Blissful Budget Master Bedroom Makeover

Do you dream of having a peacefully romantic master bedroom, but wake up to the chaos of piles of laundry, toys, and clutter? It’s time to reclaim the master bedroom and make it the sexy serene space it should be!

A few of my coworkers and I have been cleaning out clutter and sprucing up our homes as part of our New Year resolutions. We’re following the 14 Week Home Organization Challenge from abowlfulloflemons.net and this week our mission was the master bedroom. My added challenge is that I’ve also resolved to spend less and make do with what I have. So this week I tackled the bedroom, using mostly what I had with a budget of $300 or less.

BEDROOM ELEMENTS I HAD TO USE:

Master Bedroom Paint Color: Chocolate Brown

I started with milk chocolate colored brown walls. My husband and I painted the room several years ago and I have never liked it. The walls felt dark and gloomy to me. To him they were cozy and peaceful. But since the room is fairly large, repainting would eat up most of my budget and would be likely to cause an argument, I decided to work around it. (Several people have asked me about the paint color. It was a custom color from Home Depot. Here’s the “recipe” from the lid.)

Master Bedroom Furniture:

The bed was a wedding gift from my parents. My dad made it for us, based on a bed I saw at Ethan Allen that I loved and couldn’t afford. As much as I sometimes wish we had a king size bed, it’s the one thing in my home I’m not willing to upgrade. (Yea, I’m sentimental that way.)

The dresser and mirror were hand-me downs from my aunt. The bookcase between the windows was from my office, and the skinny jewelry dresser stored our silverware in our old house. And I’ve had the lamps for at least a decade. I stole the sheer curtains from my dining room after I got a deal on new ones on Black Friday.

Bedding:

A little over a year ago, I ordered bedding from Overstock. The pattern was called Perry Ellis Asian Lilly. They still have it on their website for $59.99 with 2.5% Cash Back for the Full/Queen. I love it, but it never felt like it tied into the bedroom really well. My goal for this makeover was to make the bedding work with the brown walls.

THINGS I PURCHASED FOR THE MAKEOVER:

This week, I swapped out our old night stands (which were actually end tables from our old family room) for two “Mainstays Writing Tables” I got at Walmart for $39.84 each with 1.5% Cash Back. They are not high-quality furniture, but for a bedroom setting where they’re not going to get a lot of heavy use, they will be fine. I wanted larger night stands with a drawer so we could have plenty of room for lamps, phone chargers, my husband’s CPAP machine, books and such.

And the chair in the corner was a bargain from Kohl’s with 2% Cash Back. The Handy Living Bullseye Helen Chair was $119 after I stacked a couple of Kohls Coupons and free delivery. I loved the cheerful floral pattern and hoped with fingers crossed it would work with the bedding. Thankfully it worked great!

I also picked up two green candles from the clearance rack, one bunch of silk flowers and some green craft paint at Walmart to brighten up a picture frame on my night-stand. $10 total.

Total Spent: $208.68 not counting the bedding I already had, $268.67 if you count the bedding into the makeover. Not bad for a quick weekend bedroom transformation.

HOME ORGANIZATION STEP 1: CLEARING THE CLUTTER:

The biggest improvement was from clearing out clutter. Home organization is not my gift. While I wouldn’t call myself a hoarder, over almost a decade in our home, I’ve accumulated way too much stuff. My bedroom is often cluttered with my family’s dirty laundry and things that don’t have a home.

I was brutal with myself and got rid of anything and everything that didn’t need to be there. I moved books out of the bookcase, bills off of the night-stand, and purged old phone charging cords. I eliminated decorative things that were taking up physical and visual space. I created a home in the bathroom linen closet for dirty clothes and hung a couple of command hooks on the closet door to get clothes we’ll wear again off the floor. I also found a tray in the basement for the dresser that my husband can use to corral his wallet, keys, phone, and other clutter.

My goal was simple serenity. I tackled the room by starting with the biggest energy drains of the room (laundry) and moving to the next biggest energy drain (night-stands) and on. As I was struggling to decide to keep or let go of something I asked myself, “Is this calming? Is it beautiful? Would I buy it now?”

Just clearing away the visual chaos, made it feel like a whole new room. Adding in the chair, night-stands, and accessories, made it feel like an upscale hotel room retreat! The finishing touches were some sexy master bedroom ideas, like candles, a dimmer switch, and music.

And while I’d *LOVE* to get rid of the giant puppy crate, I don’t want my bedposts to become a chew toy, so I’ll compromise.

Overall I’m super happy with the results! I managed to make the brown walls work, brighten up the room, and create a peaceful space for my husband and me to relax.