Love where you live. Sign up for our newsletter

Before: A Bedroom that Leaves a Little to Be Desired

by on Nov 3, 2014

Sarahdipity Photos

A friend of mine and her husband bought a house last year and have been adding decorative touches since they moved in. One of the only rooms they hadn’t added many personal touches to, however, was the master bedroom. So I helped them update their space to create an environment that was more reflective of their personalities.

Before we get to the room’s transformation, I’m sharing the before pictures, so you can get a better idea of where we started. Tomorrow, I’ll be back with the room’s reveal.

A yellow room with three sunlit windows and a wooden bed with a dark blue cover and dark blue pillows.

Sarahdipity Photos

After chatting in depth with the home owners, Jordan and Chris, we determined several things that they wanted to get out of the finished makeover: 

  1. More storage, since they were storing a lot of things under the bed and in other rooms.
  2. A vanity area for Jordan, where she could get ready for the day.
  3. A more inviting space that reflected their personalities.

Armed with this wish list and inspired by a mix of old and new, this bedroom has been overhauled (on a budget) to cater toward a more eclectic style that combines mid-century elements mixed with more contemporary ones.

The floors were already painted charcoal grey and that was one element that we decided to keep. The walls, however, needed a fresh coat of paint, so we chose a color that was several shades lighter than the floors to create a bit of contrast (without going completely white).

A woman is painting a yellow wall white.

Brittni Mehlhoff
A white lamp sits on a wooden table in a yellow bedroom.

Sarahdipity Photos

The large bed frame and headboard were too big for the original room, especially considering the headboard was partially covering the windows. So, the home owners purchased a new low-profile bed frame that you’ll see in the after photos tomorrow.

Along those same lines, updated side tables and new (smaller) lamps needed to be purchased to allow all of that natural light to come in.

"A Simple Rack to store Clothes in a small room"

Sarahdipity Photos

The biggest change that we made had to do with the closet and storage, which was previously an issue in this space.

When Jordan and Chris purchased the house, this industrial shelving system was already there. The previous home owner had used it as a closet and had converted the actual closet into an office area (see photo below). The shelving system looked pretty cool, but keeping it up meant that the bedroom was loosing 2-3 feet in depth, running the whole length of that wall.

Ultimately, we decided to remove the shelving unit and convert the home office nook back into a closet to free up storage space for a dresser and keep clothes tucked away and tidy.

A yellow bedroom with a bed that has a dark blue cover and a blue lampshade over a white lamp base.

Sarahdipity Photos
Woman is measuring with a tape measure while holding a nail in her other hand.

Brittni Mehlhoff
A hand holding a file placing it on the rack.

Brittni Mehlhoff

The shelving unit only took us an hour or two to uninstall and break apart. So, we went ahead and tackled the closet area on that same day, removing the built in desk, supports, and shelving, painting and installing double closet bars.

I thought installing the bars would be difficult, since I had never done it before, but it actually wasn’t that bad. You just need to find the studs and make sure to check that the bars are level once installed (which involves some measurements beforehand).

"Bedroom with blue covers,nightstand and cloth hangings."

Sarahdipity Photos

Other than those changes, there were plenty of additions that were more personality-driven, like artwork, a rug, plants, and more that helped to warm up the space and make it feel more like home.

I’m looking forward to sharing the results of this bedroom makeover in tomorrow’s reveal!

Photographs by Sarah Eddy of Sarahdipity Photos, unless otherwise credited.

Leave a comment

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *