a prettier place to sleep

Last time I posted, I was sitting upstairs listening to the noise of a drain guy clearing out backed up drains, a job that should have taken care of the problem for the next 70 years, like it had for the past 70. Well, it didn't. Last night I was giving Abby a bath and the basement started filling with water again, this time coming up from all three drains. So exactly two weeks later, the drain guys are coming again. And he said on the phone last night that if this is happening again, the issue is likely something bigger than what he did last time. Uggghhh.


So maybe in an attempt to distract myself from that, this post from here on out will have nothing to do with drains or the stinky basement. Instead, our bedroom, a space that has been pretty neglected since we moved in.
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It's been driving me a little crazy. It was one of the rooms that didn't need to be painted, because the walls are wood paneling that everyone tells me are high quality and expensive. Also, the wood floors were in good enough shape that we didn't refinish them, so the room has been pretty close to it's original form since we moved in. The only thing that has changed is the ceiling, which we had drywalled to replace very dated ceiling tiles per the cities requirements.

this is the end of the room where you enter when you go up the stairs. I imagine a little sitting area here eventually

here is the main bedroom area, as it was before I got started

another view of the main area of the bedroom, before I started working on it

I think that the lack of decorating or personalization leads us both to not put a lot of effort into keeping it tidy. We have had clothes everywhere and messy bedside tables since we moved in. We are putting our money into paying for the wedding and paying off the windows and appliances, so the decorating money is very limited at the moment. I started by picking up all the laundry and sweeping the floor.  Then I decided to pull together items from around the house and boxes that still haven't been unpacked to make the bedroom a little less boring and a little more us. For about 30 minutes of work and $0 spent, I think it came together beautifully!

some of the items I picked up from around the house

Here it is now:

I used some frames we already had, but replaced the pictures with pieces of fabric that were left over from a bench project

These floating shelves, mirror, and 'Love' print all lived in our apartment, and fit just perfectly in an arrangement on this short wall. The green ceramic tree plaque was also in our apartment, in the kitchen. I got it from a garage sale years ago for less than a dollar.

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 Can you tell that I like  blue-ish greens, nature inspired art, and birds? It was actually really easy to pull things together because so much of what I have works within those themes. I also went through the books and only chose to leave some on these visible shelves.

The Michigan print resting on the top shelf is from a shop on Mackinaw Island, where I went on vacation last summer. On the bottom shelf is a pretty glass hour glass that was a house warming gift from my friend Kelsey, and a sweet bird that used to live in our apartment bathroom.


The bedroom is definitely not done by any means. I'd like to add a big rug under the bed, put up curtains, add a sitting area, get a colorful duvet cover, paint our bedside tables, put up new light fixtures (instead of an exposed bulb!), and figure out a better way to use the built in book shelves. I'd even like to change out those frames above the bed for white frames that are a bit larger. For now though, it will be much easier to convince myself to get into bed earlier knowing that I have this much improved space waiting for me!