I LIVE for home decor before and afters!
One of my all time favourite websites is Young House Love. Just look how cute Sherry and John are!!!
Just 24 hours ago this is what our bedroom looked like…
1) Sad
2) Very much like ‘a guy’s pad in university’
We have just two pieces of furniture in our bedroom- the side table and the cabinet below. Both pieces are from our university days and we’ve had them about 8 years.
You might remember around Christmas, Eric and I said that our gift to each other was going to be new bedroom furniture. Well, that was before we saw how expensive bedroom sets are. It may be a while until we get new furniture…!
HOWEVER, I really didn’t want to put up with this sad looking room any longer, so the wheels got turning in my head. What could I do to transform the room on a budget?
ACCESSORIES!!
Last night Eric wasn’t going to be home until around 9:30pm. I thought this was the perfect time to surprise him so I grabbed a girlfriend for consultation and we headed to Ikea after dinner. I knew I had to act fast if I was going to have my transformation complete by 9:30pm!!!
When I got home I had just 2 hours to complete the room! I grabbed this beautiful screwdriver, put my fears aside, and went to town!
I’m so not handy.
‘Sidekick Sketchie’ LOVES when we do renos. There are just so many things for him to get into! :mrgreen:
My theme going into this was:
‘GREEN with a romantic touch’
Green is one of Eric’s favourite colours and I think it is fun and unexpected for a bedroom. Here are the items I purchased:
[I own Photoshop]
Was it a success?
Click below to find out!
I weaved both curtains together along the rod. The sheer white curtain toned down the bright green quite a bit so it wasn’t harsh looking.
The rods were existing when we bought the house, but they went really well with the leaf theme!
I am in love with these Talluik table lamps…talk about dreamy! They also come in a ton of colours.
To make Eric’s table a little more ‘manly’ I added this spotted placemat (99 cents!). Is it manly or what? LOL.
I also dressed up our dresser with a little wedding section- A standing frame and our wedding album (I love that pic of Eric!)
The tables were PERFECT. They have this tiny little shelf made just for books and kleenex! ;)
(I’m reading In Defense of Food for the second time right now, and I also will be starting Dear John and Time Traveller’s Wife soon (thanks to Krissy!) Such a chic little table. For some reason, I could not get the screws in properly, so I had to leave them out since I was crunched on time. Hopefully I can finish them off this weekend!
We still need a bed skirt, but Rome wasn’t built in a day!
These items below are from Ikea too, but they were purchased a year or two ago. The brown and green sticks were previously in the eating area, but I figured they could use a new home. This Ikea pink floral canvas also fit really well with the scheme!
I added Christmas lights for some romance ;)
Again this stuff below is pre-existing. The canvas is from Ikea and I will be hanging it up on the wall to the left of the bed.
What should we put on this shelf?? (It is open on all sides so books won’t really work as we don’t have bookends).
My mother in Law is an interior designer and one of her best tips is not to be afraid to mix and match prints. I try to keep that in mind whenever I pick out new things.
VS:
Tip for the curtains and duvet:
No time to iron them? Just throw them into the dryer for 5 minutes to release the wrinkles! Worked like a charm.
I am in love with these curtains!!! During the day they cast this beautiful green glow in the room. It totally gives the room a new feel.
So what did Eric think?
Well firstly he had no clue I did this so it made it even more fun for me! I was so excited for the big reveal.
When he saw the room, he said it looks amazing! I was so relieved that he liked it (although I’m not sure if he would have told me otherwise!). Home decor is such a personal thing and you never know if the person will like it. He really liked that I included green in the room and he thought it looked fresh and romantic, albeit a tad girly, but he said it was way better than before (whew). He was really excited that we had a nice room, even without any new furniture. It’s all about accessorizing, no?
Do you like your current bedroom? Is it decorated to how you want or is it like our previous bedroom was- like a no frills college bedroom? If it’s decorated, what did you do to it and how would you describe your style?
My style is definitely romantic with a funky flair, however it changes with each room. For our dining room, I want to do something really bold with burnt orange on the walls. I stick to neutrals for main rooms (like our family room and entry way), but I love bold colours in other rooms for some fun.
