If you’ve been reading this blog for a while, then you might know that our bedroom décor has always been the thorn in my side of our house. It has just never been what I’ve wanted it to be, despite many small changes here and there (I will give it credit and say that it has come a long way from where it started…). It is a small room with great natural light, but the wall color has always been wrong, the bedding has never felt put together enough, I’ve been searching for the right nightstands for years, the headboard is too long for the bed, and I’ve yet to get the curtains where I want them. I do love Drew’s dresser and our gold pharmacy style lamps though.

I’ve had some ideas of what I wanted to do in here for a while (neutrals with black and white and pops of color, mixed patterns in the bedding, open wooden nightstands with a drawer, simple, breezy white curtains…) and it is simply time to make it happen. One of the best ways to get a clearer picture of where to head with a room is to go back over your Pinterest boards and look at images of rooms that you’ve pinned. You are guaranteed to find a pattern across the images when you look at them together. I think this is one of the best ways to really visually see your style emerge.

For me, that means a room with neutral bones (neutral walls, flooring, headboard, furniture), different scales of patterns (geometric, organic, florals), and both soft and deep jewel toned colors (plum, teal, mint, raspberry, lavender) in places that can easily be swapped out when I want a change. I also love deep, dark caramel wood tones and gold and black hardware.

I already knew all those things of course (look at the rest of my house and my style in general), but it always helps to see other rooms that fit within your style and what you like/don’t like about them.

So what is on the to-do list for this room?

• Nightstands (after over four years of searching, I finally found and ordered ones I loved, but unfortunately they ended up being out of stock and it just wasn’t updated online! I was so sad when I got that order cancellation e-mail! Back to the drawing board.)
• Curtains (simple, breezy, white)
• Bedding (I love Kerry Cassill’s block printed textiles and I’ve been eyeing that West Elm duvet for years! I really want to design my own patterns and have them printed on fabric for some of the bedding though!)

Those are the main areas I want to address, but there are also a few things on the “maybe” list:

• New rug? The one we have is fine and neutral, so I might not change it, but it is a little too small and I like the idea of the rug adding in some extra pattern.
• Paint the walls? (for the 3rd time…) When we moved in, the walls were a tan color with reddish/orange undertones. I hated it. So we painted it what I thought would be a nice creamy white, but it turned out too yellow. Finally last summer I got tired of the pale yellow, so we painted it a warm grey color that we already had the paint for (it is the same color as the office/studio). It is definitely an improvement, and I’m glad we tried to use what we had, but the color reads totally different than it does in the office and looks too blue in the bedroom. I really want it to be a nice creamy white (like our living room color). But I want to see if changing up the bedding and curtains makes me like the current color more.
• New headboard? I do love the history in our DIY old door headboard, and it has gotten a couple makeovers over the years to help me like it more, but it drives me crazy that it is too long for our bed. It sticks out like 8 inches or so on each side. It is heavy and is attached well to the bed, but it does move/shake around a little when you get into bed or move around. I would really love something that is upholstered and is softer on my head when I sit in bed to read. (also see next point)
• New layout? Our room is tiny, so there isn’t a lot of room for re-arranging, but lately I’ve been wondering what the bed would look like centered under the windows on the back wall. I think it could look great, but our current headboard is too high and covers up way too much of the window to make it work. I might try this layout if we decide to switch the headboard.

I’m excited to finally have a relaxing retreat in our home that I love! Stay tuned for the progress!

P.S. Click here to see what the bedroom currently looks like.

All images used in the design board above can be found, with sources, on my “for our apartment” Pinterest board. If you can’t find something you are looking for, let me know in the comments below.