Our Bedroom Decor!

One of the hardest transitions since getting married has been agreeing on bedroom decor. While Jonathan has been cool with my all white office (which I’ve rearranged!), and our black and white living room, he requested that we add a bit of color at least to one room in the house. I’m all for white, gold, and neutrals and Jonathan really likes ALL the color in the world, so as you can imagine, it’s been hard to find a happy medium. We finally compromised with a white, grey, and denim blue bedroom that’s influenced by both modern and midcentury modern styles. It took the whole summer to get it together, but I’m really proud of it! It’s quickly become my favorite place in the house, because it’s cozy and we always make an effort to totally unplug once we’re inside.

Before I show you more pics of the finished space, here are a couple of really poor pictures of it before. The layout was completely different, with the bed against the wall with the window, and the mirror closer to the closet.

Sometime late fall, I asked Whitney of Whitney J Decor to help me come up with a bedroom redesign, taking into consideration our storage and style needs, and she put together this schematic. But then wedding planning took over my life and we kind of forgot about the design. A couple weeks after the wedding, I was itching for something new so I randomly moved the bed from the wall with the window to the wall directly opposite the door while Jonathan was at work. He hated it at first (he’s resistant to change lol), but now that it’s all done and decorated, we can’t imagine any other configuration.

I had a full sized Ikea Malm bed and mattress that I’ve had since college, but it didn’t feel right sleeping in my “old” bed as a married woman. Some couples move into a new home when they get married – we just changed our bed! We didn’t want to spend a lot of money on the actual bed frame since we might move around a bit in the next few years, so we chose a platform bed with leather upholstery by Modway. We actually found the bed on Zola, where we registered for our wedding, so we were able to apply extra cash from gifts we changed our mind on to the bed + get a 15% discount! It has plenty of space underneath for storage, so we keep extra bedding and all my african outfits in these underbed storage bags.

Another big change was our mattress. For all my life, I’ve slept on plush spring mattresses. But as I get older, I started to feel like I needed a bit more support. My parents don’t believe me when I complain about my joints, but for real, a girl is getting old! Plus Jonathan has shoulder issues and needs support. I read tons of reviews on memory foam mattresses and was anxious about potential sagging, motion transfer, and being hot. I am ALWAYS hot at night, so this was a major concern. Yogabed graciously sent me their queen sized luxury foam mattress and both Jonathan and I LOVE it. It truly sleeps cool and I didn’t even have an adjustment period. Plus it comes with a removable washable cover so I saved money on a separate mattress cover! The queen mattress also came with two memory foam pillows, which I like to sleep on, but Jonathan sleeps on his back so he prefers our other pillows. Paired with the softest sheet ever, we’ve both been getting the best sleep of our lives.

Another subtle but impactful change is the wall color. We live in a rental, but our landlord allowed us to paint when we moved in. We had the living room and office painted a bright white but left the bedroom as is because we were worried it would be too white. The bedroom is in the back so it gets the least light in the whole house, so painting it white actually helped the space feel way less dingy. It also helps our white wardrobe fade into the wall. Ignore the signed picture frame – we’re super behind on ordering wedding photos!

I have a REALLY bad habit of not putting my clothes away, so moving this coat rack from the living room to the bedroom gives us a place to throw clothes, jackets, and purses so they don’t end up on the bed. We have a ginormous ironing board that Jonathan insisted on, and it lives tucked in between the coat rack and the wardrobe. The door to enter the bedroom is immediately to the left of the coat rack. The tufted ottoman has a new home in the office, I’ll have to show you the updated space!

Instead of having hats over the bed, we decided to pick a large focal art piece. I saw this geode art while browsing Target for something for the living room and completely fell in love. Since our sheets are all solid, the art helps bring some visual interest to the room. I wanted to do a gallery wall, but Jonathan reined me in and rightfully pointed out that more stuff on the walls would make the room smaller. Ok babe! The black art print is a piece he bought for me for my 22nd birthday. It’s called Promise and represents his promise to me to come back after moving to Nigeria for two years. Are you cutting onions?? My eyes are watering up.

