BEDROOM MAKEOVER FOR RENTERS PART 1: THE PLAN
If you know me at all, you know that pretty house = happy julie. I feel so affected by my environment and I'm always looking for ways to make my home feel cleaner, more spacious and creatively inspiring. I've been renting a place in Southern California for about 2 and a half years now, and in so many ways it's been the perfect place for Nathan and me. We have a lot of space for photoshoots and get-togethers, lots of good windows for nice light and a great, safe location for which I feel so thankful. The challenge with any renting situation though, is figuring out how to make it your own without any permanent changes.
Gradually, our place has felt more and more like our own, but I've been so excited to finally make plans for the bedroom, which has always felt just a little messy and never quite "done." The biggest challenge is that the colors on the wall (sage green, baby pink and cream with maroon blinds) are pretty different from our personal style, so the mission is to find a way to get everything to match with what we own without making any permanent changes!
I've already started to vlog the process so that you can see it all from start to finish eventually, but I thought I would give you "the lowdown" on my vision now, while I wait for my Amazon orders to ship :)
THE PLAN
I have three BIG changes in mind that I have envisioned since moving in but only finally have the budget (thanks to all of you who bought my Lightroom Presets!) and a better idea of how to pull it off without any permanent changes.
Change #1: Cover the green + pink wall with white faux brick panels.
I originally thought that the only way to install these would leave nail holes throughout the entire wall, but thanks to Pinterest (!!!!) I plan on making a grid with painters tape and then using command strips or a strong double sided tape to stick the panels onto the painters tape. The only thing directly touching the wall should be the painters tape, making it simple to remove and guaranteed not to damage the wall!
I really wanted to use these brick panels, but they are (way) out of our price range, so we're going with these for now and hoping to paint them a bit to hide their cheapness (lol).
Change #2: Cover the floor with a laminate wood floor.
I had no idea that we could literally just put laminate on top of our carpet until recently. I'm sure it won't be as perfect of a floor experience (haha is that a thing?) as if we removed the carpet and fully installed the laminate or real wood onto a concrete floor, but from what I've read it should do just fine on top of our low pile carpet. I ordered this vinyl sheet that will come in almost the perfect size, but I'll have to trim it just a bit on 2 sides. I've watched way more YouTube videos on this that I do on most DIYs to make sure I can do it, because this was the biggest splurge of the makeover. But I'm so excited about it.
Change #3: Add curtains!
We do not have a curtain rod over our window, and there isn't any room to put a tension curtain rod in the window, but I would love to add some to help block the light a little more and just for decor's sake. I still need to do more research on this but I thiiiink my plan is to find some two really nice-looking hooks that can hang with command strips and let the rod rest on the hooks. Let me know if you have any other suggestions, please!
Miscellaneous changes:
I would love to update our bedding (currently we have pink, blue, gray, white and beige going on... omg) to something high quality, matching and probably all white. I'm also planning a DIY headboard using copper pipes just to add a fun look. I still need to decide if I will leave it copper or paint it for a brass or black look, but kinda leaning towards black!
I'm also debating a DIY brass chandelier (so scared, but would be such a cool skill to learn), or just modifying a thrift store find like we did in our dining room (we literally found my dream light fixture for $10 at goodwill... just needed a spray paint and some cool bulbs).
The last things I have in mind to update are our dresser, the coat hooks on the wall, possibly updating our night stands somehow depending on how they look with the new floor (I might paint them for a pop of color), and hopefully a fun accent chair, some wall art (hopefully a neon sign if I can figure out how to hang it on the taped-up-faux-brick and find one within budget) and a tree. I'm terrible at keeping plants alive, but probably don't have it in the budget for a nice artificial tree, so I'm going to go for a live one again (thanks to Home Depot's amaaazing return policy -- you can return your plants if they die within one year).
THE INSPO
Okay, now for the pictures.
First, here is what our bedroom looks like now:
We do also have a fluffy white comforter that I sometimes throw on for photos, but it's extremely uncomfortable for sleeping, so it's only ever on the bed for an hour max. I love our bedside lights found at Home Goods, and definitely want to keep those. The sconces were also a really exciting find from TJ Maxx, so for nostalgia's sake I'll try to fit them into the new look! We got the nightstands on Craigslist and I love them, but we'll see if the dark wood looks okay or if they need a refresh to a lighter wood or pop of color.
Here is my rough plan made from screenshots (haha someone teach me how to use real design software for this!)
I can't wait to fill you in on each step along the way -- I have approximately eight thousand DIY posts planned and a couple of vlogs too. Let me know if there is anything specific you want to see!
To see the vlogs when I post them, you can subscribe to my YouTube channel here.