By now you’ve most likely seen Joanna’s (Cup of Jo’s) Living/Dining room and Nursery and today we are finishing it off with the master bedroom. One of the things I love about this makeover is the fact that as renters they really didn’t spend money on anything that they can’t take with them when they move next. We didn’t paint, wallpaper, mount TV’s do any built-ins, etc. Not that anything is wrong with that at all and for those of you in New York (or San Fran/London/Tokyo) who may rent for years then go ahead and make those modifications because if they make you happy then you should do it (pretty much my mantra in all of life). But this goes to show that you don’t have to do major things to your space to make it feel like a home. With bright white walls and a lot of light, we really just had to add personality and color through furniture and accessories.
So here was their master bedroom when they moved in:
Obviously was just a blank box, but they had a lot of great things to work from (see their former bedroom by Jenny Komenda). When we decided to do this partnership it was really just the living/dining room. But since I was going all the way to New York and I know the stores there so well I figured that we may as well style the master bedroom and nursery to make it more worth our while and have more fun. Mainly it’s because I’m addicted to shopping and styling so why stop at just one room when I could do 3?
We didn’t spend too much time or money, but just made some simple changes that would make it feel pulled together in the new space.
And here she is:
Jenny (Little Green Notebook) had made Joanna this headboard which is totally impressive. You can see the whole tutorial here. I could seriously never do this – I’m way more of a ‘shop for months until you find a vintage one to recover’ kinda girl, but Jenny turns random things from every day stores into gold. Joanna, Alex and I all still loved it so there was no need to replace it. The night stands were cute, too. But we did add those awesome reading sconces, art, bedding and accessories.
Joanna wanted it to feel again bright, clean and airy. It’s a small bedroom and she wanted to be able to work in there as well, so everything was kept pretty minimal and simple – instead of doing a gallery wall we did one big piece (from Sharon Montrose). Instead of adding a ton of pattern on the bed we kept with her awesome Scandinavian pillow (which Jenny made and I really want) and added one more pattern with the Dwell Studio pillows and some pretty linen nude euros. My goodness how I love writing ‘Nude Euros’.
The bedding works together because they share the same color palette, the patterns are different enough that you can really see them (watch this video for how to mix patterns) and the colors and patterns echo each other making it look quite intentional without being too matchy.
The sconces allowed for more space on the night stands (and these aren’t hard-wired sconces so they were super easy to install and remove when they move). If we had done lamps that would have been great, but then where would they put their collection of water glasses and books? As someone who hoards water glasses at night – 4 -5 at least, I need a big surface area to house said collection, so I could relate.
These sconces however are just really good directional light. You still need some fabric shade/softer light in the room for ambience. These are great for reading but less so for just night-time hanging out. I’ve learned this the hard way – I LOVE me some metal shade lamps, but you must have soft fabric shades in order tot get that soft light that we all want to be around especially when its dark at 6pm. The metal shades spot light things but don’t really light up a whole room. So you have to mix, friends.
On the other side of the room we took the desk that she already had (that we love) and paired it with our extra dining chair which made it feel more updated and modern. We needed a chair that can scoot in under the desk all the way, so armless was the way to go – plus we needed a place to store than 4th chair from the dining room.
On the desk with styled it out with some pretty garden roses, a pretty tray from Katy Skelton (you know how i love trays) and a gorgeous lamp from Serena and Lily.
Alright folks. So, if you like this and want to get this look I’ve gone ahead and pretty much the designed the room for you (same with the living/dining and nursery). I created a whole board on Keep with all the products. So Keep is basically a place to collect your favorite things to actually buy. Its much like Pinterest, except Pinterest is for inspiration and pretty shots of rooms, but it’s not for things for purchase necessarily. Keep makes it really easy for you to collect everything you want to buy (I’m doing it for al my gift guides and Christmas/holiday shopping, too) and they link directly to the site that you buy it from. For Joanna’s project I put almost everything on Keep so you can just click HERE to see all of the items in her home in one place.
And yes you can use it for etsy, ebay and one of a kind things (although like Pinterest, people follow you so if its one of a kind and a total steal then I suggest simply purchasing it before someone else does.). One of the best things about it is who you follow. I’m good at home stuff, I truly am, but I’m always behind on fashion and I find that Pinterest shows so many awesome outfits and Sartorialist style pics, but I need product recommendations that I can actually purchase and wear. So if you follow the right people you can actually buy what they recommend immediately. And I have and do and its a problem. It’s like a shopping IV straight to my vein; really streamlining my addiction.
Back to the bedroom. Here are all the resources (or ones that are similar) to what we used in Joannas bedroom:
Resources: 1 Buffalo print | 2 Desk chair | 3 Pantone mug | 4 Vases | 5 Crab letter opener | 6 Headboard | 7 Long floral pillow | 8 Sconces | 9 Floral bedding | 10 White bedding 11 White vase
Resources: 12 Brass circle lamp | 13 Acrylic tray | 14 Desk | 15 Pillow | 16 Brass deer | 17 Rug
So that’s the end of Joanna’s makeover. The whole entire thing was so rewarding because all of these factors were there: awesome family that was soooo great to work with, great taste and style, decent budget, well -lit apartment, open to ideas, and most importantly adorable babies for me to hold, squeeze, and pretend are mine.
This is pretty much all I did all week while people were doing this:
I’m just kidding. I was helping (thank you again Sam, Will and Alex!!!), and by helping I mean watching Anton smile:
I mean….that smirk, that face, those cheeks!!!!!!! …. THREE more weeks, folks and I get that. Well, not him specifically – hopefully a version of him that is younger, and looks like Brian Henderson but maybe with some curly blonde hair but just as cute. Is it inappropriate to pray that ones’ child has a blonde curly mess on top of their head? I’ll love him no matter what but love him more if he’s blonde.
I’M KIDDING. Besides, you can always dye their hair, right? A little bit of bleach on ones head never hurt nobody. (don’t make me say i’m kidding, again … but just in case the sarcasm isn’t translating … I’m kidding).
So what did you think of the Cup of Jo makeover? Any questions unanswered? Any resources unlinked? Any general burning desires you want to tell me about?
All photos taken by the very talented Ryan Liebe with so much help from Samantha Gluck. Sam you were amazing and everyone should hire you. Also thanks to Alexandra Keating and Will Saks who helped us out in New York and had such great energy, opinions and work ethic. I sooo appreciate you guys. xx
This post was in partnership with Keep.com but all words and designs were mine.
For more of Cup of Jo: The Nursery | The Living & Dining Room