Your Bedroom: Beauty or Beast?
Personal bedrooms are hidden from the world for the most part. In the hurried busyness of daily life it’s easy to let the bedroom become the dumping ground for laundry and all that stuff no one knows what to do with.
Let’s walk down the hall and peek into your bedroom. What do you see? A peaceful sanctuary or a jumbled mess? How does it make you feel?
Do receipts, old magazines, dead computer parts and gift wrap supplies litter the dresser top? Are unmatched sheets and an old blanket thrown on the bed? Does it seem that the chipped furniture and dirty walls don’t matter because no one sees it except you?
Your bedroom is the first thing you see in the morning and the last thing you see at night. The place where you dress and undress affects your mind and emotions. The room where you nurture relationships and spend private time in your marriage is important.
We lived in a certain house for five years. The master bedroom was spacious, the comforter set was pretty and the painting above the couch was beautiful, but the walls were plain vanilla white. For five years I wanted to paint that white bedroom but we never got around to it.
When we moved to another house the master bedroom was, once again, white. One day, a few months after moving (and probably at a certain time of the month), I said to my husband, “Life is too short to not paint your bedroom the color you want.”
He bought apple-green paint and painted it the next day, bless his heart. That was nine years ago and the color of my bedroom still makes me smile.
Our house is decorated in Early Garage Sale, and the bedroom is no exception. Beauty can be inexpensive. Don’t get discouraged and think “someday, when I can afford it I’ll have a beautiful home.”
What do you have in your hand?
Mostly I had $10 and creativity. Don’t wait to live a beautiful life until you can afford new furniture and an expensive bedding set. Life happens today.
Look through magazines and see what speaks to you. Unless you found the magazine in a waiting room, tear out the photos you’re drawn to and put them in a notebook or large envelope. Study the photo and decide what you like. Think of ways to copy that in your own rooms. Your local library contains many books on decorating and the library is free. “I’m not creative” you may say. Anybody can copy a paragraph from great literature, and you can copy a tabletop display from a photo.
Please keep your bedroom picked up. Dirty clothes can hide in a basket on the floor of the closet. Make the bed each morning. Pretty sheets and a comforter you love will encourage you to do so. Clear the dresser tops and counters of clutter and set out some pretty things. Daily maintenance is easier than a gigantic cleaning project.
The state of your bedroom can be a symptom of a deeper problem of neglecting yourself and your marriage. The years of childbearing and schooling are challenging and demanding.
It’s easy to think your spouse is an adult and can “wait.” It’s easy to put off caring for yourself. It’s easy to delegate the master bedroom to the bottom of the decorating list.
Look at your bedroom (and your relationship) with new eyes. Is your bedroom a beauty or a beast?
You decorated the room in the photo on a garage sale budget?? It’s so charming! Please don’t tell me you have time to make the bed every day… that would be too tough on my self-esteem 🙂
Why do you think I use a quilt on the bed? Pull it up, throw on the pillows and you’re done! For heaven’s sake, of course there are days when it remains in a jumble–your self-esteem is safe. 🙂
The color of your bedroom is fresh and lovely. Green makes me smile too, and I have planning to paint my “plain white, sample paint splotched bedroom” for far TOO long now.
Your post is a good reminder, thanks! We are doing a big clutter clean now as we prepare for the Holidays. I think I am going to make it a goal to have my bedroom painted before Thanksgiving.
You won’t regret it!
Charlotte, what an inspiring and wonderful advice! As an interior designer, you might think that I only appreciate picture perfect rooms, with expensive furnishings, but the truth is what I admire the most is rooms that look comfortable, peaceful and inviting. This is something that can be achieved by anyone with any budget, large or small. What you say is so important, the environment you live in, what you see around you when you wake-up in the morning and go to bed at night will affect deeply how you feel about yourself and your life. Beauty and order is not determined by how much money you spend but by attitude and desire to live well.
What a gorgeous bedroom!! And its so clean 🙂 Your advice is wonderful and practical. Thank you.
charlotte,
You have hit the nail on the head .always knwew it but didn’t do much about it. Now am doing something about it . Thanks so much for your inspirations!!
sheryl-momofseven nd
I cannot leave my bedroom in the mornings without making up the bed and putting the pillows on. It’s a habit I’ve had my whole life. I’ve always liked things neat, and coordinated well. I like that it helps me start my day in a great mood! If I make the bed before I leave the room, it’s finished and off my mind. 🙂
I have 2 Golden Retrievers that share my room. They have 2 huge dog beds on opposite sides of a very small bedroom that has a KING sized bed.
Any suggestions for making them look prettier in the room and maybe even a better idea to save on space?
We have our king-sized bed set at an angle in a corner in our small bedroom. If it were me, I would make sure the dog beds were matching so it would look more uniform and neat (and preferably coordinated with the room colors). “Pairs” are a decorating principle, so if the dog beds were on either side of the bed it would at least look neat and balanced. Move things around until they feel comfortable and visually pleasing!
Great post Charlotte … I agree about making your bedroom your sanctuary. I always feel calmer when my room is peaceful and tidy. I also make sure I don’t have electronics in there except my iPhone for my meditation music at night.
ps. Love the website changes 🙂
This is so relevant! I ditched my sheets years ago when Martha Stewart gave me permission 🙂 No more crammed toes and it makes it so easy to make the bed and looks neat. I make sure the comforters the right heaviness and duvet fabric is lush. I love our bed! Your husband is dear for enjoying a feminine room:) I painted out bedroom Kwal’s Tofino blue and every time I walk in I feel like I am at the ocean, very subtle. We just moved into our new house and there is NOTHING on the walls and it doesn’t feel finished, I wanted our bedroom to feel like a “room” for exactly the reasons you are stating. A place where you want to be.
@ Nora – Pinterest has some great DIY dog beds if you are into that thing, turning tables upside down and filling them to look like “beds”. As for us, NO ONE is allowed in our room, not even the kids! lol Sacred space, sacred space…
I love our bedroom, painted a powdery blue with white accent. I love the lace, the Apple blossom tree I found at the thriftstore, and my grandma’s antique couch in the bay window. I try hard to keep it clean, but the laundry (especially clean) overwhelms it at times. I will keep working on it. Eventually, I will get it. Either I will find a way to have fewer clothes or bigger kids. When I walk in my room it makes me smile. 🙂
My room is a beast. I am working on cleaning it up and cleaning out my closet right now.
I love your room. so clean and pretty.
Loved this post! This was the inspiration I needed to glam up our drab master bedroom.