Ta-ta mes amies! I’m off to make dinner and watch the opening ceremonies (SUCH a tragic event with the luge today). :(
Our bedroom sucks. It is similar to your before. Mis-match college cheap furniture and hand-me-downs. Wobbly side lamp. Using filing cabinets as night stands. No curtains. It sucks.
I LOVE what you did for so cheap! It’s crazy how so little does so much to a room. I feel like I put off decorating bc I feel like I need to buy a complete overhaul of stuff to make things cute, but that’s not true!
I absolutely love how your “new” bedroom looks! I think you should put pictures in frames on that open shelf you have (with the painting on top). If you got three all the same frames with different pictures in it I think that would look really cool. I think the decor in my bedroom but it’s not quite as awesome as yours looks now.
That wedding photo of you 2 is ADORBS!!!!
What a transformation!!! Ikea rox…but you definitely took it to a whole new level. AWESOME!
So lovely! It’s amazing what you can do with just a few personal touches! We’ve been slowly adding more and more to our bedroom since we moved into our new house this summer. I’d say it’s about 75% there!
LOVE IT!!! IKEA is so great…I have that same bedspread but ours is the brown/orange colors!!!! Such a cute beadspread…good work :-)
This looks awesome — completely transformed! I can’t wait to move into my new place and decorate. It might take time but I want to create a cozy bedroom atmosphere.
love love love it! I’m also trying to re-design my house right now. Its very much a bachelor pad right now!
Love love love!!! I definitely see a trip to Ikea in my future, especially for those tables! Great job on the bedroom transformation!
Your bedroom makeover looks fantastic!! I have the exact same bed cover+pillow cases AND the same place mats. Although my husband is Swedish and insists that everything in our apartment must be from Ikea. I’m not complaining though.. I adore Ikea. Everything is modern and not too mention super cheap!!
this is gorgeous! i am not a fan of our room right now, but there are plans in the near-ish future to paint it and hopefully find some new bedding. oh, and keeping it clean too :)
Talk about an upgrade! Your new room looks fabulous… and you are awesome for doing all that work in no time at all. IKEA rocks!
LOVE IT! Now I need to redecorate! ;-)
im completely re-doing my room right now, and its so exciting. (and overwhelming!) but i thrive on organization and home projects! i LOVVVVEEEE that end table! i really hope ikea sells them in the u.s.!
Looks awesome Ange!
Gorgeous room! I love green and the print is fabulous! I like bold colors and earthy tones. My room is this bluish green with black and white mixed in.. love it!
WOW!! How gorgeous, and may I say, you are a girl after my own heart. I love room makeovers as well, and did one on our bedroom last April. We have a really old bed, and had the original paint from when we bought our house (I would call it patchy purple), mismatched dresser and side tables, and a carpet similar in color to yours. We got paint from my husband’s brother (1 bucket of dark blue, 1 bucket of eggshell) that he had leftover from a home he had painted, then gradually mixed the colors until we had a robin’s egg blue for the walls, and used the eggshell white on the ceiling. I took down our old broken blinds, went to KMart and bought a beautiful brushed nickel ornate curtain rod, and put on royal blue raw silk-looking panels with sheer white over the top, bought the same raw silk type fabric in large and small tablecloths in a mocha color and draped them over dresser top and side tables. Added two pretty (but inexpensive) lamps for the sidetables, and new bedding (microplush blankets in ivory and dark chocolate colors, with four different throw pillows, and bought 2 new pretty plants. All totaled, I spent $168, and it looked beautiful!! Thanks for the lovely pictures of your room, and I LOVE your blog… always fun and fascinating. I just discovered it about two weeks ago. Looking forward to more!
Your room looks great! Young House Love is one of my favorite websites, too! I learn so much from them.
Your room looks awesome!! Gotta love ikea!
My bedroom (ok my whole place) is shameful. I have an unbelievable amount of furniture and it just doesn’t fit, but I can’t part with it. How I fit all my stuff into only a bedroom when I lived at my parents house is beyond me. I am in love with my new bedding though. Its a beige and brown zebra print – best money I ever spent!
Wow, that looks AWESOME!! I can’t believe the transformation. I have those placemats too, Allen picked them out, LOL :)