master bedroom refresh

from teal and stale, to a cozy and contemporary bedroom retreat

We moved into our first home together mid-April 2019. Prior to that, we were living in a 2-bed, 2-bath 1,200-sf apartment, and I didn’t paint the walls or do much designing while renting.

Moving into the new house meant I could do anything now.

My favorite color is blue, and while I appreciate the aqua/teal color that the previous homeowners chose for the bedroom, it wasn’t the style or feel appropriate for our bedroom. And feel is the ultimate goal for any design. How should the space make you feel? Well, for me a fresh, new color palette to help relax + restore are what I envisioned. So, I decided to paint it two-tone gray, not just one single, continuous color as it was currently. The hallway leading into the room as well as the window wall are the darker hue, and the remaining two walls are lighter for the sun to bounce off of them. We painted the entire room prior to actually moving in our furniture, which I highly recommend if possible.

The photos below show the progression of “finishing” the bedroom after moving furniture in and deciding where to hang photos, art, etc. We had a queen bed, two very traditional and older nightstands (not the style I prefer), and it never actually felt complete.

The queen bed was never a permanent piece of furniture; at the end of April 2020, we finally decided to purchase a king bed-in-a-bag from Tuft & Needle, and to top it off, instead of using the traditional metal frame and box spring, we thought it’d be a great idea to build our own bedframe using Ana White’s farmhouse bed plans. I chose Minwax Early American stain in order to coordinate with the caramel-colored dresser we inherited from friends. The bedroom, after we built this beautiful piece of furniture, still felt very boring and unfinished. Oh, and those very large, traditional side table/nightstands were not appropriate for the space even more now; the large scale of the bedframe with the nightstands/side tables and the dresser left the room heavy and unbalanced. Back to the drawing board…

The ceiling has an upwards slant from the window wall starting at 8’-O” up to 11’-0”. The 11-foot wall had nothing on it for the longest time and became the biggest reason for this entire master bedroom refresh. At the time I recently started following some awesome muralists on Instagram, and I decided why not paint a clean and simple mural around the entire room; however, I’d never painted or designed one before. After deciding on the color scheme, I played around with some designs.

valspar | bay wavesvalspar | polished silvervalspar | garden of paradisehgtv by sherwin williams | black magic — **valspar** | bay waves
**valspar** | polished silver
**valspar** | garden of paradise
**hgtv by sherwin williams** | black magic

The color scheme actually happened by chance. One day I noticed how the caramel dresser, the pops of greenery against the gray walls, and contrasting black pieces of furniture created such a pleasing color combination - the green as a calm, soothing little pop of color that would look great in the room. I got to work designing a geometric mural that’s a piece of art flowing throughout the space, as well as the master bath.

I love problem solving, organizing and formatting especially for presentations, and that’s how I approached the design: simple shapes and crisp lines. I knew I wanted a thin, black line to “playfully travel” making your eyes move around the room. I also had the idea of floating shelves and nightstands, since I enjoy building things with my hands but also to add more soft wood tones into the space. The floating nightstands also served another purpose: to restore balance and open up the sides of the bed - floor space and depth - from the bulky, traditional-style nightstands before.

2D rendering of the entire bedroom, excluding the hallway walking in; notice the slanted wall and the circle wall that started it all

progress photos

I built the floating nightstands first and ordered the 12” brackets that would hold them. Once those were finished, they were the first things to be installed, completely transforming the area by themselves.

Floating nightstands assembled and stained

Minwax Polycrylic final layer drying; the black brackets

Floating nightstands installed and ready to tape off the mural

After installing the nightstands, I got to work drawing out the mural in pencil and taping off the sections. One great tip I learned from following muralists: paint over the tape edge with the existing wall color to help prevent bleeding from the new color you’ll paint on top; it also helps to create really crisp lines. This project is the first time I used FrogTape and highly recommend it. However, I do recommend using the blue painters tape on freshly painted areas to lessen the chance of peeling because the FrogTape is extra sticky.

60” diameter circle - first and second coats complete

Added the black line - my absolute favorite part!

I wrapped it around the window inset even though with the curtain over it most of the time you can’t tell… I know it’s there.

final photos

Now that we had these beautiful, clean lined floating nightstands, I needed to order new lamps. I decided to find ones that would continue the clean, sleek look of the mural. With the addition of neutral baskets for all the nightstand things and various-sized black frames for the floating shelves, the room was just about complete!

Why black + white photos and frames? Since it’s a neutral color palette with pops of green, I felt they would blend with the mural and overall feel of the room; color photos would be too much of a distraction. The different sizes and styles of black frames create an interesting gallery wall that is both functional and beautiful.

I have to say, all of the pieces came together and completely transformed the space.