Bedroom Furniture & Decor
DECOR PLAN
In furnishing and decorating our primary bedroom, I opted for a light and modern coastal look to complement the darker/warmer tones of the wall and light fixtures. Note: As you view the following photos, please keep in mind the grungy gray carpet will absolutely be updated soon!
THE BED
When I started to research modern coastal furniture, I fell in love with a few different beds - including the Balboa Bed from Serena & Lily and the Rhian Coastal Beach Bed from Kathy Kuo Home. These are both beautiful options, but did not fit the budget I set for this room refresh. I also spent some solid time scouring Nextdoor and Craigslist, daydreaming someone in Austin might be selling a Serena & Lily bed for a sizable discount. No dice.
As I shared in my previous post, Jake loves a good woodworking challenge. After sharing my vision with Jake and reviewing the materials, he felt confident he could replicate a simple cane bed design. Together, we decided to use this one as the blueprint for his project.
You can see in this photo, his final product turned out even better than the inspiration bed. We only had one hiccup at the end of the project. Jake was using a razor blade to trim excess cane from the frame when he slipped and sliced a 6-inch hole in the top of the middle panel of the bed. He handled the whole situation with more grace than I ever could - ordering a new roll of cane and redoing the whole middle panel.
My desire to participate in the actual building of this bed mirrored my involvement in the construction of our bedroom wall: minimal to nonexistent. Jake loved this project and would be thrilled to a) share his process or b) build a bed for anyone interested - just reach out to me! All said and done, he replicated my dream bed in only a couple of weekends!
A TALE OF TWO NIGHTSTANDS
Sometimes when I’m decorating a room, a specific memory comes to mind. I was about fourteen or fifteen and my mom took me shopping to find a dress for an upcoming school dance. After a dozen stores and trying on what had to be fifty-plus beautiful dresses, my eyes brimmed with tears of frustration and I finally broke down: “I have the dress I want in my head, but I just don’t think it exists!” My mom calmly explained to me that something I concocted in my own head does not, in fact, exist in real life. She encouraged me to instead shift my focus to finding something close enough - a dress that had a few features of the vision in my head. This shift in the goal of our search helped me find a dress and saved my mom’s sanity.
Moral of this tale: a “close enough” approach can be used to keep any perfectionistic design expectations in check. I recently spent a few hours online searching for nightstands to match the perfect pieces I envisioned only to find they [gasp!] don’t actually exist. I then made a list of what would be close enough to my ideal: 2-3 drawers, no shelves because shelves = dust, white or beige, coastal style, preferably with some beadboard or similar design feature. We also had dimension limitations. Given the width of the bed, the height of the light switches, and the location of the sconces, the nightstands had to be less than 20” wide and 25” high. I popped this criteria into Overstock and Wayfair and found the Safavieh Tegan Nightstands. A quick copy + paste to to my bedroom design board sealed the deal - these looked like a great fit! I did a quick search for the best price and ordered them from Target.
THE BEDDING
Because I love to frequently change up bedding to refresh the look of a bedroom, most of my bedding is from IKEA (duvet covers) and Target (sheets). The eight looks below were created with a pretty small and affordable bedding collection: two duvet covers with shams (green & white), 2 sheet sets (navy stripe & white), 1 fitted sheet (brown), and 2 pillowcases (floral). The only thing I don’t really rotate are my three white euro pillows. I could even do a few more combos than this, but I lost a little steam after remaking the bed eight times.
All bedding pictured is linked in my product section at the bottom of this post.
SMALL DECOR DETAILS
I tend to lean toward very simple decor. I mean, my favorite bedding combo above is the first one: white on white. I guess what some call boring, others call boring chic.
To top off the nightstands, I opted for a small faux potted plant, a marble coaster, and a book. Another reason I wanted nightstands with drawers is to hide anything I need nearby, but don’t want to incorporate as part of the room decor - my kindle, hair ties, chapstick, sound machine, etc.
I’ll often attempt to decorate with things I already have in excess in my home, which typically include books and plants (faux and real). If you have any hardcover books lying around, I highly recommend removing the jacket to see what the actual book looks like. You may be pleasantly surprised at how decor worthy some are! My copy of Again to Carthage was the perfect accent color for our bedroom. For those that own Untamed by Glennon Doyle, the busy and bright book jacket is covering a gorgeous baby blue book with gold lettering. Check it out!
DESIGN BOARD → FINAL RESULT
I wanted to share side-by-side photos of the original design board and the final design. I’m pretty darn happy with how it came together. I’d love to hear your thoughts!
PRODUCT LINKS:
