Bedroom/Sewing Room/Office Makeover!

 I have been sharing a bedroom with my sewing room and office for years. My bedroom has never really felt like a bedroom. I have tons of craft and sewing supplies from owning a business and because those are my hobbies that I love to do. This has caused my room to become crowded and impossible to manage and keep clean and organized. For the last couple years, I have been struggling with intense fatigue and exhaustion as well as tendinitis, due to an autoimmune disease. I have gradually thinned down my supplies—selling and giving away. My husband and I had been having a hard time sleeping and never felt rested. We had also been having back problems. We decided it would be in the best interest of our health to get a new bed. Our mattress was 22 years old—overdue for a new one! Plus, we have never had a headboard and the mattress has been on the floor for the past several years since the frame broke. We decided to get a king size so we could spread out and be as comfortable as possible. Having a king size bed meant getting rid of some furniture because it would not fit. I thought it would be best to give our bedroom a total makeover. I wanted to feel like I was in a a hotel, but still have a place to sew. We live in a very small house so there isn’t really a place to put a sewing area. We barely have room for a small dining room table. Our living room barely fits our sofas and tv. We don’t even have a coat or linen closet.

Here are the before pictures. I am embarrassed to show these because it is such a mess! And we started painting to test out the color, so that normally wouldn't be there, but the ugly brown paint and peeling wall paper border has been there for years. We use the fan to drown out other noise while we sleep. The filing cabinet was full of papers, labels, blank paper, and anything else that fit in it. The white cabinet had a bunch of photo and scrapbooking supplies. The shelves on the wall had all my sewing supplies and a bunch of other stuff. The desk, dresser, and bookcase had become stashing areas. Ugh! What a mess! No wonder I couldn't sleep! And this is after I got rid of a ton of stuff!

Anyway , I really like the french farmhouse look, so that was the theme I decided to go with. We got rid of all the furniture and replaced it with new, matching furniture. Let me add that all my life, I have never had a bedroom set that matched. In all my adult life, I have never had a headboard. I have never owned a new dresser. I have always just learned to make due with what we had and never felt it was important enough to have a nice bedroom.

We took down the wall paper border and repainted the entire room. I chose Sherwin-Williams “Silverplate” paint (R 194, G 192, B 186, Hex Value:#c2c0ba LRV:53.)

Before

After

I vacuumed and steam cleaned, which had not been done for a very long time. The steam cleaner surprisingly got a lot of dark spots out of the carpet that I thought would never come out. I wanted to replace the carpet with new, but we just can’t afford it right now. I had to put a lot of stuff in the shed, under the bed in totes, and in our closet. Most of the stuff that I couldn't put in the shed are photos I got from my grandma. She has Alzheimer's and so my aunts went through her 400 photo albums and gave them to the people who were in the photos.

Nearly everything I bought at Walmart. I replaced the large corner desk with a small desk. I replaced the ugly filing cabinet, white cabinet, and bookcase with two beautiful farmhouse bookcases. Amazingly, after putting so much stuff under the bed, in the closet, and shed, I really only needed one bookcase. The second one has mainly my husband's music stuff and some office stuff in it. And of course replaced the brown dresser with a nice farmhouse dresser. I got rid of all the white shelves, too. When everything was out of the bedroom and in the living room, dining room, and kitchen, it was a nightmare! I could not believe how much stuff was crammed in our small bedroom. It took almost 2 months to get everything sorted, the room painted, furniture put together, etc. And I still have things to go through.

The white microfiber bed skirt desperately needed ironed. I bought 400-thread count white sheets. Last time I bought 300-thread count (cheapest sheets possible) and the sheets were almost transparent! The new sheets claim to have a cooling affect, but I didn't notice a difference. I still sweat like crazy if it's more than 70 degrees in the house. The beautiful Paris quilt and matching shams are so nice. (I had to buy king size pillows for them, though.) I didn't want a big fluffy comforter, so the quilt was perfect. I used the same throw pillows from my previous bedding set that I had bought at Grocery Outlet last year. I ordered the headboard on walmart.com.

The Paris wall art and arrows were purchased at Joann Fabrics several years ago. I made the fabric bulletin boards, with my husband's help. The vase and flowers on the dresser was also from Joann's.