Sharing our dark and moody black master bedroom makeover- this before and after reveal has been years in the making and now- it’s done! Including a feature molding wall, layered window coverings and lots of DIY decor ideas!
This room makeover has probably been the longest coming room makeover… I’ve ever shared. We moved into this house in 2018 and have been slowly (very slowly) checking things off our list in this space.
Floors, doors, lighting, a moulding wall, closet organization, windows, trim… 3 years to finish this! And the thing is… it’s been at about 80% for the past 6 months – 1 year. I had planned on finishing this space last spring, but then we had our flood and all of our floors came up again so it was shelved.
A couple weeks ago I decided it was time to just finish it off. There really wasn’t much left to finish, we got it done in just a week and we didn’t even have to go too hard on it because we had everything sitting around waiting to be finished! Except for the mirror… that is new and my favourite part of this space.
Let’s chat about it, but first… the before!
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I thought I’d point out a couple things here that we did that make such a difference that you might not notice!
DIY Room Upgrades You’ll Love
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The first is moving the lights. You can see in the before photo that the lights are spaced for a queen bed. We have a king, so in order to reach the light switch (it’s on the headboard wall), we had to push the bed pretty far off centre to barely reach it.
We moved the lights out wider and the light switch out as well and had drywall patched when we finished the kitchen. Or the boys bedroom… I can’t remember, but adding on an extra small patch job like that to a major job doesn’t add much for cost so definitely recommend that!
This is maybe harder to notice because the light switch is also black! We swapped it out from white along with the other plugs and switches in this room and holy smokes I love how the they just blend right into the walls! You can see a full post about that here if you like.
The other is the closet door. When we had our closet transformed back in 2018, we added a door and trim. Having a closet door that closes makes the whole space feel tidier (even when the closet’s tidy!).
Updating the doors to shakers with farmhouse trim and black hardware is another upgrade we did that I feel like transforms a space even without any other decoration. We did this in our last house too. Would you like to hear more about trim? I’ve been thinking of writing a post about it, so let me know!
Even after having those done, it took us a while to get to this finished space, here’s what it looked like last year (nice curtains, right?!). But that same view today?
I’m so in love with this space and am kicking myself I didn’t finish that last little bit of this room sooner! It feels 100x more relaxing to be in here now! See my tips for cozy bay window coverings!
Alright, let’s talk about it… start with the moulding wall?
DIY Headboard moulding wall
We installed this moulding wall in February of 2019… so a quite a while ago now- ha! I shared a full blog post and video tutorial if you’d like to try it out yourself, at that time it was so affordable to do and instantly upgraded the design of the space.
It’s a picture moulding style design but with a more modern flat trim finish. I really love how a moulding wall adds so much interest to a room without actually adding additional decor. It keeps it feeling calm and unbusy.
SEE THE DIY BOX MOULDING TUTORIAL HERE
I really love how it frames the lights on either side of the bed as well.
Bedside lamps alternative
I’m such a fan of taking bedside lamps OFF of the nightstand. Here, we chose black pendant lights with an edison bulb. These are actually the only lights in our bedroom other than the floor lamp in the reading nook.
I’d mentioned there’s a light switch bedside that makes them easy to switch on and off. The black lights just kind of blend in but are a detail I really love (the lights are discontinued).
Having the lights off the nightstand opens up space to have water glasses, books and whatever else you like on your nightstands. In our last bedroom we went with wall sconces over the nightstands for the same reason.
Wood Bedroom Furniture for a Black Bedroom
So we actually reused a lot of the furniture and decor that we have had since our last home. This bed and nightstands are from our last house, they’re solid wood and made in Canada from Leons Furniture so they’re excellent quality.
While our style has changed a bit since we got these (I’d probably choose something more modern if I chose today), they are beautiful and totally functional.
I really like that this wood tone plays with our warm, light floors. You can see them in our last home in our navy bedroom right here.
The rug is also repurposed. It’s been making the rounds around our house ;) We originally tried it in the dining room, but found the chairs too difficult to move on it. Then we had it in the living room for over two years and loved it. But legos got lost in those thick braids, so now? It’s made it’s home here and it’s so cozy to step down onto in the mornings!
The perfect bedding for a dark bedroom
The bedding is actually the same as that last bedroom as well, it’s a staple duvet cover from QE Home, you can find it here. I love how bright white bedding keeps a dark bedroom from feeling toooo dark. White bedding can feel a bit like a hotel so I love to keep it feeling cozy by choosing a duvet cover with texture like this beauty. (you can see our most recent bedroom update with a slight checked duvet cover!)
Can we chat bedding and pillows for a minute?
I’ve mentioned in my home tours before, but I’m just drawn to less lately. Managing clutter and extra decor is overwhelming for me and not how I want to spend my time. So we’ve cut back a lot. Like on pillows.
The pillows on our bed are the ones we sleep with plus one decor pillow (that I stole from our living room). Are they gorgeous, full pillows? No… they’re memory foam and don’t fill those king pillow cases, but they’re what we use and I didn’t want to go buy extra pillows for photos just to store them or throw them off my bed every night.
I feel like that’s breaking some kind of blogger rule, but I’m happy with how it looks :) If you’re looking for some fancier pillow arrangements… here’s some king bed pillow arrangements to try!
The other pillow there is a body pillow, the linen cover is from LenokLINEN from Etsy and its so so nice. It’s the perfect amount of colour for me and totally practical. The ties on it are my favourite detail but they have ones that button shut too!
Bedroom Decor Ideas
For nightstand decor, we keep it pretty simple. Some books and a decor accent each. I love having a plant on my nightstand and Shane has had that bear decoration for years, I think it was from Urban Barn one Christmas, he just liked it enough to keep it there year round!
