If you're getting bored with the look of a room, it's probably been far too long since it's been redone. The master bedroom is your oasis from the hectic day-to-day life and should be your No. 1 priority.
Luckily, bedrooms can be a fairly easy room to update. You can do a quick change with new linens and curtains or go all out with fresh paint as well. Planning your update is the fun part and it does give you the illusion that changes are being made (even if you're not yet prepared to actually make them). Start a decorating plan for your private oasis and no doubt you'll be so inspired by your plans that the actual work will not seem so daunting once you get started.
Before you paint
The first step is to plan and research colour schemes, linens and accessories you'll want in your new room. I'd start with the linens and choose the paint colours once the linen choice has been made. It's easier to match a paint colour to the linens rather than the other way around.
There are tons of options in the linen arena. If you're not sure what style or colour palette you want, try doing some online window-shopping to see what catches your fancy. Make note of the wall colour in any photos you come across when online shopping for linens. This may help you when the time comes to shop for paint colours. Check out decorating magazines and books for ideas as well.
Many linen sets come with a plethora of decorative cushions and shams that aren't very useful and usually end up on the floor so spend your decorating budget on items you'll actually use. Better to spend a little more on a quality bedspread and bed skirt than a bed set with a lot of cushions that will just be in the way. Look for quilts that have a reversible pattern. This will give you a little more versatility, which will keep the decor interesting. Keep the sheets neutral or white so they'll always work within the colour palette.
When shopping for sheets, look for open stock sales and purchase extra flat sheets that can be used to make co-ordinating window coverings, a bed skirt, a duvet cover and even extra pillowcases or to recover a headboard. Flat sheets already have finished edges and hems so they make quick work of a window covering simply by threading the rod through the face hem. Use enough fabric width so that the window treatment is full and elegant. Let the curtains pool on the floor a bit if you don't want to hem them. Put small weights in the bottom hem so that they hang properly. (Clean pennies or metal washers will suffice.)
If you do have to hem the curtains you can use a no-sew product such as hemming tape. All you need is a hot iron to secure the hem. Making a bed skirt is just as easy. Cut the sheet in lengths required, and at a useable depth, and simply tuck the cut end between the mattress and box spring, exposing the finished sheet ends. The fabric will stay put unless you're using something slippery like satin. You can even create box pleats at the corners of the bed by simply folding the length of fabric to create a pleat before you tuck it in between the mattress and box spring. Use a safety pin to secure the pleat if necessary.
If there is any fabric left after these projects, you can use it to cover decorative containers, recover the seat of a vanity chair or make additional pillowcases. You may even find that the pattern of your sheets is so lovely you could frame a section of it over a stretcher frame to create your own artwork.
A dated headboard can be brought into the present by covering it in fabric as well. Use a co-ordinating sheet to create a new headboard or to cover your existing headboard in your new decor.
Paint
Once you've chosen your linens you can then proceed to shop for a co-ordinating paint colour for the walls. Let the linen colours be your guide. Be wary of the lighting conditions in the room as well. You may very well like the look of a dark wall colour in a decor photo but if you have poor lighting in the bedroom you could be creating a cave-like atmosphere. Pay attention as well to the woodwork in your bedroom. Dark window trim and baseboards might look better with a lighter wall colour. If your trim is already white you can be bold and go with rich wall colour as long as you have enough lighting.
You'll note in our feature photograph, courtesy of CIL Paints, the rich wall colour works because most of the other elements in the room are light. White headboard, bedding, trim and a light carpet colour help balance the rich wall colours. The effect is stunning if you can pull it off. As an aside: grey carpeting can be a hard colour to co-ordinate with but this purple/navy combo is a great choice for this particular room.
Well...time to get started. Let's plan together for an update. Keep me posted!
connieoliver2015@gmail.com
