Modern Primary Bedroom Refresh

I have a project I’ve been working on behind the scenes. Something I’ve been plugging away at for the last few weeks. Working in the margins and at night to complete a refresh that has truly been a long time coming.

A refresh of our primary bedroom!

Primary bedrooms are notorious for being the last rooms that we work on. The rooms that get forgotten or lost in a sea of rooms that need attention more urgently. The room that becomes the dumping ground for all other items.

The BEFORE:

I’ve been craving a change for a while now. Looking around the room, I knew that I just wasn’t feeling our 12 year old West Elm bed frame anymore. And while I loved (and still love!) my vintage Henry Link dresser and nightstands, I was getting tired of squeezing our clothes into its 1960s sized drawers. I was just ready for a change.

Plus, we really needed a new mattress.

At 12 years old, our mattress had some serious dips and what I lovingly called “the ridge” in the middle. I was waking up with back pain most days and found that I would turn over all night, like a rotisserie chicken. One day it just dawned on me that maybe it was time for a new mattress.

Once I started thinking about mattresses, I kept coming back to the idea that it was time to upgrade to a king. While I had no problems for many years with our queen, something felt different this time. As I approach my 40th birthday, good sleep feels more illusive, something that’s not guaranteed on any given night. My body is starting to ache and I feel like I need more space to spread out, always in search of a cool spot.

I started planting the seed of an idea for my husband. The idea, that maybe, just maybe it was time for a new mattress. And…what if we upgraded to a king?

In the end he finally agreed that yes, it was time for us to purchase a new mattress. But did we really need a king? Convincing him to go for the king took several more weeks. But finally we went bed shopping and the rest is history, as they say.

A new mattress, in a new size, prompted the need for new bedding and a new bed frame! And, oh, wouldn’t it be nice to have some larger dressers and a new rug? As things often do, this project snowballed into a complete re-do. The only things I kept in the room were the curtains and the lamps.

But I set a budget for myself, did some smart shopping, and put together a room that I really love.

The AFTER:

I’ll be sure to link all sources at the bottom of this post!

Mattress

It’s been 12 years since I’ve bought a new mattress for myself. The world is so different now! There are traditional mattresses, bed in a box, foam and hybrid. I had NO CLUE where to start.

We went out bed shopping one weekend afternoon with the goal of trying a bunch of mattresses to see what we liked. It was so informative to actually lay on all the new types of mattresses and I was surprised by how much I liked the hybrids. We ended up liking the Casper mattress the best and purchased the Casper Select 12″ Hybrid from Costco.

A frame with storage

When it came time for a new bed frame, I searched EVERYWHERE. I knew I wanted something padded and something that was a bit lower to the ground. I looked at lots of different bed frames, at lots of different price points. Then one day I stumbled upon a storage bed on Amazon that lifted up to reveal concealed storage below.

I was intrigued!

The space under a bed is so tricky. On one hand, it’s great for storage, especially tucked away in those rolling under the bed bins. But when it comes down to it, having the space empty looks significantly better and is so much easier to clean.

What I loved about this bed is that I could use the entire space for concealed storage (YES!!) Since the side of the frame goes all the way to the floor, you can’t see whatever is stored in there. It also seems to prevent under the bed from getting dusty, so cheers to that.

It is actually pretty easy for one person to open and close the storage area, even with a heavy mattress on top! The hydraulic lifts help you open it and keep it open until you pull it back down. I currently have two lidded plastic storage bins with off season clothing underneath, but can see myself storing some extra bedding under there also.

Rug

I first started searching for a brand new 8×10 rug and got completely discouraged. The cost of a new rug, especially a wool rug, was just too much for my budget. So I turned to eBay in search of a vintage rug.

Now, I’m no stranger to ordering rugs on eBay. This is my 3rd vintage Turkish rug I’ve purchased through eBay, so I feel pretty comfortable with the process. However, there is always that moment of panic when you order a rug and you just pray that it looks like the picture. Or that it comes at all. Or that it doesn’t smell bad.

I was so relieved when this one arrived and it was exactly like the picture! It’s a vintage 6″ x 10″ Turkish rug with hints of faded coral, green, navy blue and lots of grey/tan. And the best part, it was only $220!

Is the rug perfect? No, absolutely not. I can tell it’s been sewn up in a few places and some of the edges aren’t perfectly straight. But I wasn’t looking for perfection, I was looking for character and this 100% delivers on that.

Dresser nightstands

Knowing that we would be swapping out our nightstands and 6 drawer dresser, I had three requirements for our new dresser nightstands:

Three drawers. With us eliminating our long dresser we knew we needed to replace the storage
Not too tall – Ideally, I wanted something under 30″ tall since these will be used as nightstands
Cheap – I didn’t want to spend a lot of money

But how to find something that fits this criteria? I do what I always do and turn to Google. I searched for “3 drawer dresser nightstand” and this was one of the dressers that came up. It’s from Target and was a steal at $140 each.

But my favorite part is how big the drawers are! I’m able to store 100% of my socks, underwear, pajamas and leggings in these drawers. Plus I have space in the top drawer for nighttime essentials like a book and some hand cream.

I did spray paint the handles black since I wasn’t a fan of the dark grey metallic finish, but they turned out great and really help tie together the other black accents in the room.

Mirror and bench

After I got the new bed and dressers in the room, I had a feeling something was missing. It was like the room was 80% of the way there, but was missing that last 20% that makes it look finished. That’s when I decided to take a quick IKEA trip for the mirror and ordered the bench from Target. I just knew that these two items would be exactly what I needed to tie the room together.

This IKEA mirror is HUGE! Holy moly, this thing is wild. But thankfully it’s fairly light weight and I was able to lift it and load it in my car all by myself, even though it barely fit in my Outback since it’s so long.

I placed in on the wall opposite the window and the way it bounces light around the room is amazing. I am a complete believer in the power of mirrors to make a small room feel larger than it actually is. And don’t worry, it’s anchored to the wall so it’s not going anywhere.

And this cute lil’ bench? Another Target find. It came fully assembled (!!) and is just so sturdy and perfect for this small space. The kids love to kneel on it and look out the window. I use it every night to set pillow on before I climb into bed and drift off to sleep (on my new mattress!)

New bedding & art

Thanks to a partnership with QVC I received some beautiful bedding and art. QVC has a huge selection of bedding and I was able to pick out these linen/cotton blend sheets that are perfect for transitional spring nights. The duvet is 100% cotton with a crinkle stripe pattern that gives the bed a lot of great texture. Together, it really feels like I’m sleeping at a nice hotel, which is kind of an amazing feeling to have in your own bed.

The art is a set of canvases that bring together a lot of the colors in the room. The rusty orange picks up the orange tones in the rug and the black and dark grey play off the other black accents, like the bench and the mirror. The abstract shapes and clean lines of the frames bring a modern feel to the room.

That’s a wrap!

All in all, I’m thrilled with how this room turned out. At one point in the middle of the project I was feeling overwhelmed and started questioning my design decisions. I wondered if it would all come together in the end and maybe I should just stop where I was.

But I kept telling myself to stick to the plan and finish the room as intended. I’m so glad I listened to that inner wisdom and finished the room! The thrill of seeing something come together as you envision is pretty great.