We mentioned some recent bedroom changes on this week’s podcast, so we wanted to follow up with a photo-filled post for anyone curious about how the room looks now. Most of the furniture in our bedroom was purchased back when we lived in our previous house, and after moving here in 2013 things mostly landed where they landed. Over the years we painted, hung frames, swapped dressers a few times, and even repainted. The anchor pieces — the rug, bed, armchair and most furnishings — largely stayed the same. More recently we scored a chandelier on sale and swapped beds with the guest room, and the space felt like it was finally settling into “nearly done.” We expected to ignore this corner of the house for a few more years.
Then a total bedroom curveball happened. A friend texted me a photo of a rug she found at a local consignment shop called Izzie’s. I absolutely fell for it — rug love at first sight. I ran to John with that dazed, cheeks-flushed expression and said, “remember how we’ve always said it would be nice to have a plush wool rug in the bedroom someday!?” Luckily he remembered, and he agreed to check the rug out in person (and yes, he wanted to smell it to make sure it didn’t have that musty consignment-store scent).
We love flat weave rugs and have several throughout the house, but ever since discovering our affection for plush wool Turkish rugs, we’d joked that the main bedroom would be the ultimate spot for a thick, cozy rug underfoot. The soft green flat weave we’d been using was a piece we bought in 2011; it worked but wasn’t quite long enough to extend close to the closet and bathroom door the way we’d prefer. Still, we lived with it for nearly four years.
The new rug from the consignment shop turned out to be almost perfectly sized — about 12 x 16 feet — and, to our relief, it didn’t smell at all. Since it was a one-of-a-kind find, we knew it wouldn’t wait around, so we grabbed it quickly. John left the store grinning with the rug on the dolly, ready to load it into the car.
And yes — we muscled that giant wool rug up the stairs together. Once we rolled it into the bedroom I practically did a happy dance. It might be my favorite rug of all time. The details, the colors, and the pattern feel just right for the space.
We love many rugs in this house — in the dining room, bonus room and living room — but this new bedroom rug feels extra special. The old green flat weave sold within an hour on a local buy-sell board and is now enjoying life in a neighbor’s home.
You might notice another change in the wide shots: the wall behind the bed. The bold, colorful, and larger-scale pattern of the new rug immediately became a strong focal point, and the gallery of frames that used to be the room’s main feature suddenly felt crowded and competitive. To avoid two focal points fighting for attention, we removed the frames and experimented with calmer pieces instead.
One of my favorite strategies after buying something new is to play around with what we already own instead of immediately shopping for more. A few swaps around the house often refresh rooms without costing anything. The winner above the bed was a painting that had previously hung above John’s desk — we bought it from a ski house rental a few years back. I might stain the frame to better match the other woods in the room, but for now it complements the rug rather than competing with it. From a distance it blends nicely with the other gold frames on the opposite wall.
In the office, we rehung a mirror where the pink painting used to be. It reflects light from the two windows across the room and helps the layout feel balanced. I love grabbing items and trying them in new rooms until the puzzle pieces fit — it’s a fun challenge and very satisfying when things click into place.
As for family photos, we moved several around and placed a few in the guest room above my sewing desk. We don’t have 20+ photos in one room anymore, but that’s okay. I reframed many of the photos in gold frames I had stored in the guest room and arranged them in a tidy grid above a wood dresser — an antique hand-me-down from John’s parents that had been sitting in our closet. The wood dresser looks richer next to the colorful rug, so we swapped it in for the white dresser that used to be there.
Realizing the photos needed updating, we ordered fresh 8 x 10 prints so the frames will finally have newer pictures instead of mostly baby and toddler shots. Changing out photos makes you notice them again, so this bedroom shuffle gave us the push we needed.
The other side of the room still shows the gradient dresser we painted back in 2011 for our first book. Also, Burger the dog keeps photobombing — he appears everywhere and always seems ready for his close-up, whether he’s on the bed or walking into pictures.
We finally had a Samantha French print professionally framed — a birthday gift from John — and sending it to a framing company made a big difference. The chunky white frame and perfectly sized mat made the print look polished and gallery-ready. The framer even asked whether we wanted the mat spaced so the penciled title and signature would remain visible, a small detail that made the piece feel professionally finished.
So that’s the story of a bedroom we expected to ignore for years but that ended up with an accidental, surprisingly thrilling makeover — all thanks to one special rug and a lot of thoughtful furniture and accessory swaps.
One interesting detail about the rug: the faded, watercolor-like rows aren’t actually wear. The consignment shop owner explained that some rugs use a different looming method and wool type in certain areas to create that intentionally softened effect. I love how layered and gentle those blurred strips of color look.
Also, I daydream about centering the windows, but they would look off from the front of our balanced brick colonial. For now I’ll probably try adding one more curtain panel and extending the rod to visually nudge the windows toward the middle without upsetting the house’s exterior symmetry.
And finally, here’s Burger performing his signature move: Dog Leaves Bed.
If you’re curious about sources for pieces in the room, we keep a running list of paint colors and room sources on our site. This refresh reminded us how powerful a single, well-chosen item can be, and how much change you can create by rearranging what you already own.
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