For the second room in my Budget Decor series, we transformed the master bedroom in my friend *Julie's house (*not her real name). From a dimly-lit beige room, the space is now true to Julie's character: full of light and colour.
If you missed the first post in the Budget Decor series, the full backstory is included in this post:
€75 Boys' Bedroom.
But before we get into the inspiration and transformation, we should start at the beginning with the 'Before' photos. The biggest problem Julie had with this room was how dark and gloomy it felt. It is north-facing, with just one fairly small window. To add insult, the window glass is tinted! Presumably, this was installed to assure privacy, but there are far better ways of screening a view that doesn't obscure as much light. Unfortunately, the tinting was applied in between the panes of the double-glazed window and it is therefore inaccessible and cannot be removed. Being that this was one problem I couldn't solve, I had to do my best to minimise it instead.
Another problem with the room was the endless beige: beige walls and beige wood furniture and floor. It certainly did nothing to lift the room or alleviate the dullness.
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Once we had cleared out the room and removed the unwanted furniture, we started by painting everything. To maximise the light, we painted the walls and ceiling with leftover white paint (the same one we used for the ceiling in the boys' room). The windowsill, which was a dark brown gloss, was also painted white in in order to bounce what little light was coming through the window. For that, we used the same paint we had used on the boys' wardrobes.
The bright white paint really gives the room a lift compared to all that beige!
The couple had been gifted a superking size bed by a family member but it had been painted a grey colour, which Julie didn't like. So I used the leftover satin paint from my Craft Room makeover to paint the bed green. The actual colour is Plateau by Colourtrend.
There is no getting around the fact that this bed is HUGE! In order for it not to dominate the room too much, I felt it necessary to distract from the width of the bed by emphasising the height above the bed. The most budget-friendly way I came up with of doing this was with the application of wallpaper.
Wallpaper can be incredibly expensive ... or very affordable! This one is appropriately called Paradisio and cost just €14 per roll from B&Q. We only allowed for one roll of wallpaper in our budget, especially given that this would be something that would stay in this rental home and we had decided that the bulk of our budget would be spent on items that could move with the family if necessary. So, to maximise the effect of the wallpaper, we only applied it to the upper part of the wall where it would be visible behind the bed.
Even at that, we ran out of wallpaper! The tricky thing with wallpaper is that you need to pattern match, which means that there is always wastage. (To find out more about hanging wallpaper and pattern matching, see my post on Hanging a Wallpaper Mural.) However, I was able to use some of the wastage to make a collage to fill in the last bit!
Done carefully, the collage is hardly noticeable unless you carefully study the wall!
With the space painted and wallpapered, it was then time to start introducing the furnishings. The bed is the main feature in any bedroom, and so dressing the bed always deserves careful consideration. This superking size bed is great for a young family, but expensive to dress as superking size bedding is only stocked in more up-market stores. Indeed, as with the Boys' Bedroom, bedding used up two-thirds of our overall budget for this room, despite shopping around and being as frugal as possible. I bought a 10.5 tog duvet in as-new condition through online classifieds for just €15. Surprisingly, there were quite a few available for sale, most often because they were purchased in error for a kingsize bed. The fitted sheet was €23 and the beautiful white seersucker duvet cover and pillowcases were €47, both from Homesense.
Julie wanted to create a luxurious feeling using by lots of cushions on the bed. I had a beautiful Melody Miller fabric in my stash, which Julie loved, so I used that to make the large central cushion. Julie also had a gorgeous black-and-white African wax block printed fabric that was made by her friend, and she wanted to use that in the room. I came up with the idea of making a long bolster pillow to showcase the fabric pattern fully. I made the filler by joining two cushions together, and then I trimmed it with a mustard-coloured pom-pom trim from my stash to co-ordinate with the yellow orchids on the wallpaper. I also had some deep yellow velvet in my fabric stash, which I used to make the remaining cushions. And so we came up with our colour scheme for the rest of the room: white, black, green, pink/red, and mustard.
The dusky pink quilt at the foot of the bed is originally from Søstrene Grene, but I didn't use it. It is perfect here as it co-ordinates so well with the Melody Miller cushion fabric.
Behind the bed, the window dressing played a key role because of our preoccupation with maximising the light in the room. The curtains are sheer white with filet crochet inserts. The fabric was leftover from when I made the curtains for my guest bedroom (they can be seen here). These are a great option for providing privacy without filtering too much light. The curtain pole was one that my mother-in-law was throwing out, which I saved and painted white.
When the room does need to be darkened, there is also a white blackout blind that can be pulled down. (For more information about blackout blinds, see my post on DIY Blackout Roller Blind Installation.)
