"Life is either a daring adventure or nothing..." -Helen Keller
 
There's not really a great way to do a before and after on our room. The "before" is best described as burnt orange curtains, orange-themed bedding, red tulip lights, white walls, and for the most part, an absence of decoration.
1. Photo collage.
2. Red (non-functional) tulip lighting.
3. Burnt orange curtains
4. Orange-based sheets. (They're in a bundle because we believe we can save hours of our lives by refusing to make our bed.)
5. Map.
6. White wall.

Nothing you have to die over, but after having orange hues cast all over the white walls for a year, I set my mind to decorating creatively and cheaply.
I'll just be vulnerable and say it-- I really like the "after" of our room. I know it's not TLC worthy, not professional, and that we probably violate a whole bunch of decorating "do's" and "don't's". But it was a really fun project to try to make decorations, find materials locally, and arrange things so it feels warmer and cozier. As far as I'm concerned, the mission is accomplished. More the feel of a college dorm room than that of a bedroom occupied by the mature and rapidly aging, it's perfect for us.

Here's how it went down...
Picture
First, a small snack to keep us going strong while we decorated...
Picture
I had one wall that I had no ideas for, so I chopped up an old cardboard box and wrapped the pieces in different patterns and textures of wrapping paper. Maybe the cheapest way possible to decorate.
Picture
I segmented a wedding picture we had into roughly 4.6" x 5.4" pieces, printed it, and mounted it on... another piece of wrapping paper! (Our walls are concrete and pretty difficult to penetrate with anything more than a thumbtack.)
Picture
I whipped up a "Paper mache" mixture from some flour and water and made some hanging lanterns. The flour and water gave them a marble-y look. We also hung a bamboo/straw mat behind our bed for some texture.
Picture
I picked up a blue basket for holding our electric odds and ends, and covered a mini-lamp with some matching paper.
Picture
Picture
Here's our bed with a blue blanket and some pillowcases I made.
Some more bed/desk shots...
Picture
Austin oh-so-gleefully rigging up some pull strings for a bamboo/straw mat we hung as our curtain. This worked really well.
Picture
The view to the left of our bed... I paper mached some boxes to act as "book nooks" and hold our reading and studying materials.
Picture
Here's a little message board made from cardboard, wrapping paper, and some straw/string/ribbon stuff. We hung it above our desk.

And that's a wrap!

Your comment will be posted after it is approved.


Leave a Reply.