a little more visual space. Without the bookshelf right inside the door, the walkway will be bigger, and give the entrance of the room a little more open square footage.
    Additionally, on the same wall as the mirror, I would like to remove the sliding closet doors, scoot the dresser over to the back corner (storing/purging all of the hanging clothing as I haven't worn/fit into them for a while), and maybe laying the kitties' beds or Carl's bed down in the remaining closet space once the kennel is no longer needed. Sarabi & Abu don't typically use their beds, as they sleep on ours, but this could possibly give Carl a space where he feels included. Removing the doors from the closet will open up the space visually, and give Aaron's side of the bed the illusion of a larger floor plan. I'll have to definitely relocate some items to the basement for storage & eventually invest in some larger storage baskets for the shelves (perfect for storing sheet sets), but in the beginning I'll just have to make sure everything is neatly folded.
  4. Paint the space: After looking through my bedroom Pinterest board, I quickly realized that I was drawn to stark white walls a majority of the time. They really allow the wooden furniture pieces and décor to speak for themselves, and they make the room fell not only larger, but cleaner. While our walls are white, they're a "dirty white," and you can see all of the fresh spackled spots from every time I've changed my mid about hanging something in a particular spot. That's a lot of spackle holes (remember all the shelves from when this was the office??)... Having the walls all one uniform color will help it feel cleaner & more unified than all those "little" spackle marks.
  5. Bedding: Another thing I noticed that played a big part in the rooms I liked was mainly white bedding with accents from throw blankets, pillows, etc. Texture is also a huge factor. The one all-white coverlet & sham set I have is one of my favorites, purchased from HomeGoods. It has a stitched white design to add a little interest, but any time it's on our bed, the room feels much larger, much cleaner, and somehow, much more welcoming.

    You'd think with white walls and white bedding, it would seem sterile, but with the pops of color & natural elements in the room (wood, wicker, stone, bone), the room still feels warm, inviting, and cozy.
    I've found some more all-white sets on  Amazon that are similar to mine, but chances are, I'll scope out HomeGoods again before I buy anything online. I believe my set was less than $40, and the ones I like online are almost $80. 
      
    I also have a ton of throw blankets that could easily change the vibe of the room seasonally, and with the rest of the bedding being white, it'd always match! Ideally, I'd like to have 3 sets of all white bedding, 2 being all season weight, and the 3rd being a little heavier for the winter months here in Illinois.
    For right now, however, I'll stick to the bedding I have. Something for me to keep in mind when I do go to buy though, is that our bed looks better with flatter quilts/coverlets, rather than the often poofy comforters. The clean lines of the bed get dwarfed by the over-stuffed poly-filled comforters, and it just looks a little silly.
  6. Nightstands: Don't get me wrong, I don't hate our nightstands. They're white, so they blend into the wall pretty well & don't take up too much space visually, while providing storage, but... they're clunky, they're beat up, and they're from entirely the wrong era- the 90's. I'd love to have a matching pair of these Broyhill Sculptras, but I only have one, so I may need to improvise for the other side of the bed with a mismatched nightstand that fits the era.

    But I'm kind of a symmetry nut, so that might not work, and the 90s misfits might have to stay (and get a new coat of paint to match the new white walls when that gets done so that they perfectly melt into the wall). I mean they do have brass pulls, so they kind of go with everything else...right? 
  7. Plants: One last thing I noticed that was consistently in the rooms I admired was plenty of plants. And not just any old flower, but big, green, leafy plants. No I don't have the best track record of keeping tropical plants alive, which seemed to be the type that were in most of these photos, but I am great with my ZZ plant (yes, I know, they're near impossible to kill but still. It's big, it's green, and it's leafy). I also have only killed one snake plant in the history of time, so I may revisit that idea.
    I think my main concern in this room for plants is the placement. The wall the window is on faces west, is directly next to a tree, and has our air vent. This means not only is there very little light that seeps through, but the temperature can drastically change throughout the year with our A/C and heat. I tried having a pothos hanging in the corner farthest from the vent, and it still had an attitude until I moved it into the office (which has the east facing window).
    The best placement for a plant temperature wise will be where our chair currently resides, blocking it from the sun a bit. Maybe once the mirror is hung, it won't be so bad since the light will be reflected but... I guess we'll find out, or I will forever just be destined to have ZZ plants everywhere.


So I guess this is kind of what I'm hoping to have at the end of all of this. I'll paint the room in the spring to help make it feel fresh with the new season, and hopefully build my live edge bench here soon for under the window (I really just need the legs at this point, but that's around $50-80 I don't really have to spend at this point).





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