With the bed being so large in the room, there wasn't space at either side for a standard-sized locker or bedside table. So we made these bedside shelves out of leftover wood and painted them the same colour as the bed. The structure of the wall sconces were made in the same way. The wiring was ripped out of an old pair of bedside lamps that I had bought years ago, but never used because they were too tall and kept toppling over! Hubby is skilled with wiring, and was able to used the unwanted lamps for parts to make a more practical solution for this room. The vintage-style LED bulbs are the Nittio from Ikea. I had bought them in error some time ago, not realising that they are so dim (just 20 lumens). They weren't of use to me for my ceiling light that I needed to illuminate an entire room, but Julie prefers a soft glow for reading at nighttime, so they were perfect here. So, by reusing and recycling, we were able to make all this at no cost.
For the main light in the room, I wanted something large and textural against all of those white walls, as well as something that would diffuse the light as there is nothing worse than a glaring light in a bedroom! The ideal solution came in the form of the Krusning from Ikea, which makes a real design statement for just €10.
The artwork in the room is very personal. The heart motif has a special meaning for this family, so Julie painted this one and we framed it with an old frame that was found in the attic. The frame was painted green to co-ordinate with the rest of the room.
On the opposite wall, I painted another frame green and filled it with a quote that I had typed up on the computer and printed out. The phrase is a lyric from the couple's wedding song.
At the other side of the room, away from the window, I kept the furniture light in colour to keep the room feeling as bright as possible.
I replaced the wooden wardrobe with one that has white glossy doors that reflect the light. It was a great find on the online classifieds and was free to take away!
Beside the door, the wall bumped out where an old fireplace used to be. I used that space to fit a "dressing table" shelf.
It is made from leftover wood, painted with leftover paint, and wallpapered on top with a sample of marble-effect paper that I sealed with some leftover water-based polyurethane to make it more hard-wearing. So, again, the total cost was free! The mirror above it was one I had bought for our own ensuite before I changed my mind about how I wanted to decorate, so it had been sitting in the attic ever since.
The cute little dressing table stool was also picked up free of charge on the online classifieds. I reupholstered it with more of the yellow velvet from my stash and trimmed it with the same mustard yellow pom-poms.
The rug is the Cotton Lehar Runner in black from The Range. It was bought in a Northern Ireland store for £15 (€17).
The door panel was custom-made by a friend. Ester Kiely, Textile Artist is a genius when it comes to working with fabrics. She made this beautiful piece out of an old sheet and fabric scraps. The detailed stitching is just exquisite.
I added a full-length mirror both to faciliate dressing and also to reflect the existing light around the room. Again, I painted the frame green to co-ordinate with the room.
Aside from the bedding, most of what we needed for this room was sitting around either my house or Julie's house or my friend Ester's house. When you take stock of what you have, the possibilities are quite surprising. When we started out, we had several other ideas as to how we could decorate this room, but we settled on this design because it utilised what we had available. This is important when working with a tight budget.
For more advice, be sure to visit my post with all my Top Tips for Decorating on a Budget.
I'll be back next week with a tutorial on how I reupholstered the tufted dressing table stool. After that, the next room we'll be tackling in Julie's home is the ensuite bathroom. So check back every Tuesday for more in my Budget Decor series and, in the meantime, I'll leave you with these before-and-after photos of the master bedroom.
BUDGET
BED: €0 (gifted by family member)
DUVET: €15 (bought as-new via online classifieds).
BEDDING (Fitted sheet, duvet cover, pillowcases): €70 from Homesense.
WARDROBE: €0 (Online classifieds).
WALLPAPER: €14 (Paradisio from B&Q)
PAINT: €0 (White paint leftover from previous projects).
CURTAINS: €0 (Fabric leftover from previous project).
CURTAIN POLE: €0 (Salvaged).
BLACKOUT BLIND: €0 (Leftover from previous project).
BEDSIDE TABLES: €0 (DIY’d from leftover wood and paint).
WALL SCONCES: €0 (DIY’d from leftover wood and upcycled bedside lamps).
ARTWORK: €0 (All DIY’d)
LIGHTSHADE: €10 (Krusning from Ikea)
DRESSING TABLE: €0 (DIY’d from leftover wood, paint, and sample wallpaper).
MIRRORS: €0 (Salvaged)
RUG: €17 (Cotton Lehar Runner in black from The Range, Norther Ireland)
TOTAL: €126
Oops! €1 over budget.
Related Posts:
Top Tips for Decorating on a Budget
Budget Decor: €75 Boys' Bedroom
