Eclectic Glam Bedroom Refresh

I’ve had plans to do a room refresh for my younger sister for a while now, but her plans kept changing as to where she might be living. She was living at home with my parents but has now taken the plunge to move out and live a bit closer to University friends and events. The exciting part is that she will be living in and renting our basement bedroom… which means I get to do a little refresh to the basement bedroom! This room has been a blank slate for the past year. We finished our basement reno as quick as we could and then had a friend renting the room for about a year. I didn’t bother putting any details into it since it wasn’t really gonna be part of “our” living space, but now that my sister is our “tenant” it gave me the opportunity to put some TLC into it and make it a room my sister can really enjoy living in!

This will eventually become our guest room (when we no longer choose to rent it out) so I just kept the base of the room neutral with pops of color added through the textiles and furniture pieces. Here is my inspirational mood board.

Her previous bedroom at my parents’ house had become a bit overcrowded with all her childhood keepsakes and was feeling a bit juvenile, so I really wanted to give her a relaxing adult space!

Now obviously, I didn’t make over THIS room, but the furniture and most of the stuff came to my house so I had to make it work better in the space and feel more like an adult lived there. The furniture in the room were pieces she already had and we did not have the budget to change any of it, but we did freshen a couple with paint. I love the challenge of making something from nothing, but this took a little more brain power since the pieces were all so different.

The photo below is basically the only before photo I have of our room. When we bought the house the basement was completely unfinished and so we made an office/studio for my husband, this bedroom and walled in the laundry room/furnace room and a storage room. The only thing aesthetically I did in here after the painting was hanging these curtains that were obviously too short but they functioned for the time being. This room was quite a project though, we had to cut a window in through the concrete, frame it all and then complete all the finishing work. We hired out for this room though because we were already exhausted from the rest of the basement finishing.

Now without further delay, here is her newly refreshed room in our basement!

I kept it very simple and clean and mostly “shopped my own house” for textiles like the rug and other finishing details. Instead of buying new curtains I added a black color block panel to the bottom of the curtains to make them long enough. (And when I say “I”, I mean my mom added it. I have basic sewing skill but my machine has decided to break down, so thanks Mom! 🙂 ) The other changes I made were painting the furniture to give it a fresh look, next, I made a simple headboard with fabric I had on hand, and then I framed and hung a few family heirloom paintings from my husband’s Aunt.

The art is really the icing on the cake that pulls this space together. The colors coordinate perfectly with furniture and textiles!

The nightstand was repainted in a custom shade I mixed from paint I had leftover from an art project. I love how the green matches the throw blanket on the bed and the gold helps pull together some of the small details around the room.

On the other side of the room I just styled the furniture she already had and added a shelf above the desk for art. I also found that cute unicorn marquee sign at Dollerama that seemed to fit well with her personality. Dollerama has neat little treasures every so often if you are willing to dig through the cheap junk!

By the door I added a cute little mirror, for last minute hair checks. I found it at Homesense for $10. In all I was a bit frugal, but resourceful by using pieces I already had and reworking the furniture she already had and I only spent about $30 on this room refresh!

Let’s see one more before: