As some of you know, we moved this past summer. We were ready to leave the city and the prospect of having more space and outdoor space greatly appealed. Long story short, this rental property dropped into our lives serendipitously and from the time we first saw the listing to when we moved in, it was 11 days… a personal best in my history of moving :)

The fun yet challenging part has been furnishing and decorating the additional 2,000 square feet of house we found ourselves with. The challenge is timing - when renting, you don’t have the luxury of waiting out a retail delivery timeline (to say nothing of custom furnishings!). The clock starts the moment you sign the lease. I thrive under these circumstances and I’m always HIGHLY motivated to get everything set up ASAP so we can fully enjoy our surroundings, before we pick up and do it all over again! (We’re not crazy, just opportunistic and open to change!)

I am proud of how these spaces are turning out partly because I love the looks coming together, but moreso because 95% of what I’ve furnished them with has been sourced from pre-loved marketplaces (Facebook & Craigslist, antique stores, etc.). It has taken some serious ground work to pull it off - tons of back and forth with the sellers, logistics coordinating pickups, time in the car, having to sweet talk my husband, etc. etc. etc. BUT, where there’s a will there is definitely a way and I was very strong-willed with this place.

Let’s dive into how our new bedroom came together… this one was a labor of love.

View portfolio images in full here.

The Bed

Purchased off FB marketplace for $375. Original look below. I hated the grey but I loved the size and profile knowing we had a large space to fill. In a nutshell, the movers nicked the headboard and one of the legs broke while we were putting it together. Painting it took 2 coats (I did it solo thank you very much) and at least 4 days to dry. I love how it turned out, but there were some hard feelings toward this one at first :)

The Nightstands

Also a labor of love… Purchased the pair off FB marketplace for $150. I loved how the size of the nightstands complemented the massive profile of the bed, but the finish on them wasn’t working for me. The exterior was an unfinished rustic barn wood and the drawers were painted matte black. I decided I wanted to stain them a dark brown to infuse a more traditional feel. Little did I know that would require 3 rounds of paint stripper and a few hours of sanding the drawer fronts, and a few coats of dark stain all around to achieve the look I wanted. Worth it in the end, miraculously the drawer fronts match the exterior - but very time consuming nonetheless.

*After two coats of dark brown stain on both nightstand exteriors and each drawer front - somehow they miraculously matched!*

The Lamps

From the 1970’s, paid $20 for the pair off Marketplace… gave both the bases and lamp shades a fresh coat of paint. Major thanks to my bestie Claire for helping me through this project… we had a super high stress paint spilling situation… thankfully it was water-based paint and all was well in the end <3

The Seating Area

The chair is Restoration Hardware, found for $125 off Marketplace. The side table was $80, floor lamp $20, vase $10 and bench $60. (Typically I'm cautious about purchasing anything upholstered off marketplace, but the chair is slipcovered and came from a clean pet-free, smoke-free decent-looking home.) Throw blanket, curtains, rug & art we had (shop below).

The Art

I opted to keep the art and photography black and white in the space to give it a timeless feel. The photographs are my own, two sculptures I came across years ago - one at my Aunt’s place, the other at a souvenir shop in a museum.

The abstract canvas, was a feat in and of itself. I have always loved huge, gallery-style pieces of art. We happened to have this canvas from Ikea from 10 years ago, and I decided it was time to give it a makeover. I painted it, used layers of drywall mud to create the texture and painted it again to solidify it. Loved the creative process, love the result.

The Vase of Branches

$10, painted it with a few coats of dark brown stain from the nightstands, black from the bed and white from the lamps to create this textured messy ceramic feel. Dried a few Aspen branches and paired them with a few curly branches I purchased from a woman off Marketplace.

Textiles

I could not be more obsessed with our bedding - it’s 100% organic cotton and delicious to sleep in. It was gifted to me by Seeds Concept, a family-owned sustainable textile company from Portugal. The Euro pillows and cowhide pillow on the chair were gifted by Overland Sheepskin - unmatched quality. Shop the look below. The throw blanket, rug and curtains were ours before.