The Evolution of Our Master Bedroom

First of all, technically this isn't the master bedroom of the house. We let our boys have the bigger bedroom and we took the smaller second bedroom. But we still consider it the master because it would be weird to call it the second bedroom :) I digress.

After we moved into the "master" I set about trying to make it the dream bedroom we wanted. Only we had an extremely tight budget. So here is what I came up with.

Well, I suppose I should show you a before first :)


When we first moved into the house, the walls were white. We remedied that by painting them a spring green color. When we moved ourselves from the master bedroom into the smaller second bedroom, the green felt cold and uninviting. I tried to fix it by warming up the bed with a chocolate color.

For more uninspiring before photos of our master bedroom look here.
The windows were naked and the five drawer dresser blocked off the light. We put the dresser in the boys' room for added clothing storage. That freed up a bit of space and then we purchased this for $40 off Craigslist..mirror included!


We also ditched the torchiere lamp that was broken..why hang onto something that we thought was ugly and non-functional?

I was so exicted about the dresser because we have had separate dressers ever since we got married! Finally, our clothes share the same abode just as we do :) Plus, it is solid wood and it has beautiful bones. I have plans for this baby!

So, our room went from cold green (sorry, can't remember the name of the color) to Anonymous (Behr).

(Am I the only one who loves the name of this color?) Anonymous...sounds so mysterious.

So now we have a beautiful soothing grey on the wall. We love it. It feels like being wrapped in a soft cocoon. When I researched how color affects moods, it said that grey can be depressing to some people. Yikes, oops, I had already bought the paint by then! We went for it and here is what it looked like.


(Sorry the lighting wasn't the best that day)

The chocolate went well with the grey to our surprise, but we were tired of the bed covering. After searching I decided I was going to make our own duvet cover. I found this fabric for 50% off at the JoAnn's over here.


I loved the patterned fabric and it went perfectly with the wall color. Unfortunately, it was extremely noisy and it looked way too masculine sitting on our bed. So I had to repurpose it into this:




(Close up of the curtains)

It makes such luxurious curtains! I am so happy with the outcome. I still need to figure out what to do with the solid color mercury fabric though...

And then at Ross I found a comforter with pillows for $24. I threw that on the bed and loved it! Here is the room, not quite finished yet.

Surprisingly enough we left the comforter as is and we love our new room!


Here is the breakdown of the costs:

Primer for window frame: $0 (leftover from other project)
Paint: $23.47
Curtain rod: $3.27
Curtain rings: $14 (2 sets--$7 a set)
12 yards of fabric: $36.49 (currently only using 6 yards for the curtains)
9 drawer dresser with large mirror: $40
Comforter and pillows: $24
Black pillow: $5

Grand total: $146.23

The room still has some finishing touches so it will probably come close to $200 when all is said and done. It won't ever come close to the rooms you see in a designer magazine, but it is a room we love and now enjoy being in. I am really proud of using what we had and sticking to a real life budget :)

What really surprised me the most about this makeover is how I really love the monochromatic look our room now sports. I am sure that I will throw in some bold color with accessories later on, but I love the soothing grey with the dramatic black and bright white.

Our room is finally a place that beckons you to relax and rest.