Our Main Bedroom Design Plan


Our main bedroom makeover has officially begun and it’s time to dive into the gameplan for this space. I’m not gonna lie, this design has been a bit tougher than other rooms in the house. I have spent more time than I care to admit wandering around the room staring silently, and scheming up plans for the space. My design process usually involves lots of staring and imagining so Finn gets scared when I have that glassy-eyed look on my face. It usually means a project is about to come his way!

I think I struggled so much with this space because it has an awkward layout with an entire wall of closets, an entire wall of windows, and then two other smaller walls. Let’s take a look at all of the before pictures of our bedroom and discuss…

Our Main Bedroom – BeforeOur main bedroom design - before

Rug // Bench (no longer sold) // Sheepskin Throw // White Bedding (similiar) // Gray Quilt // Striped Pillows (no longer sold) // Lumbar Pillow // Black Lamps (HomeGoods) // Nightstands (MegMade) // Bamboo Shades // Gray Velvet Curtains // Wood Dresser (no longer sold) // Door Knobs // Paint Color: Benjamin Moore “Ballet White” // Ceiling Fan // Art // Large White Vase

So here’s what our main bedroom looks like. It isn’t bad; it isn’t wrong; it just doesn’t really reflect our style or the look of the rest of the home. In fact, this room has looked this way since the first month of moving into our home a year and a half ago. We placed all of our pieces from our old home directly into this room and they’ve all worked just fine for us.

Our main bedroom before

For years, I’ve been trying to convince Finn that we should upgrade from a queen mattress to a king and he finally caved! I also swayed him to add a TV, so that’s happening too. My secret was to have him picture snuggling in here with Rory on Saturday mornings all together in bed. That sealed the deal. Our main bedroom design before

Because we’re upgrading the bed to a larger one, we need so many new things – a new bed frame, new bedding, a new mattress, small nightstands, a larger rug, and more. It’s crazy how one little decision snowballs into an entire new bedroom! But I’m not upset about it. A wall full of closets

The room is actually pretty big, especially for the city, but it has a lot of unused space. We have all of this room in front of our closets and it’s just kinda empty. I’ve tried to put something over there – a chair, a bench, or a plant – but it always felt like it was in the way and it would interfere when opening up the closet doors. Wall of windows in the bedroom

The other wall is all windows, which makes the layout of the room pretty tricky. I’ve tried reconfiguring the bed just about every which way, but alas, this is the only setup that really works for us. That means the larger bed will eventually go in this same spot. I’m going to play around with the space in front of the closets once the new bed is in place to see if anything makes sense over there.

My Goals for the SpaceFIguring out our bedroom design

My main goals are to first upgrade to the larger bed and then add lots of style to make it feel more like us. Right now, it feels very bland. Tan, gray, and white…not much personality at all. The rest of our home has slowly been infused with color and life and this room just feels lackluster. Figuring out a new plan for our bedroom

When it comes to sourcing new items for the room, my goal is to source from a variety of retailers and highlight some small women-owned, local, and BIPOC businesses. I already have a few in the works and I cannot wait to share more.

What’s Staying & Going? Ceiling fan will stay in the new room

The only things I really want to keep are the bamboo woven shades and the ceiling fan. While I love the look of a gorgeous chandelier in a bedroom, we are fan people all the way and we always have it on at night. I’d also like to try to keep the bamboo shades because new window treatments can be really expensive and these should work with any room design. I’m open to replacing the curtains and curtain rod, but I’ll see if they work with the new bedroom design plan. The same goes for the bench. It might stay and it might go. Dresser in our bedroom

The dresser is going to move to our guest room  – we definitely can use one in there – so I’ll be on the hunt for something new. As for the other furniture items  – the headboard, nightstand, rug, and lamp – I’m planning to sell them and also give some items to friends.

Wallpaper on the CeilingDecg to wallpaper the ceiling

First, let’s discuss the main component of the new space, which is wallpaper on the ceiling! We have a tray ceiling and I’ve stared at it for months, trying to figure out the best way to highlight this feature. In the end, I decided that wallpaper was the way to go. I began looking for wallpaper and I found that I adore all of the amazing patterns from Relativity Textiles. Choosing a wallpaper pattern from Relativity TextilesI ordered a bunch of samples and, while it was hard to narrow down, I finally settled on this peacock pattern with a grayish blue and gold. It’s subtle and gorgeous. Erin is the wallpaper designer and founder of Relativity Textiles and we have bonded over Instagram during the last few months. She is so talented and a total girlboss. After chatting with Erin, we realized that she lives about five minutes from me and we put a date on the calendar to wallpaper the ceiling together. We did it a few weeks ago and let me just tell you…it’s freakin’ awesome. I will share all of the details in a blog post next week, but just know that no ceiling is safe in this house now! It’s so good.Choosing a wallpaper from Relativity Textiles

I decided to wallpaper before making any other decisions in the room because I knew that it would drive my other purchases and colors in the space. Even though it would have made a lot more sense to paint before wallpapering,  my next step is to paint. Which brings me to the rest of my bedroom design plan.

My Bedroom Design Plan

our main bedroom design plan

9×12 Rug // Cream Bed // Gold Sconces // Wallpaper

The next project on the list is to paint the walls a warm blue/gray to match the blue in the wallpaper. Instead of just painting the walls, I’m going to also paint the ceiling, all the way up to the new paper. I think this will make the wallpaper pop and it’s going to add so much coziness and life to the room. I haven’t found the perfect color just yet, but I will be sharing the entire process right here with you. Don’t worry!

The only other items that I’ve purchased are a California King mattress from My Green Mattress. ( I will have more details coming soon about this amazing local company!) I have also purchasedย this cream platform bed, this 9×12 rug, and these gold sconces. Items are slowly starting to arrive and they’re all sitting in boxes in the basement, just waiting for me to paint and get this room together!

I still haven’t found nightstands and a dresser that I love, but I have confidence I’ll spot something great soon. Oh, and we also have a Frame TV that has been sitting in the basement since we bought it on Black Friday! That bad boy will go over the new dresser and I cannot wait for cozy movie nights in bed.

What’s Next?Choosing wallpaper for our ceiling

Tomorrow, I’ll share the wallpaper install on the ceiling in here. (As you can see from the above photo, I spent lots of time laying on our bed, picturing it up there!) I’m dying for you to see it! As for a “reveal date”, I’m planning to take this makeover slow and go piece-by-piece, instead of rushing it all at once. I’ll be sharing all of the details as we go and I’m really eager to take you along for the ride on my first room makeover of the new year.

Casey

Catch Up on the Main Bedroom Makeover


The Year of Casey

Hey there!

Iโ€™m Casey Finn, the voice behind The DIY Playbook. I’m a Chicago gal teaching you how to design, DIY, and maintain your home…by yourself! Learn more about me right here.