Mini Bedroom Makeover

After my dad passed away unexpectedly a few years ago, Jason and I asked my mom if she'd like to move in with us. About a year later, she decided to take us up on our offer. We thought it would be a good idea to buy a bigger house with a nice sized yard for gardening, chickens, etc. The original plan was to build a guest house in the back for mom. However, we found the perfect home with a split plan. Since I'm a minimalist by nature and don't need or want a lot of living space, Jason and I offered the master suite to mom and we took up residence with the boys in smaller rooms on the other side of the house. The situation has been ideal for all of us.

We've lived in this house for three years now and I have hated our tiny room from day one. It was an ugly beige color, had zero personality, and although I don't mind a small room - it was not functional for us in the least bit. I could never bring myself to take "before" pictures so you'll have to use your imagination. I painted the room a few months ago and had been putting off the rest of the project until recently. With some sweat, labor, and just a few dollars, we managed to transform our little space into my dream room.

The first thing we did was build the pallet headboard. You pinners had me fooled that this would be an easy project. I thought the hardest part would be finding pallets to use but Jason assured me that there wouldn't be a ton of crafty chicks at the local hardware store fighting over them in the wee hours of the morning. Our biggest challenge with the headboard was the construction of it. We get the occasional scorpion here in Arizona and those nasty little things love to hide behind wood. My number ONE requirement was that the headboard not touch the wall. Too many scary thoughts about scorpions crawling into bed with me. And since the headboard isn't entirely secured to the wall, we had to make it super durable - the thing weighs as much as a mini cooper.

The headboard has only three points of contact with the wall and I keep telling myself that scorpions won't crawl across a slippery bolt. ;)

The headboard took the better part of two weekends but was well worth the effort. I love it. I think my favorite part is the gorgeous mirrored bunting I ordered from Flux Glass. So fun.

The other challenge we had to address were the ugly, closet style built in shelves lining the far side of the wall. It's nice to have a ton of shelves but they aren't really finished so they were an eyesore. We got a quote from our carpenter to build doors for the shelves in our room and the boys room but it's just not in the budget so we settled for these great drapes from IKEA to cover them up. Now that they are covered, they are way more functional and we're able to use them more.

We put in some inexpensive LACK shelves from IKEA for nightstands, some reading lights, and we're finished for now. (Please overlook the ugly ceiling fan. In Phoenix, fans are a necessity).

Simple, tiny, perfect for us.