Before & After: Bedroom Makeover

This post has been a long time coming, but we're stoked to finally share it - our before and after bedroom makeover! First, let's take a little trip down memory lane. This is what our primary bedroom looked like when we moved into the house.


Basically just an empty, white room with bad trim. Our plans for the space were resurfacing and painting the walls, swapping out the trim, framing and trimming the windows and closet, swapping out the door, reconfiguring the closet, furnishing, and decorating.

You may remember that we finished the bedroom door several months ago. In fact, the majority of the room has been complete for months, but we had some final tasks to finish up before it was ready to share. Now it's all complete, and she's lookin' good.


The showstopper of the room is definitely the blue swirl wallpaper from Milton & King x Poppytalk. We actually won this wallpaper in a giveaway and were so excited to use it in our room. It just looks perfect behind our navy bed, doesn't it? This is real wallpaper (meaning it has to be applied with paste), so we were a little hesitant to hang it ourselves. Luckily we were only doing one wall and it's a pretty forgiving pattern (no continual pattern between sheets), so it was worth it for us to DIY instead of hiring it out.


I feel like a real adult having sconces for our bedside lights. We decided to get plug-in sconces rather than hardwired though, just in case we ever decide to switch up the layout of the room (not likely considering this is a small bedroom but who knows.) They're the Crosby Swing Arm sconce from Target and we dig them a lot. We did have an electrician install outlets on each side of the bed (where the sconces are plugged in), and they have USB ports (!!!) for our phones, which we love.


To the left of the bed, you'll find some pieces from our old apartment - our salvaged ladder and our copper pipe plant stand (that fern is faux, btw!) Next to them is my "desk", but really it's more of my vanity. I keep my laptop here, but mostly just so it has a home. This is where I do my makeup in the morning, in front of this awesome hanging mirror we grabbed on clearance from Target a couple years ago.


In the gallery above my desk we have a 'do-not-disturb' door tag from Ace Hotel Pittsburgh, where we got married. It was a wedding gift from a friend and a lovely reminder of our wedding day. We also have an art print from Minted (seen in this post) and a print from Juniper Print Shop. The blue mobile/hanging is from Urban Outfitters, many years ago. The desk itself is from Amazon, and my chair is a spare that we didn't need at our dining room table.

You may or may not remember the closet system we installed in our guest bedroom last year. Both of our dressers and closets are continuing to live in the guest bedroom, and it really works out great for us. The primary bedroom is small (only 9.5' x 12.5') and we just wouldn't have the room to house our clothes/dressers in there. With that said, we decided to turn the closet in the primary bedroom into a linen closet. We were really lacking space for towels, extra sheets, blankets, pillows, etc. and knew this would be the perfect space. The shelves are pine and turned out beautifully - Nick built them and they're holding up great. We added simple bifold doors from Lowe's that we dressed up with trim, just like our bedroom door.

So that's our bedroom! This room is definitely my favorite in the house. I'm by no means an interior designer, but I'm proud of how I decorated and styled this room. To me it's beautiful, cohesive, and calming. It's truly the first room in our house that is done 100% (not even the music room is done done) and that feels really freaking good after 2.5 years in our house. We hope you enjoy it as much as we do.

I have a full source list for you below, but if there's anything you have questions on, be sure to leave us a comment!

Desk/Vanity - Amazon
Eames Desk Chair - Amazon
Mirror - Target (old); similar
Glasses Holder - Amazon
Cat Ring Holder - Target
'Not Now' Art - Ace Hotel Pittsburgh
'Ha Ha Ha' Print - Minted
'I Like You Very Much' Print - Juniper Print Shop
Mobile - Urban Outfitters (old)
Copper Plant Stand - DIY
Faux Fern - Target
Ladder - Vintage (Read our post about it here)
Gray Throw - Target
Wallpaper - Milton & King x Poppytalk
Pipe Prints - Juniper Print Shop (No longer available; Read about how we print engineering prints here)
Bed - Amazon
Chambray Sheets - Target
Pink Pillow - Target
Quilt - Target
Yellow Throw - West Elm
Nightstands - Amazon
Sconces - Target
Wall Hanging - Target
Wake Up Light - Amazon
Brass Ceiling Light - Illuminate Vintage
Black Circle Print - Minted
Blinds - Home Depot
Closet Doors - Lowe's (Read about how we add trim to our doors here)

Thanks for reading!

Sarah & Nick