But I never quite had it the way I wanted it.
Whenever we moved into that house a couple of years ago, I was pregnant with Vivi and on strict bed rest. So, since I was reliant on everyone else and their brother to unpack for me, I wasn't able to unpack and decorate the way I would have done it on my own. Once I was no longer on bedrest, I had a toddler and a newborn, and reorganizing was the last thing on my priority list. Therefore, the entire house stayed chaotic and disorganized, and I was just trying to keep my head above water the whole time we lived there.
One of the most disheveled rooms in the whole house ended up being our master bedroom and bathroom. All of the bedrooms in the house were upstairs, and we always did bath and bedtime prep with the kids in our room before we put them into their own beds. So their stuff always ended up strewn all over our bedroom. It was never straight, and the room was always covered in toys/laundry/unrolled toilet paper rolls/etc. It actually stressed me out to go into my own bedroom.
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| Let's take a minute to parse this photo: First, please ignore the selfie that I was sending my BFF for dress opinions. In the background we see night diapers, a Darth Vader bear, what appears to be a foam pool noodle, about six cardboard boxes, and laundry strewn around that isn't even mine. |
Whenever we were looking at house plans for our new house, I decided that I wanted a separation of zones. I may sound like an asshole of a mother for saying this, but I wanted our master bedroom to be far away from the kids' bedrooms. I see them enough. When we found a house plan that featured the master bedroom on the bottom floor and all the other bedrooms and a playroom upstairs, I knew that was the one I wanted to go with. Now that we've been living here for about two months, I cannot tell you how much more relaxed I feel having a separate space from them. They rarely even step foot in our bedroom now, and I want to keep it that way. (I know this sounds so mean, and I promise to the Lord that I love my children with all my heart and soul. I just do not want them and their 84,000 toys strewn all over the one space that is mine). Since we have moved here, they enjoy having all their toys and bedrooms upstairs, so they aren't even really interested in coming down to our room.
When it came to decorating our bedroom, I decided to leave all the bright colors in the living spaces and go with a neutral, chill vibe instead. We inherited this dark, massive Oriental rug that could only fit in our bedroom, and I felt like it was going to make the room feel really dark. So I painted the walls stark white to try to balance it out. Normally I might not do stark white in a bedroom, but in this room with this huge dark rug, I think it works. I wanted to go for a mix of a boho/farmhouse vibe; I wanted it cozy and neutral in colors, but still with just a little eclecticism that screams my name. I also decided that I wanted white bedding along with the white walls, because I LOVE bleaching stuff. It's an unhealthy obsession. We had cream bedding in our last bedroom, and we were never able to remove that purple eyeshadow that someone smeared all over it. But on this stark white bedding, bleach could take care of that in a heartbeat.
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| bed (link is a queen) // white quilt bedding // Euro shams // fur pillow (similar here) // nightstands |
We ordered our bed and side tables from my family's furniture store in South Georgia, and I couldn't love them more. I was wanting an upholstered headboard that also had some wood to it, and this Stanley piece fits the bill. You may or may not have noticed, but almost nothing in my house matches. I don't believe in matching furniture. I'm honestly surprised that I even have matching nightstands. Those and the black herringbone chairs in my living room are the only matching furniture I've ever picked out. But the matching night stands still don't match any of the other furniture in the bedroom. Speaking of night stands, I wanted to tie each of our sides together, and I found these amazing Star Wars prints that I had to have the moment I saw them. Alex always pulls a Han Solo when I say "I love you" to him; he will always respond, "I know," and then smile. So the prints were a fun little joke for us, and I love them on each side of our bed.
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| I love you/I know Star Wars prints |
In our last house, we had an electric fireplace heater in a unique space in our kitchen, but we didn't really have an obvious place for it to go in the new house. I started thinking about it, and I love bedroom fireplaces, so we decided to stick it in our master for a cozy feel. I can't wait until it gets colder and I can turn it on in the morning.