Our nightstands were an interesting project. The original were an impulse buy, because I really liked the unfinished wood and mirrored drawer. Mirrored furniture is sooo expensive so at $65 each, these were a steal! I thought it’d be easy to add mid century modern legs using angle mounting plates, but after trying to do it myself, we ended up taking the tables to a local carpenter. At the end of the day, it would have been cheaper for us to buy mcm nightstands, but hey at least we now have a handcrafted element, right? I still deciding whether to stain the nightstands a dark grey and add a knob as a handle – I’d love your input!

Both nightstands feature these lamps, but they’re hit or miss because one is ridiculously crooked and I haven’t yet figured out how to get it to stand upright. I scored these baskets on sale last week and they were definitely a missing element.

Since we moved the bed from the wall with the window, it looked really empty with just the mirror. I saw this hanging leather shelf tutorial on A Pair & A Spare several months ago, and bookmarked it thinking I’d use in in the living room. It turned out to be perfect for the bedroom, especially since our bed is also black leather! I got the plywood from Loews and the leather strips from Amazon. The only thing I did differently was that I used gold thumbtacks instead of nails to secure the strips at the bottom of the wood – a prettier and less permanent solution! Right now the shelf holds a cute typography print I got at my bridal shower, my everyday makeup, and other knick knacks, as well as our live snake plant that we’ve had for a year. The one on the floor is a good fake!

When deciding what color to add the the room, I shot down orange, red, and yellow before we agreed on blue. We actually got these faded, denim-ish blue shams as a wedding gift, so one day I put them on the bed and didn’t hate them, and that’s how blue became a thing! To bring more blue out, we got a Kate Spade navy throw. I’m OBSESSED with the oversized tassels on it; I just wish the throw was a bit wider so it could really hang off the bed. I then went through our library and dug out a couple of blue books for each nightstand. Voila! Color.

I’m still tweaking our living room and office, so it feels AMAZING to finally feel *done* with a space. As I said before, we try to be unplugged in the bedroom so it’s really our calm haven to pray, sleep, and just be. Even though it took forever and a half to get together, I’m super happy with how it came out.

If you made it this far, thanks so much for letting me share our bedroom decor! I shot and edited all these photos myself after taking a Skillshare class on interior photography. I’d love to know your thoughts below on what you think of the design, and how I did with the photos! If you have any suggestions for how we can make the space prettier, cozier, or more efficient, I’d love to hear! I’ve also linked just about everything in our bedroom in case you’re inspired. Happy decorating!

WALLS & FLOOR

Paint Color – Sherwin Williams Snowbound / Nate Berkus Rug / Ikea Hovet Mirror / Ikea Stuva Frame + Doors Wardrobe / Geode Wall Art / Black Love Wall Art / DIY Hanging Shelf / DIY Hat Organization (push pins & office clips) / Ikea Curtains / Room Essentials Curtain Rod / Target Potted “Snake Plant” / Ikea Hemnes Coat Rack

BED & BEDDING

Modway Helen Queen Bed – Black / YogaBed Queen Mattress / Fieldcrest Supima Cotton 1000 Count Sheets stone (so fricking soft!) / YogaBed Pillows / Downtown Company Down Alternative Pillows /  Kassatex Paloma Euro Shams / Nautica Shams (wedding gift) / Kate Spade Tassel Throw / Ferm Living Angle Knit Cushion / Underbed Storage

NIGHTSTANDS

Target Nightstand + Legs (similar style, mirrored style) / Threshold Globe Lamps (sold out, similar) / Google Home / Stainless Steel trash can / Decorative lamp (wedding gift) / West Elm Rustic Pure Bud Vase / H&M Home Carafe / West Elm Metallic Woven Baskets / Ring Holder / Marble Soap Dish