Bedroom Facelift

I’ve started a little trend lately here of taking you on a tour of our house, a year after move-in. Let’s continue to another room we gave a facelift to: our quiet and calm bedroom.

This was less reno and more facelift because everything we did was simple cosmetic changes. The room had a yellow print wallpaper with matching yellow curtains when we bought it, along with a well-used carpet. We remove the carpet to reveal the gorgeous original hardwoods and took down the curtains. Already it felt cleaner and simpler.

The next step was treating the walls. In any house built in the 1970’s and prior, there will likely be lead-based paint somewhere. I chose to paint over the wallpaper rather than remove it, to reduce any chance of having to expose lead-based paint. In this case, that worked out pretty well because the wallpaper was in good condition. You can still see the seam lines, but it doesn’t bother me too much.

We painted the walls a light grey using Metal .03 from Yolo Paint. The room faces north, so I didn’t want to go too dark. The final color looks almost white, so perhaps a little more color or darker hue would have worked well. But for now, it gives the room a light and clean feel and it shows off the artwork in our room, like these vintage botanical prints I framed a few months back.

I have learned a few tricks living in small spaces. One such trick is to have all of your bedding the same color. That way, when you forget to make the bed, it looks less cluttered than you would think because all the linens just kind of blend together. I have also learned to reign in the color palette for a room to keep the appearance simple. I try to work in textures instead, like using burlap on our DIY headboard, a project from a couple years ago.

We love filling our house with furniture pieces that seem like they have a story, so the rest of the room is a collection of vintage treasures. The old nightstands we painted a dark grey/almost black, which shows off their well-used handles. Instead of a run-of-the-mill laundry basket, we have this fun metal and canvas bin with brass buttons.

The mid-century dresser fits the era of our house. It’s another way we are using natural textures instead of color in the rooms. And the metal lamp has probably spent many late nights over the years helping tired eyes read a good book.

The room is fairly neutral in color, although there are some very comfy textures in the room. I am trying to work in some colorful accents, like the leaf-patterned yellow curtains my mama helped me make. They give us privacy, add a pop of color and still allow us to admire the great Coastal Redwood trees outside our windows.