Blerg. I woke up feeling awful—either food poisoning or a stomach bug—so while I try not to spread whatever this is around the house, I figured I’d put together a timeline showing how our bedroom has evolved over the last twenty months since we moved in. It wasn’t an overnight transformation: lots of little changes, a few big ones, and plenty of trial and error. Given how many bedroom updates we’ve done, it felt like the perfect place to start.
This walkthrough is a reminder that small updates (and an occasional bigger change) can completely refresh a room as you discover what you love and how you want to live. We firmly believe that tweaking things over time is part of the fun—if you had to get it perfect in one shot, I’d probably want to move every year. Here’s the very first photo we shared the day we moved in: a pretty blank canvas.
At first we just plopped our furniture on the floor and didn’t even have a proper bed for the first three weeks. Sleeping on a mattress at floor height is not something I’d recommend—getting up each morning was rough.
Eventually we got Ed the Bed to fill the large room—our old bedroom was about 10 x 11 feet, and this one is 16 x 16, so a big frame felt right.
We added a duvet we found on clearance, though it was more of a placeholder. John agreed to it on the condition we’d sell it if something better came along—and sure enough, taste evolved and it’s now folded up in the playroom waiting to be repurposed or listed.
Next came a big, snowball-style chandelier—a favorite of ours that we still love looking up at before bed. At first it hung low because of the bed’s top bar, which made the proportions feel off.
We tweaked the bed to remove the top posts so the chandelier wouldn’t feel cramped. We also added a large jute rug to warm up the original wood floors.
At a yard sale we found two Alaskan botanical prints—sweet because we honeymooned in Alaska—and hung them on either side of the bed. For a while things stayed pretty much the same, until an accident during a shoot left Ramsey broken and sent us experimenting with different arrangements.
We swapped rugs after discovering a great deal at a local outlet, which revitalized the room’s look. Sometimes one small change can get you unstuck and excited about a space again.
In a burst of experimentation we tried three inexpensive prints above the bed and mixed pillows from around the house, only to decide we liked the botanicals and a different pillow combo better. We also finally bought lamps specifically for the bedroom instead of using leftover pieces.
After more rearranging and re-hanging of art, we moved the bed to a wall we’d previously avoided because of an off-center window and a nook. It looked a bit odd at first, but with a few adjustments it came together.
We trimmed down Ed’s posts and then made an upholstered headboard to add coziness. Those small, homemade touches mattered a lot.
One of the biggest changes was painting the walls a darker color (Rockport Gray by Benjamin Moore). That moody shade made the headboard and the chunky white trim really pop—John had been pushing for it, and he was right. The room feels so much sleepier and more finished now.
The darker paint especially highlights the thick white trim around the sink nook—what a difference that contrast makes.
We still have plans to:
- refinish the floors
- possibly paint the ceiling a very light blue
- furnish the bare wall across from the bed
- convert a window into a door to the deck
- eventually vault the ceiling so it’s gently peaked
Looking back at these phases feels like a time capsule of where we were, what we tried, and where we’ve landed. Our first house evolved the same way—moving pieces around, using hand-me-downs, hunting thrift stores and outlets, and picking up affordable finds from stores like Ikea and Target. We made mistakes, learned a lot, and ended up much happier because of the process.
Some things stuck around, like Ed the bed (with updated trim), the dresser from John’s parents, my leaning mirror he bought me as a wedding present in 2007, and a $50 Ikea chandelier. Other pieces moved in from other rooms or out to new homes—furniture is flexible if you treat it that way.
We even reused inexpensive yard sale finds; those too-small side tables were only $11 and will probably work in Clara’s big-girl room or be resold. Buying something doesn’t mean you’re married to it—paint and fabric are reversible, and moving items between rooms keeps things fresh without feeling permanent.
It’s rewarding to see all these bedroom photos together. We’ll keep sharing updates as we slowly work through other rooms—probably bit by bit over the coming months or years—so it’s fun to document where each room has been and where it’s going. A lot of readers have asked for organized room rundowns, so we hope to keep these evolving posts linked for anyone who wants to follow along.
Have you tracked a room’s progress over time? Did it take several paint colors or experiments to get it right? Which changes surprised you most—simple layout tweaks, a DIY headboard, or swapping in a new rug? For us, the headboard and the oversized pineapple lamps are current favorites.
What’s your favorite thing in your bedroom?
Psst—this month we’re heading out to visit John’s grandma in Huntington, WV. If anyone in Huntington or Charleston wants us to drop by for a casual house visit, send photos to [email protected] and we’ll see if we can stop by.