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| Electric fireplace (similar here) |
One of my favorite spots in our bedroom is my little reading nook. Sometimes I just sit here and "think" (aka completely zone out like a zombie). I just love having a place all to my own besides locking myself in my bathroom ;)
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| wire basket // fur stool (sold out, but similar here) // grey floating shelves |
The massive chest of drawers is an antique family piece that I found abandoned in my Daddy's barn many years ago, broken and covered in layers of dust. It was in really bad shape when I found it, which is probably why it was put out to pasture. But I put a lot of time and love and heart into refurbishing it and refinishing it, and now it's in pretty good shape for a piece that was previously discarded. I love using it in our bedroom and thinking about my grandmother when I see it. I think she would be proud of my effort. I had to strip multiple layers of paint off of it, sand it, strip more layers, rebuild some of the inside, patch up holes, and then finally repaint the chest with chalk paint and wax. The handles were also in bad shape, but I really loved the design of them, so I soaked them in acid to get all the gunk off of them and then painted them with gold leaf.
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| clock // hat |
I HAD to have a television in our bedroom. I know bedrooms look much more chic with the absence of a television, but this is real life, and I need to watch my shows while I lounge in my bed during the kids' nap time. Plus, Alex and I always have a few shows that we watch together, and we usually end up watching them in bed at night. So a TV was a no-brainer. But we decided to really go for it and get a big smart TV this time. I had Alex mount it on the wall asymmetrically for a reason--- I decided to build a gallery wall around it and try to work the TV into the decor, versus just having a big ass television mounted on the wall alone. I wasn't sure exactly what direction I wanted to go in with the gallery wall/tv, so I went to HomeGoods and brought home about $200 worth of random accessories that I liked just to mix and match and see what stuck. Once I found the combo I liked, I simply returned the leftovers. Sometimes that's the best way to decorate---buy a bunch of stuff you like, see what works, and then return what you don't end up using.
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| fan |
Since I was an English major, I have an ungodly number of books that I have amassed over the years. For some reason, I can't make myself let go of them; they remind me of different points in my life and in college, and they hold a special place in my heart. Unfortunately, I don't have built in shelves like we did in our last house, so I ended up having to work them into our decor in every room. So if you were wondering why there were so many books everywhere in our house, that is why.
I think I mentioned this in one of my posts last week, but I am obsessed with these remote control timer faux candles from Target. I bought a whole bunch of them, and I hit the remote and turn them on every time I get to lounge in our bedroom. It's just so comfortable to have some candlelight going, even if it's not real.
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| candles // wood slab |
I put a lot of thought into planning our master bathroom. I wanted a farmhouse/spa vibe, but I wasn't exactly sure how I wanted to execute that at first. I initially had to stop myself from tiling the whole floor in marble, but I ended up choosing the same wood tile that we have in the rest of the downstairs, and I think it gives it the farmhouse feel I was looking for. Instead of plain white subway tile--which I did consider for the shower and tub--I ended up choosing white glass subway tile. It's a little different from the plain white, and I love the slightly blue tone that it gives off. I found the beveled mirrors at HomeGoods for a reasonable $50 a piece, and we got the farmhouse light fixtures from Lowes. Switching out those little things completely changed the look of the bathroom; it's amazing just how light fixtures make such a difference. And if you're wondering what the little blue thing is on the glass shower walls, it's a bluetooth speaker that is awesome.
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| mirrors (similar here) // bath rugs // light fixtures // waterproof bluetooth speaker // shelves |
I got some inexpensive shelves from IKEA to put in the bathtub nook and in the lavatory space; you can't beat the IKEA price! And yes, I did buy the X-rated skinny dipper art that I have been stalking for months. When it came in, though, I took a look at it and decided that it just wasn't quite X-rated enough for my liking. I noticed that, in typical sexist fashion, it showed all the lady parts and conveniently covered up the man parts. Now I cannot, in good conscience, promote sexism in my house, so I did what any normal person would do to remedy the situation--
I Sharpied a penis on to the man.
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| "This aggression will not stand, man." Skinny dippers print |
All in all, this is one of my favorite rooms in the whole house. I'm not completely finished with it, and it may not look particularly impressive to anyone else, but I cannot stress to you enough how much of a shitshow our last bedroom was. This may not be the most stylish bedroom there ever was, but it feels zen to me. It's the place where I can relax. It is my refuge from the wild. It is my happy place.
Stay tuned for the kids' rooms!
