Master Bedroom Design – Making a Plan of Attack!

Planning a new bedroom design for our entire second floor master suite. I made two mistakes when I renovated this home and then moved in back in 2015. The first was I chose satin for all of my paints throughout the house and the second was I agreed to my ex putting a giant wood stove in the middle of the kitchen – selling the cute little one I had previously purchased and installed. The combination of a poorly vented stove and satin paint meant that every single surface in my home (especially the main floor) ended up covered and stained with soot.

(Pic of the ceiling entryway when I repainted it in 2018 – DISGUSTING – that’s white on white.)

Don’t get me wrong I would have probably repainted the entire home anyway because satin paint is pretty hard to live with but after remodeling / painting this entire home in 2015 I turned right around at the beginning of 2018 to do it all over again.

It gave me the opportunity to thoroughly take back my home from my ex and also really take my time making it what I dreamed it could be.

It was great for me but honestly, you all know how much work such an undertaking is.

With Lodi coming into my life in late 2019 I was getting close to having repainted and redesigned the entire 1,500 square foot main floor. He helped me complete the guest bedroom, the main floor bathroom and finally the back hall and his room was the very last step.

It was late 2020 when I finally finished what I had set out to do.

However we needed to tackle the basement and make it an actual living space so we could get our garage back of the overflow of furniture that happens when two 30 somethings combine households. From there we are catching up to the garage addition we needed to complete this year and more projects than I even want to list lol.

I made those plans in 2018 and had been looking forward to tackling the master bedroom, bathroom and closets ever since then…

It took four years but I am finally here and very excited!

As you can see by the following pictures the bedroom design has changed some over the years but I haven’t done a ton up there besides build a platform bed frame and move it to a different wall.

Here are a few shots of the bedroom over the years and then, brace yourselves for honest pictures of what exactly the master looks like right now.

I didn’t even make the bed!

I play a game of move lamps around the house so the lamps aren’t “new” and, of course, the dog bed on the floor is absolutely necessary though our princess prefers the hassock at the end of the bed most of the time…

Forgive the out of control plants in the windows… plants either flourish beyond all reason with me or they die immediately… There is no in between.

And to keep it really real here for this post I didn’t even take out the ancient window fan because we can’t sleep without the noise.

(See those smears of sheetrock mud under the windows? Yeah, that was me filling in the holes from where the headboard used to be five years ago… I’ve needed to paint it ever since *facepalm*)

As far as bedroom design goes I am moving away from the more “fancy” stuff.

Case and point: I am totally OVER that chandelier.

I’ve hit my head on it too many times and I smack it almost every time with sheets and blankets when I make the bed. Its gotten kind of gross over the years and its just been rubbing me the wrong way.

This is the chandelier I have my eye on instead.

I am also over the window planter boxes. (Crowd boos) I know they’re really cool and I actually really still love them but they’re a pain to water because they’re so high and, after over four years, I just need to do something different!

(Besides those boxes will still make cool decoration somewhere else in the house.)

I am going to replace them with one (or two) hanging pots in each window hung by macramé hangers. (And plants that don’t do so well or grow LESS lol.)

The pots I’m going to be using are going to be a fun mish mash of extra bowls and pots we have around the house – most are hand made and/or heirlooms.

These are the hangers I’m considering.

I decided that I can retire the 20 year old curtains that once hung in my child hood bedroom. No, I won’t be getting rid of them… but, seriously, how long must us frugal people keep things before its ok to get something new?

Is twenty years enough time!?

These are the curtains I’m thinking about getting instead.

I will tie two panels in the center between the windows and (maybe) tie one panel to each side as well.

I like our comforter fine but I think we both would prefer something a bit more fun and more of a “blanket” material. I’ve been looking all over for interesting quilts.

They’re not cheap and for good reason!

This is the kind of quilt I’ve been eyeing on Amazon.

I love that they still feel like they belong in a 100 year old farmhouse without sacrificing a bit of modern fun. Is it possible to stay true to the heart of this home and still get a little boho and modern bedroom design?

Why not?!

After we made (and executed) a new guest bedroom design I lost most of my book shelves along with it.

So, almost every single one of my hardcovers and paperbacks and all of my beloved child hood books have been boxed up in storage in the two years since.

A few months ago I covered the poor shelf in the master bathroom with books because I felt so bad that they were in storage!

They’ve all been waiting for me to tackle our new bedroom design and finally add a shelf above our headboard. Will that be enough book storage plus the book shelf in the bathroom and the shelves in the living room?

Maybe…

I purged a lot when I boxed up all of my books (like by half!) and I simply cannot part with another one…

(Tip: Donate your books to a library and you can write it off on your taxes.)

I love the idea of using books for bedroom design and décor!

One thing I hated about this bedroom initially was just how stark and black and white it was. Books give a room so much color and, after all of my purging, the only books I have left are also all really important to me.

I think its perfectly possible to have a beautiful room that also speaks of who we are and is decorated with our characters and things that matter to us.

In fact, I think that should be the goal!

Unfortunately, just like when I turned around and started back on the main floor back in 2018, I can do none of this before I repaint everything in semi gloss first. But that will also give me the chance to paint out the hideous fake stone on the chimney that my ex put up like I did in the living room a couple of years ago.

I still love the color Sooty Lashes by Valspar so none of the paint colors will be changing so it won’t be a ton of coats to get this whole room and, eventually the entire floor, painted out.

(I will be starting here but taking this whole repainting and redesign throughout the bathroom and closet as well.)

The door for our second floor master suite has literally been out in the garage for six years now…

We don’t have guests often but I’ve been totally uncomfortable with this situation…

Besides that, getting a door on this space, will also give me a spot for our stand up mirror.

Because this is a half floor the short walls have made bedroom design, furniture placement and everything else up here really challenging. A door will give me a place to hang our stand up mirror on the back of it – freeing up some floor space and awkwardness too.

The furniture will all be staying and I love both of the rugs we have up here but we do need to reupholster our headboard.

That headboard has moved three times and spent a lot of time in storage too. Its got rips in it where it snagged on stuff in moving etc. and it USED to be white though after nearly ten years its a bit understandably grungy now.

This will give me a chance to show you how I made it too!

Can’t wait to get started!