Quick Bedroom Makeover: How to Overhaul a Bedroom in a Single Afternoon

Most of our recent renovations have involved skilled labor, a lot of construction materials, and a big time investment. I’m lucky that my husband knows plumbing, electric and how to build, that I am able to team up with some amazing companies to collaborate, and that putting spaces together is quite literally my job. So I often think about the fact that, despite the idea that I use a great deal of thrifted items in my spaces, a lot of the details may not be doable for a large majority of people who don’t have the handy partner, or who don’t have all the time in the world to spend creating spaces.

So! I thought it would be both important and fun to share a space that could be completed by anyone (guys, I did all of it, and I have zero skills when it comes to implementing my own ideas), but also a space that wouldn’t take much time and was financially accessible. Using a tad of thrift I had hanging around, an easy-to-install removable wallpaper, new bedding, and tapping into an Anthropologie mega-sale, I was able to completely transform the look of my master bedroom. Total time? About three hours. In fact, I was able to transform this space so quickly and so thoroughly that my husband was upstairs the entire time I worked on it, came down stairs and goes, “Holy *!&&! Did I just walk into a portal?” Oh, and he DID love it!

The first piece of the puzzle was to start with a blank canvas. I took everything off of the walls and tried to think about the changes I’d like to make. Spring and quarantine both have me itching for lighter and brighter… and in a way , more simple. By “simple” I mean just “less stuff” and not “boring.” Decluttering would be a major goal of this process, and there is no cheaper change you can make than taking a bunch of your shit and putting it aside for a thrift store donation.

Now that I had my blank slate I wanted to make a feature wall that would make a big impact for a small investment in time and money. No board and batten, no molding…no painting, either. I found this super chic terrazzo mural from Anewall Decor (sponsored) and loved that the wild pattern would be visually interesting, but also forgiving when it came time to hang it. I am very UNskilled at wallpaper hanging, so a forgiving pattern that would be easy to match up was key. I also loved that the wallpaper was light, but still had a bunch of colors that I would be able to play around with in the bedding and the rug.

Next up was switching out my ten year-old bedding for something fresh. I wanted to simplify, yet amplify its aesthetic impact. For me, that meant fewer pillows that need to be thrown on the floor and never put back on the bed. Because how many pillows do we really NEED, anyway? But, I wanted to have a fun pattern play between the terrazzo wallpaper and the bedding. When I found this bedding from Kip & Co. I got REALLY excited (yes, things like bedding do that to me). I loved that it picked up the colors of the terrazzo, the colors in the rug I already had in my bedroom, and was just a really fun and stunning pattern. I decided to use that fun pattern on the sheets rather than the duvet, because the duvet would have made the entire scene quite loud, and it was really just a subtle, fun pattern play I was after. I picked up the pinks in the wallpaper and the sheets and decided to use that color for the duvet. It kept things light and calmed down the pattern play.

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The other reasoning for fewer pillows was that I wanted the headboard to stand out more. This was a headboard I had made from thrifted printer’s drawers, and the impact of it was kind of lost between the black wall that was previously here and the large amount of pillows on the bed. Between the lighter color wall and editing the number of pillows, that vintage printer’s drawer feature is really allowed to shine! And being able to reuse what I already had kept the costs down.

Now it came down to art and the rug. The question was, do I reuse what I already have? The art I decided to take away entirely and reuse in another area of my home. I wanted the focus to be on just a few features. The bedding, the wallpaper and the printer’s drawers are all quite bold features, and I felt that adding any art to the walls would be visually distracting. The rug was something I was on the fence about. Sometimes, in designing a space, it can be very difficult to predict how features will play together until they are actually in place. I usually have a fairly good idea by using mood boards or CAD systems, but this rug was just one of those things I was unsure about. Turns out, once every other detail was in place, I ended up LOVING how my rug played into the bedding and the wallpaper.

Now, there was just one last way I wanted to declutter the space. The large, clunky nightstands I had took up too much space for our very modestly sized master bedroom, and I had been toting them around with me for the past fifteen years. It was time for a change. I just happened to be on Anthropologie during one of their mega sales and was able to score these fabulous Justina Blakeney pieces for $119/each. I loved the scale of them, and the rattan played really well into the simple boho vibe I was going for. I also loved that they didn’t have drawers, which in turn will force me to not just throw a bunch of shit into a nightstand drawer, only to be found again fifteen years later when I am getting ready to donate said nightstand.

I also was determined to have wall-mounted lighting. I hated having lighting on the nightstand. It required me to have a larger nightstand than was right for the space and being able to mount lighting directly on the wall became a major space saver. I found these beauties from Pepe & Carols and she shipped them off to me super quickly. I highly recommend EVERYTHING Pepe & Carols. I have worked with them many times before and they never disappoint!

The last little detail I added was the trailing pothos plant that I plan to train along the wall as it grows. This was a plant I already had around, but a similar one can be bought online here. I love how the plant warmed up the space, and added an organic detail to the wall that was both subtle and calming.

So, there you have it! Some major changes for a seriously low cost. Total installation time took just an afternoon. And the best part? Everything can be purchased online and delivered right to your door, making a similar project a very quarantine-friendly endeavor!

Sending you good juju for any home project you have going on during this crazy time!

XO,