A bedroom transformation

Surprise! If you haven’t been following along, you might not know: in 2024, I bought an apartment for the first time in my life. And I set about transforming the beautiful bones of a very dirty, neglected space into something I love. Something very me.

This is the story of the bedroom. (Strap in, because there’s a lot here.)

Before

First, let’s talk about the state of the apartment when I got the keys.

It was, quite frankly, gross. Like I’m talking overflowing garbage left behind, mold on the fridge kind of gross. Not to mention holes in walls and chunks missing from wooden floors.

There are worse fixer-uppers in the world, but cosmetically this place wasn’t doing so hot.

The bedroom was one of the least gross spaces, but still had plenty of dust caked onto baseboards, mystery stains on walls, and a good dozen hooks and nails left in the wall because the previous owners didn’t give a shit.

Obviously, first order of business was getting it cleaned. Then cleaned again. Then again. In the end, I had professional cleaners out four times before it was livable. And I did plenty of cleaning myself as well.

This is what it looked like after at least a couple rounds of cleaning and before I started really decorating:

A clean white box with a mattress. This was our post-cleaning starting point.

The inspiration

For the bedroom, I decided to go dark and moody. A place that would invite sleep and rest. And a little whimsy.

So the concept took shape. I wanted a midnight forest. Stars on the ceiling. Deep blues all around. Nods to the textures and colors of trees and dirt and forest life.

The color drench (and the stars)

This meant starting with a dark-blue color drench. Blue ceiling. Blue walls. Blue trim. Everything except the stone accents and the white shutters was going to be the deep blue of midnight.

I tried a variety of supposed blues on the wall and was really glad I did the sampling. Because some things labeled as blue came out very gray or flat in the space. It wasn’t until my second round of samples that I found my blue.

Then I primed the whole room, then I painted. Three coats and touchups. It took a good week and some help from a friend.

Now, for the star effect on the ceiling, I’d decided on glitter. First, I tried it on a scrap piece of wood, then I took it to the room.

The process was this: I’d paint a small section of the ceiling and before the paint could dry, I’d add the glitter in several different methods (each giving a different effect).

Sometimes I threw handfuls of glitter up at one particular spot (which gives the effect of a cluster of stars or a constellation with a clear center).

Sometimes I used a fan pointed at the ceiling and I threw glitter into the fan, which spread the “stars” out much wider. I used both silver and gold glitter.

And in just a few strategic spots, I painted down a little ways on the wall and glittered the top of the wall as well (to give the sense that wall and ceiling were connected).

In the end, I was covered in as much glitter as the ceiling (which is also an important tip: wear goggles and a mask! You do not want glitter in your eyes or mouth.)

Ultimately, the ceiling doesn’t photograph super well, but in person it’s a showstopper. People literally gasp when they look up.

The dresser transformation

Next up: my new (read: old, broken, free) dresser!

First, I cleaned that sucker well with dish detergent (it was gross). Then, I dismantled it (the drawer hardware was broken and the drawers didn’t slide properly).

Then, I sanded down the red. Not because I didn’t like the red (I happened to like the color a lot, actually) but because it didn’t fit the nighttime forest theme.

I also tried (and failed) to chemically remove the paint finish. It was gross and more trouble than it was worth, so I changed my original plan (which was going to be a wood finish on the dresser and painted drawers) and instead planned to paint the whole thing.

After removing chemicals and giving it another heavy sand, I painted the body of the dresser white. I wanted a rustic look, so I only did two coats and allowed the brushstrokes and a little of the under-color to show.

Then I did the drawer fronts in green (three coats for full coverage) and added contact paper (leaves!) inside the drawers.

Finally, the thing that makes the dresser really special: I ordered knobs from Estonia on Etsy. They’re resin containing small plants from Estonian bogs (places near and dear to my heart).

A wild bench appears

Before moving, I collected a few things for the house, including this secondhand bench that was too cheap and nice to pass up. It was stained, so I sanded it down and then oiled it with tung oil to give it a nice sheen and protective coat.

The reading nook

And then, ah, my pride and joy! The bedroom is huge, but I didn’t want to make it a space for anything non-sleepy. No desk. No hang out space.

Instead, I took that extra space and crafted a reading nook. A place specifically for cozying up with a cup of tea or glass of wine and a book to read in a sun spot during the day or for an hour before bed.

For that, I needed a cozy chair (which I found secondhand for about $50 and then steam cleaned by hand), a little side table, a lamp, and a very soft rug.

For the table, I bought one of those cool pieces of wood cut so that the grain of the original tree shows. I then oiled it several times with a food-safe oil that gave it depth, sheen, a protective coat.

I bought pin legs and attached three to the bottom of the little slice of tree.

Et voila! A side table.

I then bought a cheap Ikea lamp and DIYed an adorable lampshade (inspired by one I found on Etsy for a whopping $100 I didn’t have) by drawing on the inside of the lamp so that when it’s turned on you see trees shining through.

Add a sheepskin rug and a little gallery wall (complete with little pieces of tree) and you have the coziest reading nook I’ve ever seen.

The after

And finally, here we are! The result.

Now, there’s a caveat here, because there are still empty walls, still spaces I’m figuring out. But the overall effect, the big stuff: that’s done. And so we’re calling this the after.