How to plan a room makeover – bedroom edition

Today we are talking about how to plan a room makeover. I have lived in my home for two years now and I have thought about pretty much every square inch of my home and yard except my bedroom. It is just this a pit of darkness where I toss and turn at night, never to return during the day. I used to even call it the room of shame because it was always so messy and disorderly.

I’ve decided that this has to change. Why should my bathroom be my favorite room in my house, arguably a bathroom should be more functional than beautiful. A bedroom though should be a beautiful calming place that is enjoyable to be in. So I have started on a journey to make my bedroom the calm, relaxing room of my dreams.

My first problem is I have never really had a plan. When it comes to decor and home renovations I can really lack focus, and decision making skills because I have SO MANY IDEAS. Maybe you are just like me. So I am going to show you how to plan a room makeover so you too can achieve the room of your dreams.

Gathering inspiration for your room makeover

First up you are going to need some inspiration. A great way to gather inspiration is Pinterest and Instagram. You can check out my Pinterest page here if you are interested. If you really aren’t sure what you want your room to look like my suggestion is to just start gathering images. Pin or save anything you like or you feel drawn to. Once you have a bunch of images you are hopefully going to see a recurring theme of colors, textures, prints etc. This is a great jumping off point to start looking items or DIYs that you would like to include in your new room.

Inspiration is everywhere though. If you see a picture of something out in the world take a picture and upload it to your computer! There is no reason you should be limited to just internet research. For example, I went to Joshua Tree National Park recently. I fell in love with the place it felt so magical and brought me a sense of calm just being there. I wanted to use the colors from the park and try to recreate that feeling of calm in my room.

Creating an inspiration board

Okay, so now you have a better idea of colors, textures, prints, and the feeling you want the room to give you when you are in it. Now it is time to take all of your images and edit them down. I have an iPad and do this in Procreate. If you don’t want to use Procreate there are other free apps like Adobe Fresco. If you don’t have a tablet you can even do this in Word or Pages. OR if you want to get really old school you can print out images and literally copy paste. Do what gets the creative juices flowing.

Gather all of the images you like best. For example if you have ten pictures of beds, edit it down to your top three. Pull those three images into your workspace and start mix matching all of your elements until you are happy with what you have.

Not to be a Debby downer, but now is the time you might want to budget. I don’t usually formally make a budget ,but this is the time where my mind is making negotiations with my heart of how badly I REALLY NEED (want) that beautiful bed from Article. Spoiler- I decided yes I needed the bed, it will last me for years to come but I’ll save on buying a new rug and steal it from the living room. That’s all I’ll say on budget since everyone’s will be vastly different. Keep in mind though that I’ve seen some really ugly bedrooms that cost a lot to redo and some really stylish rooms that cost next to nothing!

Make a floor plan

I like to have a rough idea of where things are going to go so I make a floor plan. This dosen’t have to be your end all be all map of where things are going to go but it does eliminate some furniture moving and hanging things only having to move them. The floor planning stage is also a good time to take measurements

How to plan the makeover

Now that you have your inspiration board, now it’s time to execute the makeover. This for me is always the most difficult part. I tend get all excited about the plan, and then when things aren’t going quickly enough I’m ready to move on to the next project. To avoid this I make lists. Lots of lists. It’s simple advice, but lists really help keep a project on track. I make lists for the projects I want to to and the supplies I’ll need to do said projects, as well as a list of things I am going to just buy.

And that my friends is how to plan a room makeover. I’m confident if you follow these steps you’ll be able to create the room of your dreams. I hope you’ll come back and check out the next few posts I am going to write where I put this plan into action in my bedroom with a DIY barn door build and a slat accent wall.