Bedroom Makeover Progress

A few months ago I shared some preliminary musings about changes in the bedroom, including painting the walls a lighter color, relocating the bed, and adding a new built-in closet/wardrobe to the nook where our bed currently is.

I shared a few layout options, and you all gave great feedback! The majority of you seemed to agree with my first choice contender, which was to flip the bed so that it faces the nook (rather than option 2 of being perpendicular under the side window).

Before going too far down the path of building a new closet, I decided to move the bed just to see if I liked it (or if I could get used to it — sometimes changes like this can feel jarring at first but then once you get used to it being different you decide you like it). So about two months ago, one Sunday night I just moved all our bedroom furniture.

I rotated the bed 180 degrees and put it under the outside window:

And then I put the dresser in the nook where the bed had been.

Also still in the nook is my old nightstand — we’ll need lower nightstands for this new layout, so in the meantime I grabbed one I had in the basement that was waiting for a makeover (yes, I had an extra nightstand in my basement…) and put that on my side of the bed so it wouldn’t block the window.

We’ve been living with this layout for a couple of months, long enough that I can confidently say that we both like it and we’re going to stick with it. (Sam liked it immediately, and it took me a little while but I came around.) Unfortunately it’s hard to photograph because the whole space is so small, so any wider shots would just be blocked by the doorframe (I’m basically standing in the hallway to take the photo facing the bed).

Since I feel good about the layout, I was ready to start committing to the new closet. My dad — who is a talented woodworker — came down to visit recently and we mocked up the plans. We decided to forgo a complex built-in wardrobe, and instead turn the nook into a closet with bifold doors. Our ceilings are pretty low so normal-height doors will go almost up to the ceiling anyway, and two sets of 24″-wide bifolds will fit pretty pretty perfectly in the 101″ wide opening. That means we only need to do a little bit of framing, and then I can use pre-manufactured bifolds which definitely cuts down on the work involved (since this is step #1 of about 500 steps to change the use of several rooms in our house to prepare for starting a family, I don’t need to take the most complex route on every project).

Here’s a sketched bird’s-eye-view of the book once we add the doors (in pink) and framing (blue):

And here’s a sketch front-on:Our plan is to put a dresser in each opening — we have a dresser set that’s not currently in our bedroom with one shorter dresser and one taller one. We’ll put the shorter one in Sam’s half with a bar he can hang clothes on above it (and there will be space to the side for full-length items to hang), and then I’ll use the taller dresser and use the top of it for my jewelry storage (since I’ll also still have my clothes hanging in the original bedroom closet, so I don’t need a hanging bar). That way we will eliminate the need for most other storage furniture in the room, which will make the whole room feel less cramped even though we’re taking up space for the new closet.

I know bi-folds aren’t the fanciest-looking, but my dad pointed out that this will be so close to the foot of the bed that a french door style will make it impossible for one person to walk past the doors while the other is using the closet. Given that we both get ready in the morning at the same time, it seems like it would be a big pain for one person to be trapped while the other one gets dressed. Plus, I found some nice bi-fold inspiration images:

Here’s a multi-panel shaker style I love:

These were DIYed using flat bi-fold doors and then adding lattice as trim for some additional visual interest. Here’s a similar concept with a little more flair, also made from flat bi-folds:

Then there are these amazing statement doors, which I’m not sure I could pull off in my home but aren’t they lovely?

These all appear to be slightly wider bi-folds (30″+ per door), whereas mine will be narrower (24″) to fit our space. So I’m worried that too much trim could look out of proportion and overwhelming — which is why something simpler might be the way to go for us. We could do just a single border, for instance:

I’ll probably just get the doors and then play around with different configurations of trim to figure out what looks right for the proportions. My dad is coming back in June for us to do the project (we ended up going a simple route that I could definitely do on my own, but as I learned with making some of our kitchen cabinets, it’s so much fun to work with my dad!), so I just need to get the doors done before then so that he and I can focus on framing and hanging the doors.

Not a finished project by any stretch, but it’s coming into focus!