Our bed room was a lounge, so it’s taken some work to show it into a snug, purposeful, and delightful sleeping area (it’s really one in all our favourite rooms!). So at the moment 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 try all of the before photos of our home here, however as you’ll be able to see under, it was a principally clean canvas. Properly, aside from the crumbling drywall, crooked blinds, and vast doorways to the adjoining kitchen – all of which we needed to deal with. However we cherished the fireside and the wall of french doorways and just about instantly knew it will make for a tremendous bed room (for the reason that home was listed as having just one bed room once we purchased it!).
After closing off one of many openings and including plenty of storage, it’s tough to match the precise angles of our earlier than images, however this shot of our fire is an effective instance of how far the room has come during the last 3.5 years.
It’s additionally a far cry from the way it seemed 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 listing of the six most important 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% executed (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 – effectively, it simply feels as “completed” as we predict it ever will. So right here’s how far it has come:
Notice: You may also watch this video on YouTube.
1. Including A Wall Of Constructed-In Closets
The most important purposeful enchancment on this room was adding a wall of Ikea Pax wardrobes to create that correct (and plentiful!) closet area. Going from a big walk-in closet in our old house to utterly no closet on this room was fairly an train in persistence. However due to the addition of those closets, we had been in a position to create simply as a lot storage as we had in our outdated home!
It wouldn’t have been potential with out closing off one of many openings between the outdated lounge and kitchen, in addition to one of many doorways exterior that you simply see on the appropriate of the picture under (which is the wall that our mattress now sits towards). It could appear unusual to get rid of 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 lovely views in right here.
As a reminder, right here’s what the room seemed 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 an entire tutorial for how to make Ikea closets look built-in.
We additionally shared a tour of how we configured the within of them, so you’ll be able to see exactly how we organized them here. We even integrated room for our vacation decor. There’s an entire Christmas tree in one in all them! See all of it here.
These closets are in all probability the one finest determination we’ve made on this room. Neither of us ever anticipated to have this a lot closet area on this home, not to mention closets which are so purposeful. Truthfully, I’ve by no means felt extra organized. Downsizing + considerate built-in storage for the win.
2. Making Room For A King-Dimension Mattress
Talking of issues we by no means anticipated for this room: the most important mattress we’ve ever owned! Due to some cautious area planning and these easy DIY nightstands, we lastly upgraded to a king-size bed after practically twenty years of sharing a queen. Not solely is it a extra spacious and cozy approach to sleep (particularly with a canine who likes to sleep horizontally between us), but it surely truly helps the room really feel greater.
It sounds counter-intuitive, however small areas typically really feel extra expansive with fewer bigger objects than a bunch of smaller ones, which may look extra cluttered and “busier” to the attention. So making room for a bigger piece of furnishings might help 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 youngsters 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 will be one of the best spot for a mattress (so we moved the mattress round for some time), however we adore it a lot now that we now have it there! Meant to be.
3. Fixing Up A Non-Working Fire
One architectural “holdover” from this room’s lounge days is the fireside. It was now not purposeful, so we set our sights on making it into an attractive function we may get pleasure from gazing at – identical to our wall of glass doorways.
There have been just a few levels to this transformation, the first elements being a modern DIY mantle we built for the encompass and a beachy spin on fireplace logs.
A newer replace has been the addition of this huge sculptural mirror that I had my eye on for years (it’s now not offered however this one is similar). I knew the irregular textured border would play so superbly with our plaster sconces -and it helps to bounce much more gentle across the room.
So all of these sluggish and regular aesthetic enhancements that we made to the fireside during the last three years have created such a pleasant focus 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 an entire 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 crucial space for storing for our previously storage-challenged home.
I imply, simply take a look at all the hid space for storing we earned on this wall as in comparison with the earlier than picture under.
We created this bonus space for storing by building in some Ikea Besta cabinets and topping them with butcher block counters. Not solely do they give the impression of being 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 post.
5. Hanging Sensible Window Coverings
We imply “sensible” in each senses of the phrase: sensible as in “considerate” and in addition sensible as in “voice-controlled.” Quite 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 color). Not solely do they give the impression of being so much nicer than the outdated blinds did, however additionally 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 modern roller shades to maximise the view in the course of the day. However we splurged for sensible blackout shades in order that we may management them with our Alexa. We did an entire smart blinds FAQ post that particulars the fee, set up, and operation of those shades for those who’re curious. We’ve had them practically 3 years and nonetheless love them!
Collectively, this mixture of blackout curtains and sensible blinds has made our in any other case shiny room (which we love in the course of the day!) a comfortable and personal sleeping area at night time.
6. Carving Out A Spot For Fairly Stuff
One factor this room is a little bit quick on is wall area, since a lot of it’s occupied by home windows, doorways, and closets. In order that’s why I used to be excited to assert this bizarre nook by the door for purely ornamental functions. And it’s now one in all my favourite corners of our complete home!
On the identical time that we prolonged the built-in cupboards throughout this wall, we additionally added three long floating shelves. Quite a lot 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 stuffed them with vegetation, books, artwork, vases, and crystals my coronary heart skipped a number of beats.
A spot to show fairly issues could sound a little bit superficial, however I actually consider that seeing issues that you simply love in your house day by day could be what really makes it really feel like YOUR house. Particularly in a stunning association you could absorb 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 an alternative 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 buddies in a workshop or a portray by one in all my kids is so good. Sidenote: for those who’re in search of out extra shelving tutorials to improve your room, this submit has 16 easy DIY shelf projects 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 great distance, and we’re past grateful that we took an opportunity on this outdated seashore home that was in the marketplace for nearly a 12 months!
With that, we’ll wrap up our listing of six issues we did to show this former clean field of a lounge 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 not at all was this a fast bed room transformation! However over time, some considerate, purposeful, and simply plain lovely adjustments can add as much as such an enormous distinction.
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