I’m typing this from our guest bedroom. Well, it used to be our guest bedroom. When we downsized last year, we converted it to our master bedroom.
Funny thing is, even though this bedroom is significantly smaller than most people’s idea of a decently sized bedroom, I sleep better in here than I did in our old (very large) bedroom. Maybe it’s because I was forced to be extremely particular about what stayed and what went in this room or maybe it’s just that every item in here was chosen because we needed it, so it automatically earned a spot. When we first saw this house, my husband walked into the master bedroom and said “perfect, it’s so cozy.” Lessons learned: what realtors mean when they say “cozy” is “your King Size Bed will not fit.” He was right.
The room is roughly 10 x 12 with a slant on one side and has two windows that are gorgeous, but take up a lot of precious real estate on the walls. Therefore, the room has “spacial challenges.” What I have come to realise after living in what appears to be a beautifully decorated jewellery box for six months is that small bedroom square footage forces people to think creatively about using the space they have, and this allows people to embrace the room for what it is.
Bedrooms are broken up into different zones.
The first zone my husband and I had to tackle was the sleeping zone. Our king-size bed with its bulky headboard was off the list from the get-go. I babysat measurements and tiny renditions of our bedroom on graph paper for weeks trying to figure out some way we could squeeze the bed into the room.
My sister came over one day and glanced at my masterpieces and said, “Claire, you are just being unreasonable. Buy a Queen size bed and use the extra floor space to add something that will enhance your life.” Her words of wisdom.. Boom.
Problem solved. Easy decision really, considering we had already spent months researching and arguing about whether or not we could fit a larger bed in there. We ended up buying a Queen Size Platform bed with drawers underneath.
The drawers weren’t the cutest, but they allowed us to store out of season clothes, extra linens, and my “someday I’ll read these again” book collection. The platform lifted the bed off the ground, doing away with an extra bulky bed frame that took up visual space. Not to mention now I can walk around all sides of my bed without having to do that dreaded shuffle dance you do when you have furniture pushed up against the wall.
Storage, storage everywhere. The second major change we made to our room was going vertical when it came to storage. I’m talking floor to ceiling built-ins that my brother- in-law and I spent a very hot August weekend installing.
I used IKEA PAX Wardrobes as the base for my built-ins. While they are WAY cheaper than buying floor to ceiling custom- built- ins, painting them the same colour as the walls helped them fade into the background instead of drawing attention to themselves. I installed open shelves above the built-ins for stuff I don’t need to access every day.
Think: extra blankets for when my kids visit, suitcases, and that nice luggage set I’ve had for years, but don’t know why I’m still hanging onto. Paint colours are always tough for me. I’ve had many issues choosing paint colours in the past (Hello….the debacle that was my serene blue bathroom)?
Tiny rooms can pull off big colours, but they have to be the right kind of big. I ended up painting one wall behind the bed a dark, deep green colour ( Benjamin Moore’s Hunter Green) and left the other three walls white. White ceilings and walls help keep a small room from feeling too cramped.
I had a really hard time choosing lighting for the room. Table lamps on nightstands take up so much counter space in a small bedroom, but overhead lighting makes it feel like a hotel room. What I eventually decided on were wall mounted swing arm lights on each side of the bed.
Not only did this open up our limited nightstand surface space, but I can move the lights exactly where I need them to provide sufficient lighting for reading. I also LOVE swinging the light arms up against the wall. Picking out mirrors for this room was also fun.
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Everyone says that mirrors make a room look bigger, and they are right. But where you place those mirrors is way more important than the size of the mirrors themselves. I initially installed this huge mirror across from my window to reflect natural light throughout the room.
Little did I realise when I hung that mirror, I was simply reflecting the inside of my neighbours window shutters… directly into my bedroom. Not super relaxing to look at before drifting off to sleep. Now I have this skinny mirror hung on the inside of my closet door.
It still allows me to get dressed, but when the door is closed, no one is the wiser. Window treatments were another obstacle I came across when decorating this room. Heavy drapes overwhelmed the room, but leaving the windows bare made me feel vulnerable.
What ultimately got me over that hurdle were cream linen Roman blinds. They allow me some privacy without taking up a lot of visual space. They also let in the maximum amount of natural light during the day because this room doesn’t get direct sunlight until the afternoon.
Nightstands were another one of those, “Well, we don’t really need those,” decisions we made with this room. But once I got rid of the nightstands I realised we would need something. We needed somewhere to set our water glasses.
So, I opted for two skinny floating shelves that we use as our nightstands. They are deep enough to hold my water glass, phone charger, and book I am reading, but aren’t so deep that they jut out into the walking path of the room. Under each floating shelf I installed small hooks to hang stuff on.
Think: reading glasses,the sleep mask I like to pretend helps me sleep. Storage bins. STORAGEBins.
Oh My WORD, have these been my friends. And let’s be real, they have to be pretty because you will be seeing them. I bought some woven baskets and placed them on top of each floating shelf to corral things like lotions, hand cream, lip balm you know…the typical clutter you find on top of a nightstand.
Out of sight, out of mind. Everything in this room has a home, which is borderline crazytalk, but allows me to grab what I need in the mornings and go.
One weird thing about this room is that it either is always freezing or boiling.
Mainly boiling. Since it is a smaller room, it heats up very quickly. But when you open the window, cold air blows directly on your bed.
Not the most comfortable feeling when you are trying to autumn asleep. So I found this great ceiling fan that helped with that problem. It took me FOREVER to find a fan that wouldn’t overpower the room.
This one came with reversible motor settings (summer/winter) and even came with a light fixture which is the main source of light for our bedroom. All in all, this bedroom has become my favourite place to relax in our entire home. Maybe it’s knowing that everything has its place or not having to worry about covering every inch of the floor with furniture.
Who knows. All I know is that I enjoy spending time in here and that’s what matters!
