Do your bedroom first

I shared with you the final reveal of the Master Bedroom, and today I am going to show you all the stages it took to get it here.

I want to start out by talking about master bedrooms.  They seem to be the space that most often gets the least amount of attention.  Since they are the one space that our guests rarely see, we leave them to the end, and decorate the more public spaces first.   But I suggest that the master bedroom should be the first space you create.  Everyone should have a space that relaxes and energizes them, a space to go and be comfortable.  And this is even more true for parents of young children.  Your bedroom is where you gather your thoughts and put on your armor to start the day. It is the room where you close out your day and put away the stress,  it should be the one place that really nurtures you.  It is also the one room that most outsiders don't see, and is why I advocate that this space, more than any other, should be personal.

Now, after saying all that, our master bedroom, didn't get any of the attention it needed and deserved early on.  It was always the unloved space, and got only minimum attention.  So I did not follow my own advice.  Here is the sad journey of our personal space.

In 2009 we purchased our house.  Here is the room as it was when we first saw it.

(All the furniture was the previous owners, they left the window coverings and some art work)

Once we moved our furniture in, we realized how bare and dingy the room really was.  Warning-this is going to get ugly really quick.

We had minimal furniture.  No headboard, no dressers, ugly bedding.  I knew from the beginning something needed to be done.  I mean, look at it, it looks a bit like a prison cell.

I finally decided that I needed to put paint on the walls.  Winter was coming and I knew it could only get grayer in the room.  So I picked a happy blue.

I found some really inexpensive canvases and made some art work, dressed up the bed a little and made a makeshift headboard.  It was an effort, but by no means a great room.  This is what I call, 'making-the-best-of-what-you-have', or "no-budget decorating".  The room stayed like this for a year, until I got new bedding. 

Fall 2010

But we still did not have the bed or anything else that really makes a room. And with this new bedding, the room stayed pretty much like this until now.

 

 

I struggled so much with the layout of our bedroom.  I couldn't seem to figure out the best place for the bed.  Before we got the new headboard, The bed seemed to just swim when I out it on the far wall (in the picture).  But when place on the other wall, opposite the window, it left some awkward open spaces.

Either way, I am glad to say our bedroom is done and finished.  And if we ever move again, I promise our bedroom will be one of the first rooms done.  I spent far too many days and nights, not enjoying our private space.

How about you?  How is your bedroom looking? And did you give it proper attention from the start?

-Laurie