The bedroom dream - slowly becoming reality

Moving from a 900 sq ft apartment (that's NOT counting the 900 sq ft garage) to a 550 sq ft place (with no garage) - we definitely felt the pain of the less space. Everything was smaller - our dinner plates didn't even fit in our cupboards.

To make the space feel livable, we got rid of stuff and got some new furniture... including a platform bed and two small bedside table / dressers. We ended up getting the Malm line from IKEA (it was cheap and functional) and our bedroom became very matchy. I really just despise matchy furniture.

Now that our renovation is done, it seemed like the perfect time to fix our matchy, totally non-inspiring bedroom.

On a whim, I moved the new side table we got for the living room into the bedroom and WOW - it was perfect! Just totally the right size and the right look - modern and simple with a dash of quirkiness and individuality.




I love how a simple bunch of flowers add the touch of color and life.

The good news is that I'm starting to finally get a bedroom that I love.

The bad news is that now I have to find a new white side table for the living room. And I have to somehow find room for the clothes that were stored in the bedside table / drawers. Though, I love this look so much that I'm totally willing to get rid of clothes to make it all fit. (Dang, did I really just say that!??!)

Oh, I don't think we ever showed a picture of our knob / lock for the bedroom.

We had to get really creative with our bedroom doors because our built-in dressers go right up to the door frame and a normal door wouldn't fit. We really wanted a sliding door, but it was just going to be too expensive, so we ended up with two small panels. Problem #1 solved.

The 2nd problem is how we were going to open/close and lock the door. We couldn't get any regular knobs / levers because they will prevent the doors from opening all the way. If the door didn't open all the way, you would have to be a size 0 runway model to fit through the opening. Since Sean and I are normal shaped and love eating way too much, we had to look for an alternative solution. We ended up with these ancient Chinese cabinet pulls. There's a little slider to lock the doors and they raise just inches above the door surface. Perfect!

The other totally fabulous bonus is that they help add a little oriental touch to the bedroom. Part of that quirkiness that I love!!! :)

Renovation ends... decoration begins

Our renovation is done! But no, we're not done. Now the decoration starts.

The red / brown always looked so cozy in our old apartments. But at the ghetto penthouse, it just makes our living room look dark and well, dark. So now that we have a new living room, we decided to lighten up the room.

First, curtains! Because after paint, curtains make a room (or so the blogs tell us). We had tons of green curtains leftover from our bedroom and we thought they would look swell in the living room.



Voila - instead of burgundy velvet curtains, we now have sheer green linen curtains. Step 1 complete.

Next step - rug! After browsing many many rug sites and realize how many ugly rugs there are in this world (do people actually buy these rugs!??!), we finally find a refreshing green modern, but warm rug. Now it graciously live on our living room floor.

We're not done yet, but so far, it's working! Go warm, cozy, and bright room!