Welcome to my Home - The Bedroom

And here we come to the final space, my bedroom. Moving from a studio apartment to an even smaller one-bedroom meant rethinking how to arrange the various living areas. Before, my media area (computer monitor used as tv) was able to double up with a desk area/workspace. But having a living room less than 9' in width meant that it just wasn't possible to have a workspace in the living room, which meant it had to go in the bedroom. What also didn't help matters was that the bedroom wasn't much wider, and had windows at one end, and the door and closet at the other end, making for an awkward layout.

After much measuring and debating, I decided to go with the loft bed for multiple reasons, which I didn't realize would be such a controversial choice, but either people love it or hate it. The main reason for going with it was storage space. Despite paring down, there are just some things I'm not about to get rid of, such as my headboard and footboard, which wouldn't work at all in my new bedroom, but I've had since I was five. Since there is only one small closet as opposed to three large closets in my old place, Boyfriend and I came up with the idea of a storage locker under a lofted bed. Because it is such a small room, I didn't want it to be just a huge box in the middle of the room, but maintain as much openness as possible. This led to the cantilevered idea. The whole planning and design process can be read about here and here, but overall, I'm very pleased with the results.

The original plan had the shelves under the bed as well, but the room just seemed so unbalanced that way.

The great controversy - when (not if) when I roll off the bed and kill myself. The top of the mattress is 6.5' off the ground, which is a little intimidating at first, but I soon adjusted. I was originally going to put a railing on the bed, but seeing as it took us a few months just to build the thing to begin with, I lived with it without the railing and did fine. I have managed to stay in bed without falling for over a year now, and plan to keep it that way.

A point of reference - I am 5'3". The height of the bottom of the loft was actually a much more contentious subject in the design project between boyfriend and I. I wanted it to be 5'5" so I could walk under it. Boyfriend thought that 5' would be better, so that no one would run into the edges. I gave in, and so the bottom edge is 5' off the ground. For boyfriend, this works well, because he can clearly avoid running into it. For me, it's at eye level. Let's just say that I'm much more likely to lose an eye versus rolling out of bed. If I were to change it, I would have made it 4.5'.

My closet had regular doors, which are nice, but didn't work well with the space once the loft was in place. I was constantly opening and closing them to get back and forth, so I eventually just took them off. In this picture you can also see my "night stand." This is half of a larger shelf that I cut and painted the same color as the wall and loft.

I was originally going to go with all white everything in the bedroom, because of the beautiful light I get, but it was a little boring. I decided to introduce some blue into the bedroom with my sheets and other touches around the room.

A close-up of my workspace. Because my computer ended up in the living room, I mostly use my desk for sewing. I've discovered I don't like to store supplies in drawers for some reason, so I've decided to use my desk drawers as a dresser instead, holding socks and underwear. The organization board boyfriend and I made a few years ago, and it's been useful everywhere I've lived.

Not only has my work area had to move to another location in this apartment, but it's function has changed as well. Before it was more of a computer work area, and now it's more of a craft work area. As I mentioned above, the desk is mostly used for sewing, and the wall of shelves shown in this photo hold all of my craft supplies that I use in making my bags for Totables. The terrarium you see is there temporarily.

I set up my little reading nook in my bedroom using one of my chairs from Honduras (the other one is stored under the bed), and my lampshade I made for my old dining area. The curtains were also somewhat of a project. I decided to wash them a few weeks ago, and when I went to hang them back up, they were 6" shorter than they had been previously. No more using hot water and a hot dryer, apparently. So while a trip to my favorite fabric store didn't turn up a nice blue patterned material like I was hoping for, I did come home with a solid blue linen that was lovely. Boyfriend suggested making my own pattern with fabric paint, and many many hours later, this is what I had come up with. I think they turned out quite nicely and add a little interest in the room.

I purchased these three tapestries in Honduras, which are all various shades of dark blue, purple, and turquoise. They are pretty dark though, and it's hard to see them through the glass, as it's a bit glary. Any better suggestions for hanging them?

Inspired by all the pipe shelves out there on the internet these days, I wanted to do something similar, but mix it up a bit. Copper pipes seemed like a good way to do that, so here are my custom-made pipe shelves. The soldering is definitely not a beginner type project, but boyfriend did most of the heavy lifting on this project. I also bought a verdigris kit, hoping to turn them a beautiful blue-green color, but my test swipe didn't turn out as well as I had hoped. You can barely barely see a bit of green on the upper left upright piece, which was what happened when I bathed that entire piece in the solution. I might eventually try to actually get it to work, but it's not high on the priority list. I've also upgraded my storage system, as previously my supplies were in a mish-mash of random boxes, with the majority being Staples paper boxes. After looking at pretty much every container ever made and not finding ones which were the right dimensions, I settled on these from Crate and Barrel and they work wonderfully.

Well, we've come to the end of the tour, thanks for stopping by and taking a peek into my home!