A Cosy, Feminine Bedroom Makeover

I use the term bedroom makeover loosely, as technically, I live in a studio and don’t have a seperate bedroom per-se.

But, it’s definitely more separate than my last bachelor and feels like there is a bedroom area instead of my bed being smack in the middle of the room, beside the kitchen like my last place. I have a generous palm tree that now serves to separate the living area from the bedroom space a bit.

When I moved, I wanted to redo all my bed linens and get rid of a lot of the turquoise and teal colours. The goal was to go with a more feminine, muted palette with a ton of texture, a lot of plants (of course) and a very hygge feel.

I think I achieved that pretty well and absolutely love the end result.

The before of this area was pretty simple with the parquet floors and basic white closet doors. There was a ton of shelving inside the closet though, which I painstakingly ripped out, sanded smooth and painted with Benjamin Moore’s Chantilly lace. The paint was that terrible brown colour, but in the headboard area, there was a light green square. Curious.

My bed is fairly close to my front door, so the entrance area is right across from the bed, hence I think of it as part of my bedroom.

I replaced the wall sconce in this area with a very simple, modern white sconce. I just wanted the lighting to blend into the wall in this area, so I went with a modern, geometric sconce. I bought mine from Homary, and they still have the black one, but unfortunately, don’t carry the white anymore. This is the black one, but I found a similar white one here.

The mirror is a DIY that I did years ago and is still one of my favourite/most successful projects to date. I was inspired by the tutorial on A Beautiful Mess and followed their directions, modifying for an emerald shape.

The picture ledge, picture frame, doormat and yucca tree/pot are all from Ikea and that last little plant and pot are from the flower shops on Avenue Road.

Lastly, let’s talk about the door. I knew I wanted a small pop of colour on the door and wanted to freshen it up a bit. This ended up being the easiest DIY and made such a HUGE impact. I spray painted the hardware with 2 coats of gold spray paint and then sealed it with a coat of clear spray paint. I then painted the door in 2 coats of Proposal by Benjamin Moore in a flat finish. To finish off the door, I made a mid-century inspired starburst for the peephole of the door. The peephole was made completely on a whim, but I think it adds the perfect mid-century touch! The overall look is so fun and fresh and I’m so happy with how it came out!

And now for the bed. I will argue with anyone who will listen that I have the comfiest bed of all. The bed itself is the Malm collection from IKEA and has been painted first black and now white. I wish daily that I would have left it a light birch colour, but such is life. The mattress and memory foam are a bit old but are super plush and cosy. What really sets my bed apart are the cool, soft sheets from Brian Gluckstein, whom I’ve met on several occasions 😏 along with this amazing textured boho duvet cover and matching shams.

Hot Tip: I bought a queen-sized duvet cover and in that queen duvet cover is this King sized feather duvet and it fits perfectly! No clue why a queen duvet doesn’t fit snuggly in a queen cover, but that’s the world we live in. My friend Ben gave me this tip, and for that, I am forever grateful because it makes the duvet cover feel so much fuller, fluffier and lush. It’s absolutely amazing.

Now, onto the pillows. I am a feather pillow kind of person. I always have been, and always will be. They are so much cosier and form to your head so much better than foam pillows. My pillows are these ones and I’ve got 4 of them that I sleep with. The secret is the formation of the pillows. This is how I do it: put down one pillow horizontally in the middle of the bed. Then take 2 pillows and place them vertically on each side, overlapping them slightly on the horizontal pillow. Then you place the last pillow horizontally on top again and you’ve formed a little U-shaped pillow nook. It’s the absolute most comfortable way to sleep and I highly recommend. Of course, this only works so well for me because I’m single and sleep alone, buuuut I’m sure you could figure something out if you sleep with a partner haha.

The throw pillows are basically all from H&M home over the last couple of years, so I’d look to see what they have currently and would put together a pillow palette with different shapes, textures and sizes. Even all of my throw pillows have feather inserts because I just love how cosy and squishy they are. The exception is the green quilted velvet pillow that I made, and the cream coloured crochet pillow that I made and did a tutorial for here. To round out the bed, I keep the We Are Knitters throw that I made and attached tassels to on the end of the bed.

Above the bed, I have the same floating shelves from IKEA that I used for the entrance way. One in the smaller size and one in the larger for some variety. The top shelf is filled with a long pothos plant that hangs over the bed and gives the perfect hit of green. I drew a line drawing of a woman and placed it next to the pothos and rounded out that shelf with a white on black illustration that says “baciami”, which means “kiss me” in Italian.

The bottom shelf holds one of my favourite candles, a piece of green calcite, a piece of my dismantled envelope art and a snake plant.

The bedside tables were one of my favourite purchases for my new place because they’re so small and compact and only hold the essentials! I got them from this Etsy shop and I couldn’t be happier!

The lamps are from Article and are the perfect shade of muted gold. I finished off the bed with a few small plants on the bedside tables because you can really never have enough plants 🙂

Lastly, the closet. This closet was a HUGE pain in my ass. I was adamant about having mirrored doors because I wanted them to reflect the light back into the apartment and help make the space appear larger. They definitely do that and I love them, but they were such a hassle to order. I got them from Home Depot and they broke the first time they tried to ship them. I then had to wait another 2 months for another set and once we got them, they were hardly even wrapped. No wonder the glass broke the first time! So I would not recommend Home Depot, but try another retailer or a custom closet provider.

Inside the closet, it’s divided into 2 spaces with my tops and pants on the larger side, with the dresser and shoe racks underneath. The dresser is from, you guessed it, IKEA. It was also a lovely birch when I first bought it but is now black. The smaller side houses my coats and dresses. I try to keep my wardrobe minimal and functional, so I don’t mind having just one rack in the closet. I could use slightly more shoe storage though, to be honest 😉