Back in the early 2000’s there was a show called “While You Were Out” on the TLC channel (about the same time as Trading Spaces… remember that show?!) The basic premise was your typical surprise makeover type show, and it was done…well you can guess… “while you (or rather, the intended recipient) were out.”
Several years back I started my own version of the show, except it was only for my parents house. They had just had the carpet replaced and wanted a fresh start to the house. It began with the living room, then eventually moved into the dining/family room, and the last one I did was the guest bedroom.
For some reason, I always find it easier to redo a room for someone when they are not there (and this is especially true with my parents, ha!). The whole makeover process for their home has been a long one since I usually have to wait until they go on an extended trip, and that also has to coincide with having an opening in my own busy schedule.
Anyway, the last major piece of this ongoing makeover puzzle has always been my parents master bedroom. Recently, my parents told me they were going to go on another cruise and would be gone for almost 3 weeks. I thought this would be a great time to finish up the bedroom. (So for those following, this would be “season 4” of my… um, “series”? lol)
Prior to them leaving, I asked Mom if she had any initial ideas or wants, needs, etc… My criteria was to be the following:
1) A soothing space, but not too somber or dark. She liked to have some brights as well. She also mentioned she liked the ideas of different greens tones.
2) They wanted more storage, as well as a big comfy chair to read or watch tv in. Also some solution to deal with the new flatscreen TV they had just bought.
3) Oh, and a new headboard.
Whenever I approach decorating a room, I always need to have a “starting point.” This can be something as simple as a photo, tearsheet from a magazine, a pillow that has a lot of interesting colors, or maybe a piece of artwork, etc… For this room, I stumbled upon this bedding set when I was at HomeGoods. I’m normally not one for “sets” but this particular set was only $50 and the colors and pieces felt nicely “coordinated” as opposed to “matchy”.
I really liked the modern simple design of the Orla Kiely-esque plant/branch pattern, and the colors felt calming and pretty and it wasn’t too feminine. (Side note: my Mom actually majored in Botany, so she’s always had an affinity to anything plant/floral related. I figured this would also be very appropos.) I also thought it would look nice to add in some yellow and orange accents to keep things bright and not feel too serene.
Anyway, I showed the set to my parents and they liked it (yay!) so it was a go!
Oh. Ok, so where’s the “before”?? Yeah, hold tight. Brace yourself. Here we go:
Hm… yeah….
Definitely needs some loving right?! Basically just a whole lot of random.
The good news is that there really wasn’t a whole lot of clutter or unnecessary things (except all the phones? It’s hard to tell in the photo but I found 3 phones there- one on a nightstand, one on the fax machine by the desk, and another on the desk… I don’t know why either.) Randomness aside, it was a clean slate.
I decided that the desk was fine as is, the side nightstands were great, and the bed frame itself was good, just needed a new headboard because the existing one was too low (since my parents read a lot in bed.)
The first major issue was the curtains. From afar they looked ok. When my parents first moved into the house, my mom had new custom curtains made, and also included lace sheers. Over the (…20+… yikes!) years, the curtains have become really dingy and the sheers, well… have disintegrated.
Needless to say, those had to go.
Now I just needed to wait for my parents to go on their trip and I could get started…
In the next few posts I’ll share how it all went down, including the whole shopping adventure, and the final results!
Stay tuned!