PEACEFUL RETREAT!

We moved into our apartment at the beginning of December, when it came to decorating and furniture placement, I have been relatively happy with the way everything turned out, there are a few things here and there that I have wanted to change, but nothing major.



The one room I haven't been able to get a handle on was our bedroom, it never felt right to me, the color wasn't right, even though I had picked it out and had it painted before we moved in. It just felt so thrown together. I think of a bedroom as, your personal space, it is where I go for my quiet time, or where I like to read. I need a place for me to do these things, a room that I can walk into and love, and feel relaxed. I have never had a bedroom that I have felt that way about.


So I was on a mission, I began to think about what I wanted my bedroom to be, I looked through magazines, I looked at color swatches at the paint store, I thought about themes and what I really wanted to get out of decorating this room. All I knew was that I wanted a place for me, a place to relax and a place I could wind down in.



I decided on what I like to call, a "Peaceful Retreat". Our bedroom is small, with pitched ceilings, I needed to do something to make it feel a bit bigger. Some decisions had to be made, I sold my King Size Headboard and Foot board, and we went with just a King Size frame, no headboard, no foot board. This will give us an opportunity to move things around once in a while, we had absolutely no options before, and the bed was just too big for the room. I also knew that I needed to utilize my closet space a bit, and hide some of these larger pieces of furniture, like our bureaus, in doing that, it left absolutely no room for a TV in the room either, besides, do peaceful retreats have TVs anyway? No......at least that's what I told Steve, he was good with the change. Feng Sheu says, "the bedroom is meant for two things, and neither of them require a TV", I couldn't have said it any better.



Once the room was empty we could paint, I decided to go with a Dark Brown on the walls, a Benjamin Moore color called "Taupetone", the ceiling and the pitched walls are Linen White, along with the trim and all of the doors. The two tone gave the room and instantly larger feel. I must say that for two people that haven't done a ton of painting, we did AWESOME! We had no major mishaps or spills, all in all a very successful project.



After the paint, came the fun part, DECORATING! I had decided that I wanted to go with a Blue and Brown Duvet Set, I thought the lighter Blue with the Darker Brown would be a nice contrast. Now that I had the bedding, THANKS MOM, I could begin adding personal touches and shopping for the perfect items to compliment my room. On a budget of course, Steve, Mallory and I took a trip to Kohls. One stop shopping at its best, that's just my opinion, but I love their home section. I knew that I wanted some cream colored pillar candles, that was easy. I also knew I wanted some shelves, and I wanted them to be black. When I think of a peaceful retreat, I think of candles, and lots of them, I think of a small sitting area where I can read or just relax, without feeling like I am going to bed. I didn't want to over due it on the walls, so I bought some small wall sconces that hold 3 small tea light candles. One of my favorite things that I stumbled upon was a set of "stack able tables", basically it was two tables, one shorter than the other, meant to sit underneath the other when they weren't being used, perfect! I need a new night stand anyway, and I needed a table for my sitting area. As I browsed I also found a great, tall brown and tan ceramic floor vase. All of these items were the perfect finishing touches to my new room. Now all I had to do was put it together, that was the fun part!



After torturing Steve for the weekend between painting and shopping, I sent him off to play pool for a few hours, while I did some decorating. I wanted to surprise him, for him to see that all of his hard work over the weekend would really pay off, once he saw this room. Everything came together so perfectly, I never imagined that I would be as happy as I am with this room. All of the finishing touches were complete, all I was waiting for was for Steve to see this whole plan come to fruition. When he came home, I think he was truly shocked, he really did like it.




We have been in our room for a full week now, and every night before bed, I light every candle, and I read for a bit, and can honestly say, I haven't slept better in months. Not having a TV in our room makes a huge difference to me, it was such a distraction for me.

Now the moment you have all been waiting for, taaa daaa.............my new "Peaceful Retreat".................................

I hope you all love it as much as I do. I am not a person of clutter, open wall space, and lightly filled shelves make me happy. What makes me the happiest, and I feel a real sense of accomplishment, when I think about the price to make over this room.

Paint: $45.00
Wall Sconces, set of 2: $8.99
Set of 2 Tables: $35.99
Set of 3 Shelves: $35.99
New Bedding: $69.00
Candles: $8.00
Ceramic Vase: $11.99
Pussy Willows in Vase: $4.00
New Bed Frame: $60.00

Total: $278.96


Plus, I sold my bed for $175.00 on Craigslist, and put that toward the decorating.


So Total cost of Makeover $103.96

How's that for decorating on a budget! Not bad if I say so myself!!



Love to All!
Kris