Light and Airy Master Bedroom

A space full of plants, art & lots of storage

I am not a morning person. No matter how much sleep I get, I wake up every day feeling like I am clawing my way out of quicksand. Usually I stumble out of bed to get my coffee and then get back under the covers to wait for my brain to kick into gear. Since mornings are not my favorite, I find it incredibly helpful to have a beautiful and cheerful space to wake up to. It quickly brightens my mood to wake up in a master bedroom that is full of light, plants, pretty colors, and inspiring artwork. It helps me to set a positive tone for the day.

We started decorating this room by painting the walls a pale robin’s egg blue. The color provides a serene backdrop for my mint green vanity desk (see my post about that here), as well as various colorful pieces of artwork. I think choosing a pastel paint color for any bedroom keeps things feeling light and airy.

Another major focus while designing this room was to to incorporate as much storage furniture as possible. By putting two dressers against one wall, a long, low dresser at the foot of the bed, and a tall, narrow dresser in one corner, we have plenty of drawers for clothing that doesn’t fit in our closet (what can I say, we have a lot of clothing). Three of our dressers are these unfinished pine dressers from IKEA, which aren’t too expensive, and I think the natural wood looks charmingly Scandinavian. We also got a storage bed frame with four large drawers underneath the mattress. Since we don’t have a linen closet anywhere in our house, these storage drawers have worked well for storing spare sheets and comforters.

I wanted to hang something from the ceiling at the foot of the bed to create a feeling of separation between the bed area and the rest of the room. We ended up mounting a curtain rod on the ceiling to provide an easy way to hang some plants. In the center of the curtain rod, I tied some dried foliage from our garden onto a wooden dowel. The live plants that I’ve chosen for the space are pothos (on the dresser), a tiny snake plant, and an asparagus fern. All three of these work well in a space that receives no direct sunlight. Plus, having plants in your bedroom can improve air quality and provide a better night’s sleep.

I like to use glass jewelry boxes to store nicknack types of things. They make any small collection, like these seashells and beach stones, look classy and artistic. I received this box as a gift, but I have seen similar things at home decor stores like West Elm and on Amazon.

We got this little industrial entryway bench from Wayfair. The bottom rack is great for storing shoes or magazines, and the seat lifts up to access a storage compartment. I decided that I wanted to hang a blanket ladder on the wall above the bench, but of course I wanted to hang artwork on it rather than blankets. So my ever accommodating wife got to work trying to build this thing for me out of wood dowels. For some reason, I wanted the sides to be angled, and this made the project much more frustrating for her! We couldn’t get the angles even, and it ended up looking kind of lopsided. But now that it’s on the wall I think it looks really nice. I use rose gold photo clips to easily hang cards and artwork.

A picture ledge above our upholstered headboard creates a nice place for some framed photos and artwork.

Low dressers provide a nice spot to place jewelry boxes and artwork. I also put some of our favorite wedding photos in a floating picture frame that has knobs for additional jewelry storage. I bought the frame at a craft store years ago, but I’m sure it would be a fun DIY project to make from an old window.

This colors in this painting were actually the inspiration for this entire room. If you ever get stuck in choosing a design direction for a new space, this can be a helpful trick. Select one or two objects that you love and that you’d like to display in the room. Then you can use these objects to inspire your color and design choices moving forward. If you start out with an object you’re really drawn to, you’ll likely end up with a space that you are drawn to as well. I think it worked out well for us in this case.

I’m not the only one who enjoys spending time in this room– our cat, Chester, loudly demands that we let him in as soon as we open our eyes in the morning. During the day, he considers the bed his royal domain. I suspect that he thinks I chose the bedspread to bring out the color of his eyes.

Thanks for reading! I hope you have the pleasure of waking up every day in a space that brings you joy ❤