The aloe on my nightstand is one of many in our house- my Grandma gave me an aloe plant shortly after the twins were born and that plant has had so many babies!
They’ve put up with every bit of neglect (and over watering!), they’re truly the easiest plant I’ve ever had. That round pot is from the local boutique I painted a mural at last year but they ship Canada wide now!
The flowers are Japanese anemones from my garden (you can see a full garden tour here!).
Other than nightstand decor, the only other decor in the room is the macrame, really. I love how the walls are mostly bare other than textural or functional elements (curtains, the wall treatment, the mirror). It is so calming to have less staring at you in a space!
The macrame is actually a DIY I made for our last house bedroom makeover too. My kids have since cut the string and I’ve tied it back together (I should really have replaced that string, but it makes me laugh).
If you want to make something like it, I have a full introduction to macrame video and post right here. It covers all the knots needed to make this piece!
The perfect full length mirror
Okay let’s get to the parts I’m really excited about… starting with that mirror! I wanted a mirror here from the minute we moved in. It’s a little nook that’s not useful for much else but it’s not a big space. The mirror we brought from our last house was too wide and didn’t fit without covering the light switch.
To get a mirror narrow enough to fit here, we were looking at those over the door style mirrors which were just not at all what I wanted. After we got the mirror cut for the main bathroom, I knew I wanted to price out a custom mirror. I’m so glad I did!
This mirror was very affordable and I was able to measure and size it perfectly to sit centred between the trim and the corner but with enough room for the light switch (you have to look a bit hard to see it since it’s black!). I drew out the arch on a piece of flooring paper and brought the template in to have it cut.
I love this modern pill shape and how it’s up off the floor without risk of my kids knocking it over!
Above that, we hung the hanging plant and it adds just enough colour to this corner without looking like clutter. The planter is also from my local store I painted the mural at. So is the plant, and I’m told it’s going to trail as it grows- I’m so excited!
A bedroom bay window reading nook
Speaking of plants… this big monstera is one of my favourite plants we have in our house. It’s so big that it’s not convenient to have anywhere except for here.
At first when I moved it here out of the living room, I was disappointed that no one would see it, but now I just love having it in here. The plant pot was a steal from Homesense and the stumps that it’s sitting on (and the end table) are both DIY.
I didn’t write a tutorial for them, I had those two stumps sitting in my garage for over two years since I made the tree ring art in the living room with them. I just gave them a good sanding and a thick coat of exterior satin paint in the same colour as our walls. We painted our patio doors this same colour so that was leftover paint.
Let’s talk about this little window nook. It honestly seemed so crowded before, my husband was really skeptical when I decided I wanted to make it a little reading nook. He was sure the chair would arrive and it wouldn’t fit. Let alone a table and lamp! But by making the space intentional, it actually makes the room feel so much bigger!
The chair is a smaller chair, I paid attention to measurements when ordering. It’s from Wayfair, you can find it here. As I’m writing this, I am realizing how long ago we planned this makeover! I wrote a post helping to decide which furniture to order for this corner over a year ago! See that here if you’re looking for options :)
Also… window coverings! Between the white bedding and the curtains, the white doors and trim and the the light rug and flooring, even with the black walls, the room doesn’t feel too dark and heavy, just cozy and welcoming. I made a full video about the bay window coverings last week if you’re interested!
The lamp is also from that Wayfair order and I think is what makes the space look so intentional and not just a chair to hold piles of clothes ;)
The flowers over here are hellebores from my garden as well, if you can’t tell even just from this room, I’m having a great time growing cut flowers this year!
Phew, that’s all the details on this space! I know a black bedroom is a bit of a risk paint-wise, but I’m really so in love with dark walls for bedrooms, they’re so cozy!
I’m so so happy with how it turned out, especially for the minimal effort it took to finish it off from what it has been the past year! If you have any space sitting at 80% done, consider this your encouragement to finish it off! It really is so worth it!
master bedroom SOURCES:
- Full home tour before any renovations
- DIY Wall Moulding Tutorial
- Our old home master bedroom (navy! same bed/bedding)
- Bay Window Coverings – I chat all about them with tips for finding the best ones here!
- Macrame is DIY, see a basic macrame tutorial here (all the knots you need for this piece!)
- Pendant lights are discontinued (Globe Electric from Home Depot)
- Floor lamp – Wayfair
- Chair – Wayfair
- Stump Tables – DIY, no tutorial
- Bed – Leons Furniture
- Nightstands – Leons Furniture
- Rug is discontinued (Article)
- Duvet Cover – QE Home
- Linen Body Pillow Cover – LenOK on Etsy
- Decorative Pillow is discontinued (Rejuvenation)
- Throw Blanket, candle holder are discontinued (HM Home)
- Mirror was custom cut, want more custom mirror ideas? Here’s one in our bathroom!
- Bay Window Curtain rod – Amazon
- Large Planter in window, watering can – Homesense
- Small planter on nightstand + Hanging planter – Far & Wide
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All My Paint Colours
What’s the name of the black paint you used?
It’s Broadway by Behr- you can see it in a few spaces here: https://www.lemonthistle.com/the-best-black-paint-for-your-home-projects/
I love your primary bedroom. The black paint looks great with all the white textiles and wood furniture. What is the white paint color you used in the room with the black patio doors and fireplace? I love all the black and white you’ve used. Thanks so much!
Thank you so much! That one is Expert White from General Paints, the closest match from Behr is Vibrant White! You can see all my paint colours here: https://www.lemonthistle.com/all-my-paint-colours/